ptempel

This piqued my curiosity. Are you saying that you only use other types of deoderant or nothing at all? I'm one of those guys with the stinky armpit but great smelling feet. So am skeptical that you can omit at least some sort of deoderant.

Phil_gretz

I LOL'd. Thank you.

Phil_gretz

My wife, an avid exerciser and snappy dresser, has changed to using a small spray bottle of... vodka. Removes / prevents odor. Miraculous, really. YMMV, of course.

StanSeven

This.

Instead of putting a out smelly wet clothes out in the open, ask how the company can accommodate you. Many coworkers get upset see cycling cot he's strung about even if they don't smell and are dry. Remember most people spend more time at work than they do at home and they like their workplace looking nice and tidy.

andyprough

Plus, a couple squirts into the diet coke at lunch probably helps the day pass better.

ptempel

Huh. Never heard of using vodka as a spray. But I guess it could work if it kills the bacteria which I guess it would. Wouldn't she worry about smelling like a drunk chick?

ptempel

ItsJustMe

Sheesh, no sense of humor over there?

CrankyOne

Your body is designed to perspire. It's how you cool yourself. When you interfere with your body's natural cooling, such as with anti-perspirant that by its design clogs your sweat pores, you often increase sweat and odor rather than reduce it. Rather than cooling by its design your body finds other ways to cool itself.

BTW, helmets, gloves, leaning over rather than sitting upright (eg, folds in belly skin vs no folds) all cause people to sweat more. Given the same speed and weather you will sweat more riding a road bike wearing a helmet, gloves, and lycra shorts than riding an upright Dutch bike wearing jeans, an oxford, and no helmet.

gregf83 

That only applies to very low speeds. Travelling at 20+ mph will be a lot more work on a Dutch bike so you'll end up sweating more than someone with a more efficient riding position.

i use my commute for fitness so expect to sweat. I use wool shirts as much as possible as they don't retain odors like synthetics.

wphamilton

Plus if you have hills game over, you'll be sweating as soon as you're in the sunlight.
@esther-L (OP), there's an easy way around it. Simply bag the cycling clothes and put them on wet (if they are wet) for the trip home. It only feels icky for a minute or two, and after a mile of riding it's no different from fresh. The key is starting out with clean riding clothes in the morning, no exceptions.

Time spent changing is a non-issue. Changing takes me 2.5-3.5 minutes, including the extra walk to the rest room, and that's without hurrying.

ptempel

I never ride without helmet and gloves. If my hands get sweaty, then they can slip on the bars and/or make the rubber hoods a sticky mess. So rather sweat in the gloves and get a little padding to boot. Also use the gloves to wipe the tires if I go through small rocks and glass. The helmet (as controversial as it may be) has helped me. I noticed a crack on the bottom behind the right ear after an accident I had over two years ago. I went down on my right side pretty quickly since I hit a runaway skateboard (of all things) with my front wheel. Without the helmet my head would have received the full force of the impact. Also got a baseball sized "road tatoo" on my right hip to remind me of it.

Edit: Meant to add that I use a skull cap with a mesh on the top under the helmet. It definately keeps the sweat out of my eyes and think I would still need something like it even without a helmet. Well, cycling cap used to be the old school solution but it didn't work as well as the skull cap.

tarwheel 

Like the OP, I live and commute in NC, and the weather is hot and humid here for much of the year. I am totally drenched in sweat after each commute on all but the coldest days of winter. My commute is rather long (16 miles each way), but the situation was the same when it was shorter (11 miles). Anyone who thinks they don't stink after getting soaked in sweat is deluding themselves, plus it is very uncomfortable working in wet clothes.

I commute in cycling clothes, shower when I get to work and dress in clean and dry work clothes. I rinse out my jersey and t-shirt after riding if they are very wet, wring them out and hang on a drying rack in my office. I formerly hung them in a storage room at work until another worker who occasionally used that room complained. Fortunately I have a separate office rather than a cubicle, so nobody has complained about the drying rack. My cycling clothes are completely dry by the time I'm ready to head home.

jfowler85

Wrong - bacteria have no perceptible odor. However, the consequent product of bacteria's consumption of the proteins and other molecular components of sweat does have an odor.

So I'm to take that you think a sweaty dude smells good? There's just all kinds of nastiness in the thread. Look, just because you're not capable of putting in enough effort in 10 miles to generate some good sweat, does not mean others are also not capable. That's fatally flawed logic; you're assuming your own experience onto everyone else...I mash up hills, sprint with traffic on 45mph roads, and aim to break 30mph on every commute, all in weather that's regularly reaching over 80f with 75-80% humidity...June in the heartland, derp. If you still think that doesn't generate some funky juices within 10 miles then I'd like to see you prove it by letting me rub my ball-sweat-soaked chamois all up in your face after my commute.

That's what I'm saying. I have to work at it, but it's not going to put me on any leader boards.

noglider 

I'm older than I've ever been. I'll never be as young as I am now.

jfowler85

and, wherever you go along that journey, there you are.

