Wearing jeans felt weird...
 

Just dropped my car off for service and rode around three miles to work while wearing a pair of jeans instead of biking shorts. Dang that felt weird! It was constricting around the knees and thighs but loose in the waist area not to mention having the whole pants rubbing all over your legs. Should have brought my riding shorts...

Anyone commute in their work or everyday clothes?

Sweatpants FTW.

I usually change when I get to work because my commute is long enough to sweat. But if I ride or do an errand at lunch I'll be wearing jeans and have experienced what you're describing. I stick with Levi's and noticed that a couple of my pairs were of the "stretch" variety. Not tight, same fit as the regular fabric, but with a little stretch I notice when throwing a leg over the saddle and in the thighs/knees.

So you might try a stretch fabric next time you're jeans shopping. I really haven't noticed any difference in durability or fit with the Levi's stretch; other brands might do something like that as well.

3 miles isn't much right? but still, one likes to be comfy riding ... personally I'm a sweater, so I would have a whole change of clothes head-to-toe in my rack trunk. liquid soap & washcloth plus a little diluted clarifying shampoo & a hand towel too. small travel bottles are awesome, always save mine from hotels & reuse them when needed

Most days I'll detour to take a longer ride to work, but if I take the direct ride home it's in office clothes. Four miles isn't enough to hassle with changing clothes, or even shoes, most days. Especially when the weather's cool.

I just put on pant cuff bands and go.

https://78.media.tumblr.com/915eb0b6...158mo1_540.jpg

I have commuted exclusively in regular work clothes for over thirty years. (3-5 miles one way, in a forgiving climate)

We should really check with our European friends on this list; I will *guess* that over ten million Europeans commute by bicycle in regular clothes every work day.

I wear Levi's 511 jeans every single day and they have a really great fit for cycling without the extra price of the commuter pant

When its' under 70 degrees I commute in khaki's to save the trouble of changing when I get to work.

Above 70 I sweat too much and don't care for being soppy for the first hour of work.

When my commute was 4-5 miles, I went in normal clothes...usually khakis/dress pants/polo or sweater/dress shirt. I'm at 10-12 miles each way now, depending on which route I take, so I wear relatively bike specific stuff, and change at work. Partly for comfort on the ride, partly on relatively warm days I do sweat a bit on the way in.

On my way to work, where I cut out 70% of my commute by taking the ferry, I keep my work clothes on. But still, if I ride for anything more than a block I start to sweat, and my office doesn't have showers or even a decent place to change/wash-up properly.

I roll up the right leg of my pants most of the time, since I think that's slightly less dorky than those cuffs/bands (no offense colaso... well, some offense). And yes, riding in any type of pants kinda sucks when the sweat starts making them sticky.

For the longer ride home I change into clothes that I don't mind getting sweaty. Having access to a shower in my office building would be a dream.

No offense taken. Whatever works for your situation.

Occasionally, but always with lycra liner shorts under.

I always wear shorts (loose, no lycra) and have the luxury of showering and changing at work.

But a few weeks ago I rode to an after-work retirement party at a restaurant, and then home from the restaurant, in jeans the whole way. It was one of the worst riding experiences of my life. To the restaurant was all coasting downhill, so that was OK, but the whole way home (mostly flat), I was flexing both ankles outwards to try to keep my cuffs from rubbing (even though I did roll up my right cuff), and it quickly got painful in my IT band.

What I was tempted to do the whole way home, I should have done, which is to duck into a semi-private niche and quick-change back into my shorts. (I had black boxer-briefs on, so anybody that accidentally saw me for a second would not be that traumatized). Or really, I should have changed in the restaurant bathroom.

Never again! I can't understand how anybody could ride more than half a mile in denim

3 miles? And you need special shorts?

I've ridden far more miles wearing jeans than wearing anything else.

Some of us sweat more than others. I practically don't sweat at all, and I can commute in my regular work clothes year round. There were periods of several years when my work clothes were 100% jeans. But I've practically given up on jeans. Now I wear hiking pants or similar -- much lighter and more comfortable. Plus, I lost a bunch of weight, my old Levi's don't fit any more, and I think their quality has gone down. Jeans from Target seem to be of equal or better quality for half the price.

If somebody sweats more than I do, then I trust their choice as to what they can wear for commuting, as I really can't guess what they need.

I figured out that jeans were pretty close to the worst things to ride in long before I knew about bike shorts. Stopped buying jeans and went without all through my car-less years. Fell on love with Dockers when they came out in large part because they work so much better on a bike and were completely acceptable in a lot places off the bike.

I now sometimes run short errands in jeans to to remind myself how bad they are!

Ben

Regular old style jeans are terrible for riding. I can't believe I wore them when I was young. I bet the new stretchy kind are much better. I find I can ride in dressy wool trousers without much trouble, because they're normally loose. Check out Betabrand stuff. It's expensive but comfy because it's stretchy.

Then consider yourself lucky. I sweat buckets when it is 0°F. I have somewhere to hang my clothes at work so they can dry and I'm thankful I do. I've ridden home in damp clothes when it is freezing and there is nothing worse.

Yes. Even just 3 miles.

Yes indeed. I can't ride more than a block before I start to sweat in just about any weather. When I stop at lights during cold weather, I have a fog of water vapor around me. Lots of people judge you by how much you sweat saying really dumb things like "if you sweat, you are out of shape" but that's wrong and insulting.

Smart ass answer, probably 99% of the planet. Why commute in cycle-specific clothing?

Real answer:

I usually commute in coloured tight trousers, untucked shirt and buttoned blazer and don't have any issue.

Usually by one of these brands:

http://www.tedbaker.com/uk/Mens/c/category_mens
Men - Shop Tiger of Sweden men's clothing online
Ljung.net

I don't seem to have a problem with it.

I would much rather ride in slacks than jeans. Control those cuffs, and as long as they're not too tight, I'm sure they'd be fine for riding.

Funny story I heard from a guy who had moved to Bangladesh. He had brought jeans, but wanted to buy some pants that were less casual. So he went to a store and said he wanted pants, but not jeans, he wanted "dress pants". The guy said "you mean you want pants?", "yeah, but I want 'dress pants'." "OK, so you want 'pants'", "Right, but they need to be 'dress pants' -- like those ones you're wearing" "Yes, these are 'pants'" -- round and round for a long time.

The point is, at least in that area (and probably many around the world), 'just regular pants' are more like slacks than jeans, and are much better for riding in than denim.

I can't think of worse bottoms to wear while cycling than denim jeans. Even as a joke, the only worse thing I can think of is leg irons, but if the chain is long enough, they'd still be better than jeans

I'm with the OP. I've worn jeans a couple of times in cooler weather, even for just 3-4 miles to my parents house and back, and even then I thought it felt gross, and super uncomfortable.

most of the English speaking world outside of the US would employ the word trousers as pants has a totally different connotation altogether.

That's a good point! But my friend definitely used the word 'pants' in his story. Maybe just automatically translating into American

At temps up to 85, lightweight work pants, but shirts that have some wicking ability. Change shirt after cooling down for a few minutes, wipe down with paper towels and baby wipes. But when it's hot and humid, it takes me 20 minutes to feel dry all over, so debating whether to wear shorts and carry a full change of clothes.

Starting next week, looks like I'll be testing out what clothing works in the 60's. No bell bottoms though.

Relaxed fit blue jeans - "dad jeans", I think - work ok for cycling. They are evidently unfashionable however.