A question for the women
 

Ladies, (since I assume there must be some out there in a forum populated by tandemists, the vast majority of which are couples) do you have any tricks to getting the chamois 'clean' without doing damage? Cold water, gentle cycle and good soap (in a pretty nice washer) doesn't seem to quite do the trick.

Chamois are now usually a synthetic material rather than an acutal leather/skin matertial of yester-years.
Turn shorts inside out, toss into the washer on medium warm regular cycle. Been doing that for decades.
So says stoker Kay . . .
Pedal on!
Rudy and Kay/zonatandem

I found a product that seems to have solved the problem of chamois butter and bag balm staying cycling short and/or migrating to other cycling clothes in the wash: I purchased a concentrated laundry product that Massage SPA's used to get massage oils out of linens. I add it to the warm water in the washer, let cycling clothes soak for 10 min and use the longest wash cycle. I also only wash cycling clothes in these loads.
Product is: TheraPro Clean Sheets - a Scrip Company 800-320-7010
(4 oz for a large load) I get the 1 gal. container
hope that helps

Bet it doesn't do much for the life of the lycra.

Neither of us has ever had the need to use anything on our buns (like shammy butter/bagbalm) in 35+ years of riding so there is no staining on the shamnois to worry about.

It's been my experience (over nearly 40 years) that indeed, in dry weather, you don't need to apply any creams or ointments to a synthetic chamois (you must ALWAYS apply some ointment to a real chamois!), but if you are riding in the rain without fenders, it's a good idea to put something on the synthetic; otherwise, your butt will get burned by the friction. Something about really wet synthetic chamois is not good for the skin.

If it's a real chamois, you always put some sort of ointment on it (I used to use a Dutch product called Jecovitol, made from fish oil that was heavily perfumed and had quite a nice aroma until the perfume wore off, and then it smelled just awful, but the shorts would be ready for a wash anyway; my first track coach, a former pro 6-day racer, had us use this stuff.). The reason for this is pretty obvious if you have ever washed a real chamois. Once it dries, it's all bend and twisted and feels like cardboard. You have to rub it against itself to loosen it up, and then you have to moisten it with some ointment because you don't want this rough cardboard chafing against your skin! Thank god for synthetic chamois!

As far as getting it clean, just dump the shorts in the wash with the other dark fabrics! But I hang all my cycling clothes to dry, though.

L.

"A question for the women?" Huh? I didn't know that "the women" were in charge of cleaning the kit!?!? Although in our house, I do most of the cooking (except making the yogurt and the baking) and Stoker Malkin does most the laundry, but that is our convention, not a recommendation for all teams. Kinda makes me wonder who might be in charge of clean chamois for M/M or F/F teams...

Cheers!

Male Captain does bike laundry here. Machine wash, tumble dry on low. Has been totally satisfactory for both female Stoker and I. We both use chamois cream on long rides.