I asked this in the road forum last night, got a jerk response, made a joke back, got some more jerk, then apparently it was deleted. What is with those guys?

Anyway, I got a cool old wool jersey yesterday and I was just wondering if normally something is worn under them? It's long sleeve and not merino wool, it's a little scratchy but not bad. No zip or pockets. Generally is something worn under wool or do people just do it next to skin?

Ya, the road forum is a bit "to cool" especially when it comes to more traditional things like wool jerseys. I wear a tight fitting short sleeve jersey under mine. Otherwise a base layer like an Underarmor or wool long john type garment works well. If its just a little cool, weather wise, the jersey alone would probably be fine as well. I'm really old school and crumple up a piece of newspaper and stick it under my outermost layer. Really cuts the wind and keeps the cold off your chest.

Wear it and do whatever you like to make yourself comfortable. Phew on those hard core roadies!

the non-merino wool jerseys I've had had to have something under them for a while, once they were older and broken in they were less itchy. merino on the other hand are simply the best thing ever. oh yeah don't wash them too much let them air out after rides.

silk undies, nuff said.

a coolmax undershirt works great for me

Ai'ght, sounds good. It's a mlittle small (tight) and this is s. cal, so maybe I'll never even get a chance to wear it. but it was only $5!

TimJ: Funny thing was I saw your post in road forum through Google Reader. Thought it was a good question and when I went to read the whole thing on BikeForums, I was dissapointed to see it gone. g-funk: interesting to hear that as they age, they get more comfortable... I have a non-merino hand-me-down from my uncle that is quite comfortable with nothing under it. Go wool!

Baselayers are your friends.

You'll have a better chance of wearing it if you go touring in NorCal. The Touring forum loves wool.

Half those people on the Road forum probably haven't ever seen a wool jersey, and they don't know that bikes were ever made from anything except carbon fiber.

I was mocked as a hipster fixed gear rider.

We're all just ridin' bikes, can't we get along?

(no, I guess not)

We do our best to get along here . However, and this is an important however, it is necessary to provide photos of everything or else the in-house photo watchdog will come after you (that would be me ).

Seriously, what does your jersey look like? I'm going with OFG's suggestion for silk, by the way (tradition, you know!).

East Hill

I'll see if I can not be lazy and post a pic. It is really cool looking.

That's right, be very, very careful about threads without pics East Hill - we all love her to bits, mind you - is forever sniffing about these forums!!! (included a random pic just to avoid eternal damnation!)

And an excellent one it is, too! You are saved this time .

East Hill

welcome to the civil side of Bike Forums.
I wear a coolmax base layer until my old jerseys wear in enough to
be comfortable.
Tim, even though you're in So.Cal (and we won't hold that against you) a base layer (like coolmax)
under a wool jersey should be comfortable. Hell, I wear that down here in texas!

funny, I thought this was going to be a thread about a WoolJersey Gallery. . .

marty

That particular forum is rife with those that have a crying need to post something - anything! - on a topic that sounds pretty cool. Take it as a compliment from those you couldn't care less about a compliment from.

You'll find that you need to wash wool much less frequently than today's plastic clothing. Wool does not pick up much odor. When you do wash it, just wash by hand in a sink of COLD water - or it can shrink to the size of doll clothes. I like to use just a little Ivory Snow liquid detergent (you can still find it, but you may have to search stores a bit) it's even milder than Woolite. Rinse in clean COLD water a couple times to remove all soap. Then gently wring out the jersey and lay it flat to dry so it will retain its shape. I use a (non-rusting) window screen lying across my bath tub to hasten drying.

I have some jerseys which I'd kept in storage at my parent's house since the late 70s and then re-discovered a few years ago. Some are fine, but others were perforated by moths. So, keep it in mothballs (or whatever is used these days) if you're storing it for a while. Washing the jersey can soften it a bit ... but there are limitations.

The scratchiness is due to the coarseness of the standard old wool which was typically used. Marino wool does not itch because the hairs are finer than your skin can feel. Merino wool is considered "fine", around 22 microns thick, and the average persons "itch threshold" is around 28 microns; "coarse" wool is 30 microns or thicker. [... That's something I remember reading in the Rivendell Reader a few years back]. Personally, when I'm out riding the initial itch seems to disappear. Maybe I'm just otherwise distracted, or maybe the wool is just softening a bit from any moisture my body is releasing after a few miles of pedaling.

Since we are on the subject, here are a few recent (and poorly lit) photos of one of my old jerseys. This one was given to me by an amateur (semi-pro?) racer for this Italian Marble & Granite company's team, long ago. Label shows no manufacturer name, tag only states "Pura Lana" (100% wool) and the size "3" (around a US small/medium). Almost 30 years old now, and one of my favorites. Because it has personal significance I really prefer obscure jerseys like this, rather than the famous Pro Team reproductions with the nice soft Merino wool.

This company is still around today and has a web site. They export fancy architectural marble flooring and countertops all over the world. ~ I may actually send the company a couple photos... they may bring back misty memories for one of the old-timers with the company who might recall their old bike racing team sponsorship. --- Notice in the detail that ALL of the lettering on both front and back is embroidered.

It has a couple small 1/4" moth holes which I need to mend. Yeah, it itches... just a bit. - But I think it looks cool on me when I'm riding my black & red Motobecane Grand Record

It is still brilliant with colour, even after all this time. Perhaps this will encourage TimJ to return and post a photo as well?

East Hill

seeing all these nice wool jerseys just makes me wish I wasn't allergic to wool...
(I've even never tried a Merino jersey on to see how it feels...)

You just might be surprised... and Merino wool gets even softer with a couple washings.

This brings up a silly story I thought I'd share here...

My ex-girlfriend had always maintained that she was allergic to wool - something which I never questioned. Then one day an MD friend of ours heard her comment about this and offered to do tests to determine whether it was the wool or perhaps specific dyes which she was reacting to. --- Well, it turned out that what she had simply meant was not that anything was actually creating a rash or raising hives, but rather that it simply made her itch - a result of the coarseness of the wool which was basically "pricking" her skin. --- Unfortunately for me, she then discovered and became enamoured of Cashmere sweaters (that's actually a goat's wool which has very fine fibers) which didn't seem to bother her at all, and were always readily available from Neiman-Marcus [$$$ Ouch!].

Another example of "soft" wool is "Lambs wool" which by definition is from the first shearing of a lamb and thus has softer fibers because they are still tapered at the tips. So, they "bend" on contact with skin while later shearings of the same animal (having already been cut) will have blunt ends which will tend to "poke".

... FYI: ...The oldest known woven wool fabric dates from 5,000 BC, and was found in a bog in Denmark.

Now that's vintage.

I wish it were just a rash...I was tested by a specialist after six months of asthma like symptoms but also with a runny and stuffy nose added in there. I was living with people who had a dog, a cat, and persion wool rugs throughout the house. I was alergic to all of them.

Even a single wool sock in my drawer gets my eyes watering, but I'm tempted to try a merino sweater just to see what it's like. I'd love a Molteni replica...

Hey, where did you get that photo of bigbossman and me out on a ride?