Combo. Cycling shorts as underwear under my regular clothes. Swap out for clean, dry underwear at my destination. Sometimes I also use a thin, moisture-wicking shirt as a base layer in the same fashion.

You wear regular clothes in warmer temps?

yes. i only wear lycra when i'm freezing cold

Work clothes for me. Fortunately I can wear shorts at work and that's what I always ride in.

I ride my bike in my regular clothes, which for me is a dress or skirt and inappropriate footwear. I have a long commute to my office, but I do not change clothes and we don't have shower facilities. The way I make it work is to use the bus for the bulk of my morning commute. The 3 miles to the bus stop is done at a pretty leisurely pace, and I don't get too sweaty. I am usually able to cool down completely by the time the bus comes. For the bike ride home, I don't care how sweaty I get, although it's usually not too bad except in the summer. It gets really humid here late spring through early fall, so everyone sweats - even just walking to the car. People just deal with it and cut each other some slack. I have experimented with carrying bike skorts, t-shirts and athletic shoes to wear for the ride home in the heat, but it's just more than I want to fool with and I hated trying to change clothes in the tiny bathroom stalls. Instead, I just choose the day's outfit carefully, peel off any extra layers before heading out, and then throw everything in the washing machine when I get home.

Why mess with the stalls? You are not going to the bathroom. I assume anyone who would walk in while you were changing has essentially the same apparatus as you, and would be unshocked if they caught a glimpse. Just like in the locker room after gym class.

I ride in a mixture of both, with the technical stuff close to the skin and regular clothes further away for the most part. My technical stuff comes from Target, REI and Performance, nothing too fancy there.

I always use cycling specific clothing for the comfort. My commute is 11 miles one way and I get way too hot in the summer and need the wicking stuff and then take a shower at the office when I arrive. In the winter sub 0F temps. I need the winter cycling specific clothes to stay warm enough but be light and able to move easily. It's more work and takes longer with all the clothing changes but I just find it more comfortable for me.

Average male BMI Germany: 27
Average male BMI USA: 28

Source: Global Burden of Metabolic Risk Factors of Chronic Diseases Collaborating Group

Your data is outdated. Check the wiki under bmi for the new 2012 WHO data to two significant digits.

I wear normal clothes with one cycling specific item: a bright yellow Showers Pass jacket. I only recently got it and I feel awkward as hell wearing it, but I'd rather be seen and be safe than look cool, and it's pretty dark and dreary some days in the Pacific Northwest.

Voted 'other'.

my college commute:
Dallas, TX.
20 miles, round trip.

I tend to blend between cycling gear and every day clothing. In the summers I have to wear biking gear to manage perspiration.
In the winter though, I can wear normal pants (Denim or some other variant). I still wear a cycling jersey and jacket for efficiency against wind.
Also regular shirts like to flash your non-existent tramp stamps

spare_wheel's number are to two significant digits. You mean 2 decimal places which is four significant figures. And given the manner in which the BMI is calculated, four significant figures isn't justified. Two significant figures are hardly justified.

You may also want to do more research on sweating and how it is related to fitness level. I've yet to find anyone who thinks that the unfit sweat more than an fit person. As far as I can tell, it's nearly unanimous that fit people start to sweat faster and more than unfit people do. If fit people sweat less, why is someone like Usain Bolt sweating buckets after a short event? Afterall he's only exercising for 9 seconds. He should be dry as bone if what you say is right.

You fail to realize that those 9 seconds are extremly high intensity, done in very warm temps . If he walked those 100 meters at an easy pace insted of sprinting then he wouldn't be sweating buckets. Have you ever run a 100 meter sprint at a maximum intensity ??

I commute in "athletic" clothes but not "regular" clothes or cycling specific clothes, because I work in a hospital and change into hospital scrubs before work. I also handwash most of my clothing with a washboard, and athletic clothes are much easier to do that with than jeans/tshirts. Right now I wear fleece underwear with a hi-viz winter road crew coat and rain paints, temps have been in the high 20's. My shift starts at midnight, so I'm always commuting in the dark. I have a very warm neoprene balaclava I wear at night, and sometimes during the day.

When I'm not going to work, but riding around doing errands I wear "normal" clothes, but lots of my stuff comes from alertshirt.com and Duluth Trading Co. (their jeans are cut nice and high in the back, and made for people who do lots of manual labor so they're very very sturdy) so my wardrobe is heavy on the lime green.

That's my point. I realize that those 9 seconds are at extremely high intensity. I also realize and, more importantly, understand that sweating and how much a person sweats is related to the intensity of the exercise and not particularly related to the person's fitness level or weight. How much you sweat isn't even necessarily related to the ambient temperature.

Our office is small and the work environment is relaxed, but I still like to maintain some boundaries at work. I don't really want my boss or any of my other coworkers seeing me half nekkid. It was bad enough walking through the office in form-fitting bike clothes, which is another reason why I ditched that experiement.

Try standing on the line to punch out wearing cycling gear with 20 other Teamsters.

This seems to be where the regular clothes crowd and the technical clothes crowd separate. If I biked to work at an effort that was similar to walking at an easy pace it would take me nearly two hours to get there.

I've never worn "regular clothes" to exercise. My commute/errand running is not only transportation, but it is also my primary exercise. I prefer not to get my "normal" clothes sweaty and stinky if I can avoid it, and I also find those clothes uncomfortable for exercising, as they tend to be less flexible and have large seams, etc.

Yeah - the most recent data, rounded to two significant digits, is: Average Male BMI Germany 27 vs Average Male BMI USA 29. The growth of America is taking on a whole new meaning! :lol:

+1

+2 And this is a point that I've made elsewhere. Personally, I could ride to work in regular clothes but I'd rather not spend 2 hours "going easy" to work. Plus my commute is my exercise. I have no problem with people who do ride to work in ordinary clothes but I do have a problem with them when they become holier than thou about it.

Depends on the temperature. I like bike shorts - but those can be worn under just about anything. In the winter at minus 30C anyone that tries to go out in just plain spandex won't do it twice.

EDIT: I would think that someone's choice of clothing would be at least partly affected by the distance they have to commute, the nature of the job they have and the bike they ride. A very short commute on a bike with a fully enclosed drivetrain in office clothes would be far more common in Europe than NA. And one I'd do myself.

Other: Like many above, cycling technical (shorts and base layer) under, normal clothes over. Because, I want the comfort and functionability of cycling clothes but I want the "look" of normal clothes.

Rick / OCRR