Socks?
 

Do you feel like having "cycling specific" socks makes a real difference?

A friend keeps telling me that I should buy some "cycling" socks. He is the same guy that turned me on to clipless and that sure was a hit. I just have a hard time justifying how a pair of socks could make any appreciable difference over the cotton ones I am currently wearing....I mean, in essence I will get two socks for the price of one, it doesn't matter WHAT I put on my left foot...but anyway, cycling socks worth it?
What do they do better?

Yes, The Onion is known for it's trustworthy advice....funny though.

No cotton socks. It does not have to be cycling specific. Just no cotton.

Use your cotton socks to clean the grease out of your cassette. Then get some thin wool ones.

Are my Nike sweat socks fine? I've been wearing them ever since I was a kid..

A real expert.....6.5 miles twice a week.....:roflmao2::roflmao2::roflmao2:

Any moisture-wicking sock should be fine. NO COTTON! I use the Target brand performance sock. Works fine. Under Armor makes some good ones. Just don't wear moisture wicking socks with regular shoes. MAN, they will make your feet stink.

Hmmm... Haven ridden over 1500 miles in the last 6 months wearing nothing but my Hanes 100% cotton Target specials - I'm now seeing people yell "NO COTTON" and looking down and wondering if my feat are due to fall off any minute now.

Please, do not say NO without saying WHY.

Because they make you sweat and stay wet!

I have found my local discount store Marshalls carries from time to time Nike Dri Fit socks for as low as 2.99 USD a pair and normally ride in those.

Who said anything about "feat" falling off? Plenty of reasons why not and many will chime in...patience and the answers will be forthcoming. Sometimes it will help to do your own research instead of waiting to be spoon fed.

They actually make you sweat? That's just silly. I rode 85 miles yesterday and my socks were no more damp than my jersey and shorts.

Got caught out in a rainstorm a few weeks ago and it took my shoes 3 days to dry out. Yet you propose it would be better if my socks wicked the moisture out where? I think I'll take my wet socks off so today so that I can put some dry shoes on tomorrow.

I'm skeptical of this whole moisture wicking phenom in clothes lately. Sure, it keeps you dry, fine. But the whole purpose of sweat in the first place is for the cooling affect of evaporation. If the moisture is just wicked away before it evaporates, you don't get the cooling affect. Seems to me that the body would just keep producing even more sweat to try to cool down.

Then have someone hose you down before you start........ I'll pass on wet feet and wrinkled from moisture, clammy skin. But hey, maybe you'll enjoy it!
PS. I don't ride in the rain.....and wicking clothes weren't made for that.

I like to use socks made for cycling and also some that are made for hiking.

I do not like having my toes squished together and the DeFeet socks (my first pair of cycling socks) were just as roomy in the toe as my favorite lightweight Smartwool PhD hiking socks. So I use the wool in the winter and the others in the summer.

Sometimes I also use my Injini toe socks but I find that, although they are great for hiking, they tend to develop uncomfortable wrinkles after about 25 miles. So I don't use them any more.

I don't like cotton socks since my feet sweat a lot and the cotton just holds on to the sweat and then I get blisters from the soggy socks rubbing on my feet.

I think perhaps I just don't have very sweaty feet. And I think this whole cycling sock thing might boil down to "your mileage may vary". I do have several pair of UA socks, and to be honest I just don't find them that comfortable to wear. I've worn them when cycling occasionally and I just never really noticed any difference from my regular cotton socks.

Now, I do own several pair of the UA boot socks and I can tell you those make a world of a difference - because of the way the compression is built in, I can wear a heavy set of boots for 12 hours in the snow and not have cold sore feet.

I know several people that use wool socks, my feet don't sweat as much so I use just thin cotton socks or no socks (I have Tri shoes)

I wear cotton/poly blend running socks by Champion. They work great for my needs and are only about $2 a pair when purchased in a 6-pack.

It works because it's simple physics... The wicking fabric pulls sweat off your skin through capillary action. Then the moisture in the fabric effects evaporative cooling, and in some cases can be more efficient than just sweat on skin because the increased surface area of the microfiber wicking fabric allows for greater evaporation than the more limited surface area of your skin. This can sometimes be more apparent on the bike as the effective headwind evaporates the moisture from the fabric rapidly. You can experience this directly if you wear arm warmers on a warm day: if you squirt water on the arm warmers and ride, your arms can actually feel cooler than if you just squirted water on bare arms and rode.

This may not be as effective when it comes to socks encased in not-very-breatheable shoes however... Different people may have different experiences with socks. While I don't hate cotton socks, wool or wicking tech fabric socks feel more comfortable to me. YMMV

Smartwool > *

I use regular Dri-Fit whatever socks for shorter rides, but when it's hot, or I have a long ride, I go with my thin PI socks.

They simply keep my feet cooler. If I had never used the PI socks, I probably would think that the Dri-Fits were fine because the difference is not earth shattering, but once you have used both of them, there is no question the PI's keep your feet noticeably cooler.

Read this.

http://thecycleofstyle.blogspot.com/...ing-shoes.html

I challenge you to go weigh cotton socks vs merino wool socks after similar rides; there's a reason that towels are made of cotton - it absorbs.

Also, you shouldn't drink gasoline because it's toxic and will kill you. ;)

These are good socks, and while they're meant for the bike, I use them hiking, too. They're tough, thin, wick like nobody's business, and they go on sale now and then.

http://www.aerotechdesigns.com/smart...ock-silver.gif

that's why

I think he asked a very reasonable question.

many of my cotton socks have that seam on top of my toes that's fine for just walking around but is annoying when trying to anything athletic for long periods of time. Many of my cycling socks lack that seam or have it in such a way that it doesn't rub on my toes.

This is the biggest reason I buy cycling socks.

If you can't spare $6 to try some cycling socks, they are not worth it to you then. Stay with what you have.

Cool, thanks. Took care of all my questions right here.