What should I do with the clothes I commuted in?
 

I have just recently started commuting to school about a 20 mile round trip, I just figure its easiest to wear my normal cycling kit when I am on the bike and change when I get to school. Thats no problem, its working fine, the thing I cant figure out is what to do with my clothes I just rode in that are sweaty so that they can air out a little and dont get super funky by the time I change back into them. Any tips on how to store them for the day while I am in class? I dont have a locker or anywhere I could leave them to dry, so my only option is to keep them with me in my messenger bag... I am going to do some more hunting for some kind of storage around the UofA but for now any tips would be greatly appreciated.

That's a tough one. If you're worried about smell leaking out, you could always wrap them in a plastic bag inside of your messenger bag. Does your school have a gym with a locker room? You could always hang them in there (and even grab a shower if you're too sweaty). My college had a gym for students to use, so there wouldn't be much stopping someone from just putting a padlock on a locker for the day.

A mesh bag that you could lock to your bike would be ideal. I hated taking clothes out of a ziplock that were wet from the morning ride while at school.

I will look into both of those options. Thanks.

I'd be inclined to put your cycling kit in a dry bag (http://www.seatosummit.com/products/cat/3), so the smell can't leak out.

wrap in plastic bag and bring a 2nd set for the ride home

That's rough, not having a locker or somewhere else you can air out the clothes. If you must put them in a plastic bag, I'll second rumrunn6's suggestion to bring another set, as I hate wearing ripe wet gym clothes. :twitchy:

I asked a similar question once and somebody suggested those high velocity dryers that lots of bathrooms have these days (ex: http://www.exceldryer.com/). If your campus has those (or a Starbucks nearby?) it's amazing how well those work.

I have an 18 mile roundtrip, I wear shorts and a T-Shirt on my ride in to work - I shower and get dressed in real clothes once I get to work, and then for the ride home, I wear my work clothes, and ride slowly.

Hang the sweaty clothes on your bike. Also works as a bike theft deterrent :lol:

bingo, 2 sets/day.

+1
This works really well, unless you dislike riding in work clothes for some reason.

Hang them on the railing at Old Main. With the low humidity, they'll dry in minutes :-)

(UA class of 83)

also, you don't need a locker to dry clothes in the "locker room"

where I work, we have the standard Euro concrete block buildings with these types of Euro radiators. on every radiator shirts and clothes are drying from commuters, towels and everything else. in fact, i just use what ever body wash bottle is kicking around close to the shower, enevr bring my own (but, I do bring my own towel, which i hang on the radiator in the office).

you could just leave your sweaty clothes drying in the locker room and they'd be there when you got back and if they were gone (they were cheap, right?) just ride home in the work clothes.

http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=268842

Have any faculty or student advisor offices that you can talk into the useful plan ?

wash them

Sealed bags would seem to defeat the purpose of airing out and de-funkdefying...
Simplest solution is safety pins - large safety pins.
Presumably your messenger bag has no side mesh pockets. I've pinned jersey and shorts to the inside flap, which airs them out while keeping them somewhat hidden.

I am not sure if you have your own desk, but what I do is hang my shirt and shorts under my desk and turn on the heater under my desk after a while they are dry and I put them back in my pannier. I am not sure if that solution would work for you.

Thanks for all the comments, there is some great ideas. i finally got ahold of someone and found lockers and possibly showers, so I am set. I will keep these in mind for the furture though incase I hit this problem again.

If you are at UofA, then there is probably a pool with locker room and showers on campus, and they will have a swimsuit dryer there. Those swimsuit dryers spin really friggin fast and dry out a wet speedo (made of lycra, just like your cycling shorts!!!) in a few seconds.

When I get to work I take my bike shorts in the shower with me and rinse them off, then spin them dry in the swimsuit dryer. They are still a bit damp when they come out, but at least it's not sweat, and if your locker room has shampoo dispensers or soap dispensers you can rub some soap into the chamois while you shower and it will come out of the swimsuit dryer smelling like roses.

Those swimsuit dryers look like this....
http://www.restroomdirect.com/suitma...extractor.aspx

All good suggestions, but also consider getting dry-fit/athletic tech style clothes, particularly shirts: the synthetic materials dry pretty fast, and for most, hold odours less than cotton or even cotton blends. If you don't care about brand names or the latest trends, you can probably pick up last year's models on discount.