mmmmm...soy curls.

No, that's me. Spare me your pity. Just use me as a warning to others.

ouch...vegan bashing!

This is what I do. The key is to wear technical clothing that is not cycling specific, i.e. merino baselayers, wicking performance shirts, etc.

I like vegans just fine. Pan-fried in lard with sea salt and white pepper. Yum.

The parts of Denmark we were in was pretty flat, especially Copenhagen. Little or no hills with which to work up a sweat. Quite the biking city. Wave after wave of cyclist at quitting time.

Weather, even in summer is not that warm, in CPH.. they have a wind power generation lead, because it is Windy..

no tall peaks there Either..

Simlar here A scorcher is 80F.. high in winter is the low in summer at most

and a Mechanic really doesnt have a suit and Tie dress code.

+ 1 That's excatly what I've been doing for the last few years. Athletic or outdoor clothing made from modern technical fabrics, looks a lot better then cycling specific clothing and is just as comfortable and functional.

Wouldn't mind more people biking here, but I'd have a hard time throwing my bike into one of those parking areas that have what looks like a thousand bikes.

Vegan:

Other:

I tend to use bicycle specific clothes only for certain weather conditions, though these are just clothes I have for cycling that I can (and do) wear otherwise.

However, when it is hot, there is nothing cycle specific about my clothing -- shorts and sandals.

What a silly thread. Terrain, weather and distance generally dictates the appropriate attires.

I'm definitely considering more technical clothing after a 12 mile lunchtime ride yesterday in about 80F sunny weather. After a few hills that I in my lameness found strenuous, I was soaked. Something about wearing those clothes the rest of the day made me feel more tired than I really was. Seems weird.

I've seen a few replies to this nodding in agreement, but I'm having a hard time coming up with anything supporting this point of view. I searched for "women" and "hotties" and while I haven't combed through every posting, I'm just not seeing the blatant sexism or creepiness people are referring to. What am I missing?

I find that terrain, weather, and distance never show up at my house in the morning and advise me how to dress. That would be more like a valet, and I haven't had one of those since the downturn in magnesium futures forced me to dismiss most of my domestic staff.

I suppose that through research and observation, one might develop the skill to infer the appropriate attire for a given set of conditions, and even then, different investigators might arrive at different inferences. This is exactly the sort of process that tends to give rise to silly discussions such as the current one. Besides, cyclists need some way to kill time between rides.

I myself made a post here yesterday referring to "hotties," but since I could have been indicating either men or women, I can hardly be charged with sexism on that account alone. Against the charge of "creep," however, I can mount no plausible defense. Huh huh huh, mount.

I vaguely remember a site featuring candid photos of Dutch women on bikes. It did have a marginal loser-stalker vibe about it. Someone who has no misgivings about hanging around a city taking pics of passersby to put on the Internet and ogle probably has some boundary issues.

That's why I said "generally". You just need to get to know terrain, weather and distance better so they can be your friend. They are always around and quite approach-able. I don't always like them but it helps to know.

That's a better answer for me than the one I gave. I've got a mixture of clothes that range from some old worsted wool pants I used to wear to work to some specifically made cycling clothes, with a bunch of stuff in between.

Although I can appreciate that they are probably trying to encourage people to cycle without feeling like they have to invest in specialized cycling clothes or go out looking like kitted up racers, the fact remains that for some of us specialized clothes are a must.

My commute is 7 to 8 hilly miles each way. Every now and then I try and ride home in just my scrubs and regular underwear, but I always end up a little chafed. I can't do more than one trip (one direction) without running into some serious issues, not to mention all that hill climbing inevitably makes me quite sweaty.

That said, I voted "other" as I ride in a mix of clothes; padded bib shorts under a pair of either jean shorts or lightweight cotton shorts, with wool tights underneath in the colder part of the year. I don't like cycling jerseys for the most part and so usually wear baggy motocross jerseys with a long sleeve technical undershirt when it is cold and a sweater over all that when is coldest here.

Similarly I wear a mix of gloves. When it is coldest I wear a thin silk motorcycle glove liner, then a inexpensive pair of military surplus polypropylene glove liners, then fingerless padded cycling gloves and finally a pair of military surplus wool gloves. This gives me a system that wicks, breathes, insulates from cold wind and stays warm when wet.

Although only two items (bib shorts and fingerless padded gloves) of my daily attire are manufactured as cycling specific, I didn't wear wool tights, shorts in the winter, sweaters, or technical undershirts, much less motocross jerseys before I started cycling.

In the summer I'll often wear a short sleeve dress type shirt made of either a technical fabric or polyester. Prior to cycling you wouldn't have caught me dead in a polyester shirt!

Oh, and I usually wear cycling shoes for the stiff sole, but I ride flat pedals so I can wear whatever shoes I want. The cycling shoes I prefer are MTB style or others that look (and walk) like regular shoes. Other than the stiff sole, sometimes I like a velcro strap to contain the laces.

It'd be nice to live somewhere flat enough and temperate enough to just wear regular clothes, but that just isn't an option for a lot of us.

That's a good point. I had never considered making friends with them and indeed have spent much of my life cursing them right to their faces. No wonder they give me nothing but trouble.

https://www.copenhagencyclechic.com/
"Cycle Chic™ is a trademark of Cycle Chic/Copenhagenize, Frederiksberg, Denmark."

MC-A has somewhat toned down the content but creepiness is documented on the internets forever:

an infamous example:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/16nine/541176815/

creepy:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/16nine/...291958/?page=2

What speed do you think a "regular clothes crowd" commuter travels at during his/her commute?

I have no idea. It probably varies with the weather. I rode home the other day in "regular clothes" and managed to avoid a sweat at about 14 mph, but it was around 30°F that evening. Even then the sweat kicked in a bit as soon as I stopped riding.

When I first started biking to work I rode in regular clothes all the time, but at anything above about 60°F I ended up changing my shirt when I got to work and hanging it up to dry. To me that kind of defeats the purpose of wearing regular clothes.

Of course, the biggest reason I prefer lycra is the comfort it allows in the groinal region. My non-bike pants are blue jeans, which are just about the right combination of slightly loose and not quite flexible that they'd make a good apparatus for kneading bread dough. That problem is also mitigated if I ride slower.

Are you 100% sure of that ? What makes you think that people who don't use a "cycling kit" bike at a walking speeds ?? What is an acceptable commuting speed according to you ?? Do bike specific clothes actually increase the speed, so that you can get to work faster ??

It depends on what I am doing... many times I just step out the door with whatever I am wearing and for longer and more intense rides I also have all the technical gear a person would ever want.

My winter gear tends to be more technical in nature as staying dry is more important than staying warm.

That would be fairly ridiculous, so there are probably some people who do it.

Bike specific clothes do provide better range of motion than some other clothes (I'm specifically thinking pants). That can make a marginal difference in speed, but the time difference is only a few minutes.

But I'm not really arguing that cycling-specific clothes make you faster. What I'm arguing is that if you do ride faster, cycling-specific clothes make you more comfortable. I'd guess this effect kicks in somewhere around 15 mph, depending on the weather.

The distance, of course, also is a big factor. I wouldn't bother changing clothes for anything less than 5 miles, and even that would be a toss-up.