Daniel4

Do you work with a desktop or laptop computer? If so, take advantage of the heat they give off to dry your clothes.

If you have no partition walls, chances are all the computers are back-to-back of each other. Ask your coworkers if they mind if you put some of your clothes in the middle to dry.

You can also discretely hang your Jersey on your chair backrest. Vodka as a deodorant seems expensive. Open a box of baking soda and leave in on your desk.

MoAlpha

Yup. Wool and wash it.

flyerguy

I work in cubicleland with lots of other bikers. We mostly hang stuff in our cubes (shorts under the desk for less conspicuousness) and as long as you're putting on clean stuff to begin with and bringing them home at the end of the day, it's not a problem. We find the problem around here, when we do have the occasional problem, is more about a person whose body is stinky than whose biking clothes are stinky (we'll walk past a fellow biker and get a rank whiff, even though they aren't wearing their biking gear any more). So the shower-before-ride advice is good. I also keep a pack of baby wipes handy, which helps when changing to freshen up a bit.

If there are no high cubicle walls, that does reduce options. Maybe some command strip removable hooks on the underside of the desk (they have some models that would work that way). If your bathroom is only used by trusted colleagues, maybe some removable hooks there would be an option, too. I also like the idea to ask bldg facilities staff for ideas, and also let management know it's a challenge.

As for the posters who are saying "ride slower, wear normal clothes" - we had a long thread about this just a few weeks back. They forget that it doesn't work for everyone, for lots of reasons. I'm a sweater, can't help it. It's low 60s and breezy in Minnesota this morning and I had a slower than usual commute (my son was up at 5 so it was a slow, sleep-deprived Monday morning slog in), and I'm still quite sweaty. I did just over 10 mph. Any slower and my commute would be over an hour each way, which doesn't work well with life's responsibilities.

My employer is building a shower facility for bikers and runners right now. I appreciate that immensely, but also expect that will end up being far stinkier than our cubeland has ever been. :-)

baron von trail 

Wow! Talk about forces being stacked against you. I agree, that is not ideal.

I guess one option would be to find some out of the way common space somewhere to hang your clothes like a stairwell or broom closet, if available. I guess you could drape them over your bike too. They may dry quicker outside anyway. But, yeah, bummer.

fietsbob

If not just Buying a folding drying rack, Make a rack to dry the stuff on out of PVC Pipe & T's bring in a folding screen to hide it behind.

PatrickGSR94

Your comments could also apply directly to those comments I quoted. Simply slowing the pace simply does not work in many areas of the country (the South especially) with notoriously high humidity levels. As I said, in these areas you'll be sweating simply by going outside.

I was referring to high humidity levels outside, which greatly reduces the body's cooling ability because sweat won't evaporate nearly as quickly. In my area there are many cases of heat stroke and other related illness every year during the summer, from people with outdoor-based jobs.

I-Like-To-Bike

Do the people who arrive at jobsites in your area by any means other than bicycle also change their sweaty clothes after arriving and have similar problems finding a place to hang their sweaty clothes?

tjspiel

In order to help out a charitable organization I'm affiliated with, I agreed to help interview people for an open position they have even though I have virtually no relevant experience in that type of position and barely know what the responsibilities are. Because the other people on the committee have no experience interviewing people I've ended up being the lead interviewer.

To get there last Saturday morning I had to bike all of 2 miles. It was not particularly warm but the dew point was really high. In fact it was raining on my way home. In spite of leaving in plenty of time and riding at a moderate pace, I noticed my head was sweating after sitting inside for a few minutes after I got there, - and no I hadn't worn a helmet (which is unusual for me). Before the interview started I went to the restroom to wipe down a little but that only helped temporarily.

When the interview started my forehead was damp with beads of sweat. Maybe no one noticed, and I don't think it really mattered but it wasn't the image I wanted to project in that situation. Some people will sweat more easily than others. I'm probably about average and I don't sweat buckets but it doesn't take much before I'm sporting a nice sheen.

Almost 30 years ago when I first started working after college, I had a job that required me to wear a tie. It was about a 50 minute drive (until I moved) and my car at the time had vinyl seats and no AC. I arrived for work a little sweaty on more than one occasion. I don't think it negatively impacted my career at all but that was a different time and I had a different sort of job. Today that could be problematic if I've got presentation a to give first thing in the morning. Being able to shower and change into a fresh set of clothes eliminates that problem for me. I know not everyone has showers available and that expectations in terms of personal hygiene and appearance vary from job to job and culture to culture.

What ultimately matters is what works for people for their personal situation. The fact that a different approach may work for millions of other people in different situations is irrelevant. You can try something based on the benefit of other peoples' experience but that doesn't mean it will work well for you.

bmthom.gis

It's maybe a mile to the place I get my haircut from the office. I ride it on an upright bike, usually fairly slowly. Still sweating when I get there. I try to get there early so my girl doesn't have to touch still damp hair. Nothing like temps in the upper 90s with high humidity!!