Originally Posted by
macteacher
Hi all,
I have been on copenhagenize.com a few times and more than anything else they stress cycling with regular everyday clothes that you have in your closet..
I can appreciate where they are coming from, but do the Danes not sweat after a 5km ride? My commute is 8km and I'm drenched by the time I arrive. The cycling specific gear I have helps in wicking the sweat away. What do the Danes do in situations like that? Are they all walking around in their drenched cotton shirts, trousers and suits?
I don't know if that site has ever addressed the sweat issue, but anything more than 1-2km for me and the pores open up and it's like Niagara Falls.
Anybody here ride with regular clothes AND DOES NOT change when they get to work?
Although I can appreciate that they are probably trying to encourage people to cycle without feeling like they have to invest in specialized cycling clothes or go out looking like kitted up racers, the fact remains that for some of us specialized clothes are a must.
My commute is 7 to 8 hilly miles each way. Every now and then I try and ride home in just my scrubs and regular underwear, but I always end up a little chafed. I can't do more than one trip (one direction) without running into some serious issues, not to mention all that hill climbing inevitably makes me quite sweaty.
That said, I voted "other" as I ride in a mix of clothes; padded bib shorts under a pair of either jean shorts or lightweight cotton shorts, with wool tights underneath in the colder part of the year. I don't like cycling jerseys for the most part and so usually wear baggy motocross jerseys with a long sleeve technical undershirt when it is cold and a sweater over all that when is coldest here.
Similarly I wear a mix of gloves. When it is coldest I wear a thin silk motorcycle glove liner, then a inexpensive pair of military surplus polypropylene glove liners, then fingerless padded cycling gloves and finally a pair of military surplus wool gloves. This gives me a system that wicks, breathes, insulates from cold wind and stays warm when wet.
Although only two items (bib shorts and fingerless padded gloves) of my daily attire are manufactured as cycling specific, I didn't wear wool tights, shorts in the winter, sweaters, or technical undershirts, much less motocross jerseys before I started cycling.
In the summer I'll often wear a short sleeve dress type shirt made of either a technical fabric or polyester. Prior to cycling you wouldn't have caught me dead in a polyester shirt!
Oh, and I usually wear cycling shoes for the stiff sole, but I ride flat pedals so I can wear whatever shoes I want. The cycling shoes I prefer are MTB style or others that look (and walk) like regular shoes. Other than the stiff sole, sometimes I like a velcro strap to contain the laces.
It'd be nice to live somewhere flat enough and temperate enough to just wear regular clothes, but that just isn't an option for a lot of us.