Dressing when you bike to work (do you change?)
 

For those of you who ride bike to work that demands more or less formal/neat dressing in the working environment, do you have two sets of clothing to work, one for riding, the other for working (that may mean, in some cases, that when you arrive at work you immediately head to the restroom to change, and hoping as few people saw you as possible before you have changed). I hate having to change. I saw the Dutch people wearing suits or long woolen winter coat on their bicycles and hope I could do the same, but most time I ride I would get my pants tainted with the black lube or dirt, and the pants get wrinkled at the knees and crotch. Wonder how the Dutch did it.

I keep going back and forth and haven't decided yet. At the beginning of the school year (I'm a teacher), I put my clothes in the pannier and changed there. Last week, I kept my clothes on and waited for the sweat to dry. And it did, pretty quickly. I, of course, had taken a shower before I left the house, so I wasn't stinky.

Black lube and dirt.....hmmmm.....how often do you clean your bike? I pump mine up nightly and after that, I look for any dirt or grime and wipe it off. Is your commute that gnarly?

I can ride to the office in dress pants and shirt for about six months of the year. But it's just too hot and I'm just too sweaty the other half of the year so I would bring a week's worth of clothes on Sunday evenings. I was lucky to have a locker and shower room.

I don't lube my bike very often, but when I do, maybe I put on too much lube, because there are always drops of the lube on the floor hours or even a day or two after, especially if I pedal the chain from time to time to distribute the lube while not riding.

I never got stinky, though :), but I'd rather people not see me in two very different outfits the same day, within a short time ("hey, now you got dressed up!") :). They should just see me the way I mean to present myself that day. :D

Caloso, lucky you are. How many people have a locker and shower room at work? :rolleyes: Actors or fitness club workers, maybe :D

I sweat profusely, so I ride in cycling attire and work in work attire. We have lockers, but not showers. A birdbath in the sink works well enough.

I wore out the crotch of enough jeans back in the 70s that I wouldn't ride in anything I expect to keep looking decent anyway. My commuting shorts are the cheapest I can find without a diaper-like chamois. Thin works best for me. Last ones I bought were four years ago at either $25 or $30 each. I own six pairs of them. They'll get me through the winter under my bib tights, but I think they'll need replacement in the spring.

On Mondays I load the panniers with work clothes and food for the week. Tuesdays and Wednesdays I can ride any bike I want. Thursdays I bring the panniers back home loaded with laundry.

How far are you riding? For my 3 mi commute, I find that bringing a shirt to change is sufficient. I ride in athletic shirts for running and such because they dry fairly quickly. I carry a softshell with me though.

When you lube the chain, you should consider wiping the excess lube. It should not be dripping for a day or two.

Food for the week?!


My commute is usually just 2-3 miles, but full of traffic stops (it is in Manhattan), that's why I rarely sweat unless it's hot weather. The main thing about biking clothing is the pants, not shirts, since the torso hardly moves. I'll heed your advice of wiping excess lube.

In the winter I wear rain gear, so I change when I get to work. The other 3 months of the year I wear shorts, and also have to change when I get to work. When I ride my motorcycle I change when I get to work, and when I was going running after work I needed to change before leaving. They are used to me using their bathrooms as locker rooms. Enough of the others are athletes (runners, mostly) that they do it too.

Lucky enough to be able to get away with jeans and a polo shirt at work which is a 6 mile commute, although I do change from a t-shirt to the polo when I reach work. What has saved all my jeans/pants is the plastic chain guard that came with the bike, and which I believe should be readily and cheaply available at a LBS near you.

Too new at cycle-commuting to know what I'll be doing when it's raining though.

Mostly by not having 10, 15... 20mi commutes one way. Seriously, it would be rare to by cycling more than a couple of miles to work i that part of the world. I have a minimum 7 mi commute each way but it can go to 10 mi one way if the weather is good and I take the back roads. Either trip is too long for work clothes so I cycle in shorts and/or tights and appropriate tops. I have a garment pannier so I take each days clothes fresh to the office. I have changed clothes in the bathroom at work but I prefer to use the facilities in a building across the street where I have access privileges. I can also keep my bike there in an unused storage room. I'll really be sad when this arrangement comes to an end as I will be looking for a new employer in a few weeks.

H

Yes. Four lunches, eight snacks.

The city installed a remarkable contraption in the staff break room. It's called a refrigerator. You put food inside of it so it doesn't rot. Food I put inside on Monday is still edible on Thursday. Amazing thing. ;)

I commute six days a week by bike, and on Sunday mornings I go into work by car for a couple hours, and that includes a grocery shopping trip-- I try to eat healthy, and that's heavy. :rolleyes:

I teach at a high school so I tend to dress fairly nice (kakis, dress shirt, tie....). My commute is 16 miles. Wearing what I work in on the ride is not an option. I also try to ride as hard as I can so I am pretty sweaty when iroll in. I just leave the house in time to get to school early enough to catch a shower in the locker room. I just take a week or twos worth of clothes in once a week or so. As far as people seeing me... I just pull on a pair of running shorts I stuff in a jersey pocket. No biggie

If it's less than 50 out when I leave the house, I wear my work pants. If it's over, I wear shorts. I always bring a shirt to change into.

I tried riding to work in my normal clothes for about a week. That was 2 years ago. Now, it's all bike shorts and a florescent colored jersey. I just recently started doing the same thing for church. The associate pastor did a double-take when some sweaty twenty-something in spandex came through the main doors and headed straight for the men's room. ;)

The only time I ride anywhere in socially acceptable clothing is to the Dr's office or to Wal-Mart or something. Even then, I'll just wear a light shirt and light shorts (like swimming trunks) over my bike gear.

