macteacher

I just saw the google video "Cycling Friendly Cities"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rwwxrWHBB8

So how do they do it there? Nobody from what I can see wears cycling jerseys or shorts...they just wear their regular clothes...suits..etc.. don't they sweat though? When I get to work, after 7km, i'm drenched with sweat. I don't understand how they do it. I can cycle for about 2-3km before I break a sweat. So I've ended up wearing my jersey and cycling pants, shirts, etc and I change at work..but these people in Denmarck, amsterdamn, they cycle with regular clothes....it baffles me...Just wondering what peoples thoughts are on this issue. Have we just been brainwashed in our North American cities to wear these types of clothing?

matthew_deaner

Some people (like me) don't sweat very much. And some people's sweat carries little odor (again, like me). Plus, one can wear normal clothes when cycling, and still change at work. And cleanliness standards are lower in many european countries.

I wear cycling-specific clothing when it's cold or when riding 20+ miles. Lycra shorts prevent chafing and generally make the ride more comfortable. Cycling clothing doesn't flap around, dries quickly, and will keep you cool. That being said, it's sort of a hassle to deal with it for short rides (for me, at least).

AEO

I don't have a long enough attention span to watch that entire video at the time of writing, but I do believe they aren't putting in any significant amount of effort.

I usually try to go as fast as I can, since I dislike wasting time on transportation.
A lot of other people I see rarely try and go as fast as I do (30~40km/h).
Your regular commuter goes, probably, half that, and they don't break a sweat, why? because to go twice as fast, you need 4 or 8 times the effort, honestly I don't remember which, since I was told this in Phs. Ed in high school when I was already oxygen deprived from a long marathon.
Someone a bit more knowledgeable in physics than me should know.

cyccommute 

I think it depends on the person. I know that I can't do it even on a short ride (<5 miles). I turn the faucet on as soon as I start pedaling, sweatwise Even in subfreezing weather, I sweat like crazy. So I always wear cycling clothes and change when I get to work. Cycling clothes also let me deal with temperature extremes easier than street clothes would.

craigdurkee

I dont sweat much at all, apart from the head when i have long hair, but for those of you who read a previous thread I now have a number 1 all over and thats all good as well.

Personally even though i dont sweat much i still swear by proper cycling clothing, lets your skin breathe better , dries so much quicker and generally much more comfy. I used to use shy shorts before and found the pockets handy but in my opinion you will never beat lycra shorts for pure comfort

M_S

I wear a mix based on distance and weather. For me at least there's a sort of perfect climate for regular clothes...around 60 degrees and partly cloudy, but not wet. Cycling clothing, regardless, is obviously the best while on the bike. It's off the bike that it can be a hassle (duh).

surfjimc

I ride in full lycra and cycling specific warm stuff. It's a long ride to work (27 miles) and I sweat a lot. I can't imagine wearing work clothes, it would take hours to dry out, and I would stink. I also like to push myself and that doesn't help.

Bekologist

Commuting in wool and cotton is no big deal.

some of us ride to work in what we wear for the day. I ride minimum 6 miles each way, and wear my work clothes. And I put the hammer down, and arrive a little sweaty. and you know what? sweat dries out.

If you eat right you don't smell awful.

MAYBE you're wearing too much stuff? I rode this morning - light rain, 1 to 2C, in a wool T-shirt, short sleeve polo, a thin athletic jacket. Cotton shants, wool socks, leather gloves, thin cap. Leave the house underdressed is possibly helpful suggestion.

bmclaughlin807

I did an entire brevet series last year (longest ride was 380 miles) without a stitch of cycling specific gear Wait... not entirely true... I think I had my Club jersey for the last ride... but I rode them all in jean or cammo shorts.

So... no, the cycling specific stuff isn't REQUIRED. It is more comfortable, though... especially on the long rides.

M_S

You are a stronger person than most of us

craigdurkee

Thats a massive achievement what would you be able to do with lycra i ask myself gotta be good for a few more miles

Kimmitt 

I sweat some but I'm lucky that my body odor is apparently minimal. (I had my wife check. ) So I can bike up and only change my shirt.

frost_from_hell

I commute in my normal clothes, I don't own any lycra bike clothes. I did a century last weekend in my normal clothes too, a t shirt, camo shorts and Doc Marten boots!

DataJunkie

You can wear either. Lycra is more comfortable. IMHO
However, your typical American male tends to avoid them due to self image issues.
I am not saying everyone that does not like lycra avoids them due to said issue. Just many of them.

