gear

Count me in. I'm fed up with it too. I remove it from my bikes, I look for clothing without it or at least without writing (small logos suck but are better than huge brand names). I think it really became acceptable in the 80s (izod shirts) and has steam rolled ever since. I understand why a pro athlete has it on their clothing (or bodies in some cases), they are sponsored; but the rest of us? Come on it looks idiotic.

chipcom 

Which is the point, considering this is the general cycling forum.

SteveE

Believe it or not, there are a number of folks on Bike Forums who are members of local amateur racing clubs and are sponsored. Our sponsors pay to have their names on our jerseys. Other cyclists buy jerseys commemorating various group/organized rides they've been on.

- SteveE

DataJunkie

I pulled off the toyota logo on the family car and all my nike swooshes as well. Not to mention the itty bitty PI logo.

Y'all are amusing.

Anyhow, wear what works for you. Personally, all my longer rides are done in cycling gear. The in town rides are whatever I am wearing at that time. I sure as heck am not going to change to ride a 1/2 mile to the grocery store or even 8 miles to the library. It's not worth it. Plus, I tend to put put around on those rides.

rodrigaj

I remember the izod shirts, but actually I think it began much earlier than that. I remember as a 13 year old looking at the cool kids on the NYC basketball courts wearing the giant star on their converse all stars. Man, I used to want a pair so bad.

bkaapcke

I tease my wife by threatening to buy spandex bike shorts and prance around the boudoir in them. She is duly horrified by the idea. bk Sorry about the retro attitude, guys!

DataJunkie

My wife laughed at me when I first bought a pair. 40 lbs lighter with toned legs I am not getting laughter anymore. More like catcalls.
Now if a woman beside my wife would say anything......
Just don't let her know.

cyclezealot

My thing about baggies. I have a couple pair. Just never found one with a chamois equal to those I have expereinced in lycra. Just does not seat properly and of inferior cushioning.

blonduathlongrl

I take it your wife is not a cyclist.
as for the rest of us cycling ladies, a men in spandex around the house would be a fantasy!

Retro Grouch 

Why do you ask? One of the reasons you say you chose mountain biking is because you approve of the clothing that mountain bikers tend to wear. So how is that not a style issue?

Coyote!

>>> hardly notice that most people in the 7-11 look at me like I just stepped out of a softcore video shoot

Living in banjo country, I and the lads and lassies used to visit the 7-11 in lycra. I once mused about the fact that while we were ogled, we were never confronted or hassled. My wife posited that the mere fact we were brave enough to openly dangle [Ok, bad image] red meat in front of them, we were obviously too bad to mess with. [Just so you know, I'm a danger to a ham sandwich and to precious little else.]

Sprint75

I am so not into the bike clothes. A. I don't race so it doesn't matter. B. If it means I'm on the bike a few seconds longer, then GOOD! I don't want the ride to end.

There are just too many comfortable options that don't look so weird (or cost so much).

It's not just that bike clothes look goofy. It's a bit pretentious too. For some people it seems to be a status thing, separating themselves in a kind of pack mentality. You have to "buy" into the club and if you don't have the right gear, you're not cool.

The clothes don't make you look like an olympic athlete. Just be real, please.

I would love to join an organized ride from time to time. But, there's no way I want to be the one "normal" guy who gets dumped after the second turn just because my aesthetic doesn't fit in. (If anyone in the San Fernando Valley is up for a friendly non-pretentious ride from time to time, please say hi.)

Oh, and I refuse to wear the kind of helmet with pointy bits on it. Those mercurial designs just kill me. It looks... well... for lack of a better word... GAY! Not that it's bad to look gay, but it's not for me.

And speaking of gay, I also refuse to sit on a ridiculously phallic seat. I mean, come on, could they make it look any more like a ballpark frank with nuts? Seriously! LOL

DataJunkie

A man's masculinity is inversely proportional to the amount he cares about what others think of him or what he is wearing. Consequently, the most manly men are those walking around in speedos covered with a gut. Or would it be nudists?

cyccommute 

I use bicycle clothing for it functionality...period. I don't care what other people wear and I certainly don't judge them by their clothing...nor their bike...nor their pedals...nor anything else other than the way that they ride. If they can ride in a manner which is predicable and lawful, I'll ride with them anywhere. If they do things that pisses me- or other road users- off, they can go ride somewhere else. Personally, calling something or someone gay is probably a good way of a good way of getting on my bad side.

As for saddles, a phallic symbol is anything that is longer than it is wide so do you have a problem with cars, semitrucks, skyscrapers, skis, baseball bats, missiles or even pencils? All of them are phallic. To paraphrase Freud sometimes a bicycle saddle is just a bicycle saddle.