If I lived in the Netherlands, I would do as they do. They live in a very flat country with a moderate climate and excellent bicycle infrastructure, so it's easily possible for most people there to ride in work clothes. I live in a city covered by fairly steep hills, and it's rainy for much of the year. I never ride in Lycra-type cycling attire, but I also don't think it's practical to ride in a shirt and tie. I always ride in comfortable clothing appropriate for the weather and change when I get to work. No one minds that I show up in shorts and T-shirt, as long as I look professional once I start working.

I ride 11 miles over hill and dell - its a working mans ride. No 3 mile, urban bike path commuting for me.
AND, Im in South Carolina - summers here are brutally hot and steamy. Morning, noon or night, its hot, hot, hot. SO I ride 5-6 months in shorts and sleeves.

Im fortunate that I have a locker room and shower at my job. Without it, I'd have to rely on a butt load of deodorant and just live with being funky. :twitchy:

My commute is five miles each way. The first couple of times I tried it in my work clothes (minus the tie) and quickly found that it was doable but often would get me dirty or too hot and smelly, especially on warmer days. There is the inconvenience of chaninging but it works better for me. I usually come in earlier than everyone else, rinse my head in the bathroom sink (keeping my hair short meeks it dries fast) put on deodorant, change in my office. I leave a little earlier than everyone else so I do have to walk past in my cycling clothed which is usually a tee shirt and shorts (i dont own any cycling specific clothing so no one sees me in spandex) unless its raining then I'm wearing some assortment of clothes from goodwill that repel water. Nobody seems to care or they've just gotten used to the sight.

Nthing the "too damn hot where I live" comments. It's been, at best, 75 in the morning when I leave right at sunrise. Even my short commute gets me sweaty, especially the final sprint over the overpass. I wear gym shorts and a synthetic t-shirt, and lug my bike inside to store. I walk by everyone coming into the office in their business casual and no one seems to care. I'm the "bike guy" at the office, people accept this. I carry a fresh set of clothes with me in my bag and leave my shiny shoes and some personal grooming items at my desk. By the time it's 8AM, I'm cleaned up and in the same corporate drone uniform as everyone else.

I did have someone come flag me down right at 7:30 one day for some emergency issue on another floor that I had to go fix before I got a chance to change. Everyone, including some of the management, just laughed at the situation.

Either roll up your pant legs or put some rubberbands around the cuffs. Ride at such a pace where you sweat minimally. Arrive early so you have five minutes to cool off if need be. Put any load on your bicycle rather than your person. I ride about 98% of the time in work clothes and/or school clothes.

I wear regular casual clothes while commuting and change into work clothes at work. Commute is pretty easy and office is nicely airconditioned, so no need to shower. I can't complain.

If you're self-conscious about walking into work in cycling attire, keep your helmet and sunglasses on until you're in the restrooms/lockerroooms cleaning up and changing into your work attire. :)

There is no such thing as "riding easy staying clean" on my hilly, dusty, bug-ridden commute even in ideal weather. I'd rather have clean clothes on a clean nkfrench for my 10-hour workday. My assumption is that the Dutch aren't riding 16 miles each way through construction zones, up a few 11% climbs, getting bugsplat/roadsplat in sweaty 105F afternoon heat or sticky morning 80% humidity or in low-vis fog with traffic a few feet away. Maybe there are no flat tires in the Netherlands and their hands never get dirty doing minor repairs.

In the 1970's I lived elsewhere and had an easy commute; but my jeans and shoes took a beating by cycling in them, not to mention how uncomfortable they were for anything longer than 3 miles.

I also stash several day's worth of food at my desk - oatmeal, raisins, coffee, wheat bread, peanut butter, fresh fruit, canned soup. No fridge available, alas.

I keep shoes, belt, cardigan sweaters at my desk and have a simple mix+match work wardrobe that can be rolled to fit into a pannier without wrinkling or being too bulky.

I change at work -- my bike commute is 10 miles with a 30-mile train trip in the middle, and there's no way my shirt is going to stay freshly starched after an hour of Seattle rain.

If I rode at a Dutch commuter pace on a sit-up-and-beg roadster, I could use a cape and an umbrella and stay dry enough, but I'd be adding an hour or more to my commute.

I keep dress shirts at work, use the cleaner across the street from the office, so shirts don't have to ride back and forth every day. Likewise ties, coat, etc. Pants get rolled to stay well-pressed in the bag, along with a fresh undershirt, underwear, and socks.

Changing takes maybe two minutes in dry weather, five minutes when it's dripping wet and I need to dry my hair at the office. (Short, clipper-cut hair makes that easier. The lack of an employee locker room keeps all the women cyclists I know at work in their cars in the rainy season, late September to June.)

If I did that it would take me an hour and a half to get to work....

As others have said it does come down to how far you need to go and how messy you get in transit. It also has to do with what you can store at your job. My commute is a little over 20 miles and I sweat pretty profusely, so I commute in shorts and a jersey and change in the rest room at work. It's a small office and the rest room is a one person, lock the door and nobody comes in type deal. After a couple unscented baby wipes, deodorant and some gold bond, nobody would be the wiser about how I got there, if my bike wasn't sitting in my office. I shave at home before I ride & sometimes my chin strap will irritate the bottom of my jaw, so a little dab of post shave balm helps with that. I'm lucky enough to have a job where I can keep a dopp kit with all my toiletries in my office instead of having to transport them every day.

It's business casual where I work, so pretty much all week long it is trousers and button downs. All my clothes for the day come & go with me in a pannier; my shoes and belt live at the office unless they need to come home for a shining. Typically I can arrange for that to occur on a day that I am driving.

I can't tell you about the Dutch, but that's how I do it.