Anyhow, I wear cycling specific clothes for my full commute (56 mile rt) and regular clothes for half of that. Before this winter I would wear cycling specific clothes for every ride but determined that it is unnecessary for shorter cold weather commutes. I weigh around 160lbs and do not sweat buckets like I used to when I weighed over 200lbs.
There is something to be said for not needing a change of clothes when one gets to work.
In summer I expect that even with the half commute I will be wearing lycra due to excess sweating when the weather is warmer.

cyclezealot

wear whaever you are comfortable in. If my commute were only a couple miles , I'd commute in regular clothes too. Even tho I sweat like a pig almost from the get go. What your cycling needs are , I think is dependent upon the intensity of your riding. I find when you are in a saddle for five hours, in regular clothes I am sure your saddle would feel like it is about to penetrate your upper intestine. / for endurance cycling, with hours in the saddle. You need lycra for its wicking properties, muscle support, its ability to no flap about in the wind, not get caught up on saddle horns. / Another benefit of cycling clothes. The bright colors can make you more visible in traffic. / Basically, wear what you want and don't let anyone convince you to not wear whatever it is you find comfortable. Be it lycra or cut offs./ as to my cycle commute. I wore lycra. Because it was 56 miles round trip. Wearing cotton , you'd feel like an uncomfortable wet sponge saturated in sweat. No thanks.

monk

I truly believe that the way we dress when we ride is one of THE main reasons cyclists are looked down on in some cities. I know it sounds strange, but most non-cyclists simply don't understand the reason for wearing what we wear. Those of us who ride know why, of course. One of the ironies I find is that many of the angry motorists who travel the country roads near where I live just can't understand why a grown man would want to wear bright-colored skin-tight clothing and wear a helmet, etc. But these are the same "grown men" who have license plates that say something like "LUV DALE" and their jacked-up pickups are littered with number "3" and "8" stickers. I'm not a fan of NASCAR, but I don't pull up beside them at stop signs yelling at them for having a hobby where they go out to a race track, get drunk and then holler' at guys riding around in circles for four hours.

Az B

Lycra is part of the uniform. I've done centuries in tennis shorts, and even a bathing suit a couple of years ago.

I do have bibs for longer, faster rides as they are a bit more comfortable. But to think you need to dress up like you're in the Tour day Frantz to ride 5 miles to work is a little silly.

Az

Rosie8

Have been wearing regular jeans and turtlenecks with wool sweater & fleece vest, cashmere/wool hat this cool season with little sweating. I drink lots of water to counteract stinkiness. One day, had to stop to remove wool sweater when the sun came out. The jeans have 1% lycra (Lee's Riders), so are stretchy enough to be comfortable. Ride 7 miles or so but not real fast. Have to use padded shoes though or my feet get sore.

ItsJustMe

They can do it because they don't ride fast. Look at the traffic flow on those vids. They're going maybe 10 MPH.
They probably only generally have a mile or two to go on average too, so why go fast? going 20 MPH instead of 10, by the time you count getting on/off locking/unlocking, stopping at lights, etc, going 2 miles, at most it could make 6 minutes difference, but it probably doesn't make that much because you're not going 20 AVERAGE, you're going 20 MAX. So the trip takes 20 minutes instead of 17, and you get there NOT all sweaty.

Besides, with a whole population of cyclists of all levels of ages and fitness, someone trying to be a racer on the street is going to have to buck a lot of "flow of traffic" and will probably not, in the end, be able to go much faster than everyone else anyway, and will probably irritate a lot of people and possibly injure someone.

PaulH

Do you feel a need to wear special clothing when walking? Well, if you cycle at a walking level of energy expenditure, you will go along at about 12 mph (20 kph). The airflow cools you much more than it would if walking, so you are drier than you would be at a fast walk. To me, this is the natural cycling speed, and is often faster than the speed of automobiles in major North American cities. In cool weather, you can go faster. Of course, this requires a proper upright bike with chainguard so that your body position and movements are within the range appropriate to a suit. Dutch and German bikes are perfect for this. Having to change clothing before and after riding a bike is hard for me to imagine - bikes, to me, are all about convenience. If driving were more convenient than cycling, it would be difficult for me to cycle.

Paul

Rick Smith

A colleague of mine wears Lycra, I don't (wool and cotton). We both hang clothes out on the outside of our cube walls. His stinks, mine doesn't. I think that's due chiefly to the materials of the clothing, not our bodily differences.

Bekologist

yes, all those synthetic clothes STINK and also most wet out very quickly. clothing manufacturers are using enzeymes, silver treatments and etc. to reduce odors in synthetic workout wear, not necessary with cotton or wool.

synthetic workout wear is LAME in my opinion.

wool base layers, of course there is wool cycling wear (that I wear for much longer rides) but just getting a couple of smartwool, Ibex or Icebreaker merino wool t-shirts, you'll truly be amazed.

tjspiel

For me it depends on how long I'm riding, how hard I'm riding, and the conditions.

FWIW, I don't think I stink either even if I've been sweating like a pig but I also believe that we can be oblivious to our own BO. I believe that because there are some people in this office who definitely could stand a shower and breath mint yet they don't seem to realize it.

swwhite

I believe that in part of that movie they said the average cyclist goes seven kilometers in half an hour, which is somewhere around ten miles per hour--not terribly fast (that's about my speed and everyone I see passes me).

I myself make it a point to ride in normal clothes, on principle. In hot weather I do sweat, but I have a back-office, casual-clothes job so it doesn't matter, or else no one has been brave enough to bring up the issue with me. In cold weather, I sometimes can tune my clothing so well that my trip is "temperature-neutral" where I vent through wind chill just as much heat as I generate. Those are great days because I travel in total comfort but everyone asks if I didn't freeze out there on a bike. They themselves would not go outside in the winter in their underwear, but they can't seem to generalize the concept of proper clothing.

DataJunkie

I think that is just your opinion. Not correct or incorrect just an opinion. I am treated no different if I am in street clothes or lycra. It is more my lovely attitude that gets me in trouble from time to time.