Washing the chamois on tour
 

What do you use to wash your chamois while on tour? Anyone ever use a light multipurpose sort of soap like Dr. Bronner's? My thinking is that it's mild enough that it won't damage the chamois at all, but I'm not sure if it would linger in the foam...

I don't know, advice is appreciated! Thanks!

Liquid hand soap works very well. Rinse until you get no soap bubbles in the water, and you will be fine.

This is a good question for the new folks. Blues Frog

I used to use biodegradable camping soap to clean my bike shorts...until I decided to skip the trouble and just wear regular synthetic boxer briefs...they wash very easily and dry in a few hours.

I have read in a couple different books on touring/long distance riding, that it is a good idea to use one soap for dishes, laundry, showers, etc. Does anyone with lots of touring experience have any recommendations?

...your supposed to wash em??

I use the "camp soap" sold at REI and other sporting goods even wall mart has it/ I use it for dishes and washing bike cloths works for me

Ewwww!

Say CHEESE :)

I am suddenly overwhelmed by a horrible stench.

Heh heh... Well, I'm still hoping that was a joke. Please?

*you're

Dr. Bronners. I like the peppermint. Rinse the chamois thoroughly. ;>

If I'm staying at a campground that has liquid hand soap in the bathroom, I usually just use that to wash my bike clothes in the sink. Every week or whenever I take a day off I'll wash clothes at a laundromat or laundry machine in a campground or hotel with real laundry soap, bough in the single-use package on the spot.

stringbreaker - eeeeeeewwwwwwwww!!!!!!!

You know that dispenser they have in laundromats? You put in a few coins and a little box of laundry detergent drops out? That's what I use to wash my cycling shorts when I'm on tour.

I blame it on Droid... I speak my text input and sometimes it misses.

Campsuds: biodegradable liquid soap. I also use it to wash my hair, body, and cookware.

CampSuds. You can even brush your teeth with it, but I would recommend springing for a travel-size tooth past tube.

On my first tour I just used regular bar soap and washed my shorts (cyclocross shorts->thin chamois) and my shirt under the shower. However, I quickly found that nothing dries here overnight due to humidity so I stopped bothering. I had two pairs plus tights so I was good for a few days and I was lucky to find laundromats along the route. Otherwise I'd have to take a break during the day and dry my stuff on the hot asphalt.

Train your butt to forgo the chamois. As stated above, they're difficult to dry.

Wear seamless synthetic briefs under whatever bike shorts you like and then wash or change the briefs daily. Besides, only some of us have butts that don't provoke reflexive nausea when framed by too thin bike shorts.

If you wash shorts at the laundromat, do you dry them too? I would think that's not good for the lycra, but it's a pain to always hang stuff and hope for it to dry.

Hang dry if possible, drier on low if not. That's why I do my main laundry on a rest day, so there's time for stuff to hang dry. On regular days, I hand wash the bike clothes in camp, hang them overnight, then finish drying them lashed on top of my rear rack during the day the next day. I carry 2 sets of bike clothes & alternate wearing/drying them. It only doesn't work if it's raining, at which point I don't wash the clothes at the end of the day, and then I either have to wear dirty clothes or find somewhere to do laundry - which gives me a great excuse to not camp in the rain, or to camp at an RV park where there is laundry and usually some indoor space i can hang out during the rain.

washing on tour...? :lol:

Of course I dry them ... in the dryer. They won't self destruct. Up till I moved to Australia where we don't have a dryer, I always dried my cycling shorts in the dryer.

I don't bring anything, in the way of clothing, with me on a tour that can't be tossed into the wash machine and then tossed into the dryer. I can't be bothered wasting time fussing with my clothing.

I tend to have a bar of soap with me on tours and that is it. I wash clothes, hair, body with it, it works fine. That is what everybody used long before all these liquid and powdered soaps came about.


Robi

I had thought the biodegradeable descenting soap for hunters sounded good. If bought in large enough quantitiy it is cheap. I use it to hand wash clothes and for showering. It doesn't leave my hair feeling nasty like most bar soap. Guess I'll use it while on my first road trip to see how it works. Blues Frog