Does shaving your legs make you faster? The answer may surprise you.
#102
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Hair does wick water away from the skin, giving the sweat more surface area for faster evaporation and more effective cooling. It also keeps some of the sweat from rolling off of the skin further improving cooling effect of sweat.
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No difference that I could find, I assume with a larger normal platform there would be at least a slight increase simply due to extra surface area, but with my setups I couldn't discern any differences.
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Okay, tested tennis shoes. My normal setup is Shimano TR51 shoes on Crank Brothers Candy pedals (with the 3-hole cleat of course), for the tennis shoes I put the little flat platform cover things on the pedals and wore Brooks Green Silence running shoes with the laces tucked in.
No difference that I could find, I assume with a larger normal platform there would be at least a slight increase simply due to extra surface area, but with my setups I couldn't discern any differences.
No difference that I could find, I assume with a larger normal platform there would be at least a slight increase simply due to extra surface area, but with my setups I couldn't discern any differences.
Uh, it just occurred to me, and this has nothing to do with your experiment, but it just struck me that the video wind tunnelers should have had a control group, with hairy and smooth legs, measured again without shaving, just to demonstrate that the control group had no changes in drag measurement. I'd feel better about their experiment anyway.
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#107
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Shaved legs, My experience, observations
Makes me Faster ? Nah,
Wound management ? Yeah, somewhat, a little.
At the end of a ride, back at the trail head with sand and sweat n dirt all over my legs I rinse off a lot faster
and this helps when I have only a gallon jug of water.
So yeah, another plus but no biggie.
Chiggers n ticks, nothing for them to grab on to when I go off trail on purpose, yeah on purpose, never by accident
I don't shave I 'Epilate', Google it, Last a lot longer, no stubble..
The main reason I do it, Makes my legs look better, stronger, and IMO sexier XD
Hairless legs say, " I am Into biking big time"
Wound management ? Yeah, somewhat, a little.
At the end of a ride, back at the trail head with sand and sweat n dirt all over my legs I rinse off a lot faster
and this helps when I have only a gallon jug of water.
So yeah, another plus but no biggie.
Chiggers n ticks, nothing for them to grab on to when I go off trail on purpose, yeah on purpose, never by accident
I don't shave I 'Epilate', Google it, Last a lot longer, no stubble..
The main reason I do it, Makes my legs look better, stronger, and IMO sexier XD
Hairless legs say, " I am Into biking big time"
#108
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I'm very faired skin and burn easily. I do it because it makes a mess applying it on the legs when all hairy. I don't do it late fall to February because I don't need to,use sunscreen
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I had enough time to grow all the hair out and try this again.
Came up with nearly identical results to the first test. Might try it one more time before it gets too cold to go pantless.
Came up with nearly identical results to the first test. Might try it one more time before it gets too cold to go pantless.