Drying your shorts
 

One annoying issue is when drying my spare pair of shorts I can’t ever decide if I should leave my “pad” facing inside out, proudly on displayed on my back rack, for every restaurant patron to see in the parking lot.

I know this sounds like a first world issue but touring in humid environments require the inside out shorts display for proper drying.

However, there are more downsides to the inside out drying method. I find that there are dead Nats and road dust on the pad of the cycling shorts .

How do you dry your shorts without using a dryer?

Loop em through something and let the air do its job.

I don't worry too much about what people I'll never see again think about how I look on tour. Mostly I think they get I'm touring on a bicycle. You'll never win if you ride 100's of Km's camping out but try to look as well put together as someone who just walked out of their house and walked to the cafe. I don't think anyone expects it either.

Plus. I try to wash my clothes when get to camp so they dry somewhat overnight. Then, depending on the climate, it only takes a couple of hours to fully dry and they go back in the sack.

Plus plus. Try using a sham wow type shammy. I take one as my camp towel and press the clothes between it after washing. They seem to absorb a lot and dry quickly (overnight).

I always take two pair. Try to ring the one pair out the best you can. If you are staying in a hotel. Roll the shorts up (pad out) in a towel to help them dry a bit more.

Assuming it is not raining the next day, damp clothes get hung on panniers till they dry. That right repeat the process with the clothes you are waering.

I put the wet pair on and forget about it in 30 seconds.

I also bring along a clothes line and hang them to dry that night. Be sure to bring them in before morning to avoid the morning dew.

I remember once in Cremona, Italy, I had a balcony on my room. I went out there to hang up my clothes on the clothes line. I looked across the street and saw a local lady hanging her clothes. Then a bit later a local kid started screaming (maybe hers ;) ). We would stop. I went out on the balcony and yelled "basta"! Which means enough! The kid shutup. ;) I really felt a part of the neighborhood. ;)

P.S. Basta seems to be an Italian mom's favorite word when talking to her kids. ;)

Then lay the rolled towel on the floor and step on it several times with bare feet. Remove the shorts and hang them up to dry.

You can always rig a clothesline.

https://farm1.staticflickr.com/819/4...82ab7906_c.jpg


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I haven't used cycling shorts in 25 years.
Cotton boxer briefs and shorts or nylon hiking pants in cooler weather.
Zero chafing. Cheaper. More comfortable.

Not bad!!! I think I will try this.
Wait....won't my brooks saddle warp?

Your unmentionables should never be on display...never!

If you say so.

Because I wear underwear against my skin under the shorts, the shorts do not need washing as often. But they still get washed periodically.

On most trips I use a pair of shorts or long zip-off pants (Zoic brand) with a separate detachable liner, plus a spare liner. Sometimes just wash the liner.

Sometimes a kickstand or (clickstand) comes in handy.

do you really wanna do this?

think about the environment: warm, moist, full of bacteria, chafed skin....
that's a recipe for something similar to a chemical weapon of a type
developed by the soviet onion.....only 5-8x more lethal!:eek:

1. ya wants that UV to kill off the bugs.
2. no one will notice, they're all staring at your thighs.
3. flip 'em over or cover with a bandana for the hour you're inside.

Why would you want to do this? Carry 2 freaking pair of shorts. What the hell does a pair of shorts weigh? And it is going to take a lot longer than 30 seconds for a chamois to dry completely.

Pad out. Don't care what people think. Doubt anyone really notices.

Drying my bras is easier since they lack padding. :D

I don't wash my shorts. I bring two pair. When the first pair crawls away under its own power, I simply put the second pair on. Hey man, I went stoveless - Might as well go washless! :innocent:

The ultra light guys (and gals) pack dehydrated water to wash their shorts with.

I sort of want KraneXL to tell us what unmentionables are but realize the logic loop that potentially exists. Once mentioned...

we got brabraya trees, in some dialects simply brawbraws, out here in the natures.

I do carry two freaking pairs. I wash one in the evening and put it back on in the morning. If I use the second pair, I inevitably end up with two wet pairs of shorts.

No, but it takes less than 30 seconds to forget I'm wearing wet shorts. They get just as wet while riding. Wearing wet shorts isn't a problem. It's putting them on that sucks.

I'm a big fan of finishing the day early enough to immediately shower and wash shorts, use the mostly dry part of towel (Im a skinny lad so use little of my towel on me) to do the "roll up and step on" trick to get as much water out as possible (letting the shorts hang a bit in shower helps a bit too) and then using sun and hopefully wind to dry them out.
If not dry in morning, I use second pair and leave them on back of bike, sometimes inwards, sometimes outwards, if on dirt road or dusty, inwards, if not outwards.

Outwards also is an effective "leave bike outside store" anti theft detterent.

dark side of tent, dark wall, all reflecting sun's warmth etc also helps drying, but getting as much water out as possible and time in dry air is the ticket.

Sorry thought you were one of those weight weanies that want to save every last ounce. Me, I would much rather be comfortable.

If you take two pair then why not alternate? The washed pair will certainly be dry by the following day if you hang the damp ones on your panniers if it is not raining. Even if it is raining, hang the damp pair in your tent or your hotel room and it will be dry by the next day.

And if you are in a hotel you could always touch up a bit of dampness with a hair dryer if the room is so equipped. But the trend seems to be to remove the hair dryer from the rooms now. You have to ask. At least at a number of hotels where I have stayed recently.

If I have wet clothes in the morning, I usually strap them down on top of a front pannier, the Ortlieb Frontroller has a strap that goes over the top that I use. I think I get better air flow up front and less dust up front than I would if I put them on back. But I almost never get dry clothes by the end of the day that way, I mostly leave them outside so that they don't get stale inside a waterproof pannier. On some trips I carried a small mesh bag to put damp clothes in for strapping down on top of a pannier.

Agree with DJB, start early, quit early when you still have daylight to start drying stuff out.

Instead of washing in the shower, I bring a flat drain stopper so I can use soap and do laundry in the sink. The photos above where I had my clothesline tied to my yellow bike, that line is about 25 feet long and has about two dozen metal wire clothespins on it.

made my day thanks

We used to put our damp shorts on top of the lamp shades in motels and turn on the light to dry them fully. However, with compact fluorescent light bulbs and LEDs being used almost everywhere now, this method does not work very well.

We only did this where the lamp shades would not be harmed by a little dampness.

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Bit of simple thinking here, don't take spare shorts. Why do you need another pair of shorts anyway.

I had the same problem with my towel until I met an English cycle tourist who was an avid swimmer and lived in a small ford van back home, and never used a towel, he said put your clothes on and you'll get dry. It's worked for me since and that was more than 5 years ago.

Why bring a tent? Just fall asleep and you will forget about the bugs. And a sleeping baf or warmer clothes/ Ahh you will soon forget about how cold it is.

And maps, GPS or cell phone? If you can't memorize the route then you should stay home!

:rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:

Thanks, a lot of what you've said makes sense to me, but my point is, why take stuff you don't need, save weight and the sooner you get into that weight saving mindset, then your touring life will take a turn for the better.