DM4

Nothing wrong with lettting the girls have a glimpse of the goods

And on the hand, there is nothing hotter than a fit female in a skinsuit. Ok, almost nothing better.

drmain

Are their lots of elitist roadies out there? I can't say because I don't know any, but I've kind of garnered that from reading the forums here and there but who knows if that's really the case.

spinnaker

I don't know about you Chipcom but when I walk into grocery stores or restaurants with my Spandex, the young ladies usually give me a big discount on my bill.


Seriously, I think I might consider looking into touring shorts for my next tour. I have to admit, it takes a lot of courage to step out into the general public with spandex. I toured a castle in Italy in Spandex and because we were on a day ride and did not have our gear we had to to the tour with the Spandex.

Doug5150

As mentioned--it generally does work better. As long as you're not, ummm, crashing much. You always remember the first time you wreck and your shorts get torn and unravel on you.......

That said, I know a lot of "non-riding" people IRL (-in the US-) who won't ride in normal clothes because they know that's not comfortable--and they don't want to wear spandex because they think it looks dorky. -Or even,,, that they cannot find spandex clothes in their size.
So.... -they don't ride at all, and bicycle companies are faced with the quandry that people won't buy bicycles because they can't find riding clothes they like (or that fit).
--------

In the recumbent community it's far more common to see/hear people owning much less actual "bicycling" clothes. Some people still do, especially people who live/ride where it's cold, but otherwise you see a lot less bicycle-related logo-clothes. They ( we/I ) use synthetic "performance" wear but tend not to wear "bicycling" shorts, jerseys or jackets at all; for various reasons they don't work well anyway. About the most-common bike clothing you'll see among recumbent riders is helmets and clipless pedals.
~

spinnaker

You should be careful what you wish for!

DM4

Dorky, Dorky, are you kidding.

I agree it would be Dorky to wear tight fitting bicycle clothing to go grocery shopping or to dinner at a fine restaurant, butt (pun intended) to see a fit athlete [preferably of the opposite sex (girls will be allowed some latitude here)], with a shapely body in tight fitting, shiny (it shows more detail) cycling clothing is pretty freaking hot. Come on; think about it, isn't this why we really watch Olympic gymnastics.

I said it before, butt it's worth repeating, AIN'T nothin' better than a fit girl in a skinsuit. END OF DISCUSION !!!

Here's me in mine. I'm not shy.

Barabaika

Stop the filthy pornography! Female pornography is Ok.

Woodlark

I'm glad to see that some others share my opinion of logos. If a company wants me to be a billboard, they can pay me rather than the other way around!

Jarery

So you refuse to wear cycling clothing because you think it looks gay. You refuse to wear a cycling style helmet because you think it looks gay. You refuse to use a racing style saddle because you think it looks gay.

So your riding some sort of non gay looking bike, with a short wide saddle, which most likely means you ride fairly upright. Wearing baggy street clothing, in a helmet without pointy things? And on any group rides your the first guy to get dropped......And you think the reason is because all the others are pretentious and purposly dropping you due to your non gay clothing and equipment choices?

LOL....your....well......for lack of a better word...gay!

cyclezealot

while i'm on the bike, it's my world; I could give a rat's azz what the world thinks. When I get off, I often put on some extra shorts I carry about before re-joining the civillian world. and,yes the opposite sex does react to bike clothes. Wish my wife would not get all googly when I am trying to meet up with my bike club.

monk

Your thread I think serves to illustrate a point I've always made. I think that some mountain bikers are actully closet roadies but simply can't make themselves wear the "roadie" clothes. I don't think it's so much what you look like on the bike but the thoughts of walking in to a convenience store in Lycra scares the heck out of some people. Like someone else said in this thread, lycra would work better for mountain bikers, too. I think, however, that the mountain-biking set is traditionally a bit younger and thinks "lycra" and "geek" should be used in the same sentence. Fact is, the tight, bright clothes for cycling are for obvious reasons. You want to be seen, plus if you're riding fast you want less wind resistence and you can't have shorts (like those that mountain bikers wear) that are going to be bunching-up and moving all around. You'll be chaffed after 5 miles. Think about other sports where tight-fitting clothing is a given - - football, track and field (world-class sprinters finally figured out that floppy shorts do creat drag and pole vaulters and highjumpers realize that lycra isn't going to get hung-up on the crossbar; speed-skaters, etc. Of course then there's basketball but what they wear is definitely more fashion over function. For cycling, about 60% of the drag is your body . . . so odds are in your favor that you can speed-up if you do something to lessen this sizeable chunk of drag.