Ride naked.

How did you make a career out of long distance hiking?

The layering advice is good for backpacking, but not so practical when talking about extra cycling shorts and jerseys unless I am missing something.

My approach is to have one set of clothes to ride in and another set (that I can also ride in) for off bike wear in the evening when the clothes I wore to ride that day are drying. You need a rain jacket too. In addition I add a pair of off bike shoes, some long trousers and an insulating jacket that are good to wear at night if it's cold or the mosquitoes are biting. Stuff a wool beanie, neck gaiter and some gloves in too and you are good for a wide range of weather.

Hah. I should have put "career" in quotes, since I never got paid for it. I spent several years on trails, accomplishing the Triple Crown of US long distance hiking, and others. I kept sending out invoices, but nobody ever paid them.

The tacit point of my response was to not carry extra shorts and jerseys. Just wash 'em as you go. If you want too, of course, since there's no clothing cop out there.

Judging from many replies, as a courtesy please remember to stay down wind of people

I practice the minimalist approach; taking one cycling clothing set, and a lightweight yet stylish street wear set. One pair of Patagonia capilene boxer briefs, and a pair of long leg exercise pants. I use as many merino wool items as I can afford. I don't really stink on a daily basis. Some guys are beginning to reek right out of the shower, but it usually takes me 3-4 days before I get rancid enough to detect an odor. This is nice, but I still wash myself and my clothing as often as possible, especially before sleeping. I hate being all skeevy and crawl into my bag at night. Gross.

I have two similar outfits, Fox Ranger shorts and Club Ride Go Long Shirts, which look just like normal shirts but dry really quick. I'll wear one set during the day for a few days and the other in the evening as my clean outfit. Then I can swap them while washing the "smelly" set. I do break the rules by wearing underwear under my liner shorts, that way I can wear them for a few days too. Merino thermals for if it gets cold of an evening and a thin down jacket. A rain shell. So I carry a few pairs of socks and jocks to get me through 4 days or so.

If you look around, I think you'll find that most of the bicycling world has discovered that the "pad on your butt" has benefits over "regular clothes". I see very few bicycle tourists, recreational riders or even commuters riding in "regular clothes".

Right, but the question pertained to extra changes, so I was responding to that poster, I just don't really see any way to work that into a layering scheme.

For all of my bike trips over the years, whether its 5 days or 2 months, I use two bike shorts, two jerseys, and varying riding socks for diff temps.
At the end of each riding day, first thing is to shower, campground or hotel, and to hand wash my bike stuff, shorts, shirt and socks, in the shower with me.
Rubbing a bar of soap or using luiquid soap on them, scrub a dubb dubb, and its done quickly, rinse, ring out sort of, hang on shower rod, then wash me. When Im done, I resqueeze the clothes to get more water out (hanging them gets water to the bottom of the clothes) and then I use a towel and do the "wrap clothes in towel and step on it" trick to get the most water out. Then hang in sunshine and maybe wind, and they are nearly always dry by the evening, or by morning if hanging indoors.

the trick is to get as much water out as possible, squeezing and then the towel trick. Hotel towels are available, or if camping, I'll take a med sized towel for this, as well as a quick dry travel towel.
Is simple, fast, and done with quickly. Personally its not an issue, although for some people it is, so go figure. Doing it in the shower with me gets it over and done with, rather than in the sink, but then thats me.

cleaning the bike shorts is important to avoid any saddle sores that can come from using shorts mulitiple days, but again, that is my experience, and I dont want to take more than two pairs of shorts or biking shirts.
My civvy clothes are on only for the evening, not sweaty usually, so I can go many days before needing to wash them. Which I tend to do on a rest day.

tried and true method for me, no matter the bike trip length.
Not finishing too late helps for sun and wind, although where you hang your clothes makes a big diff, and one develops a good sense for the best spots to dry quicker.

To a casual observer I'd be wearing regular clothes, but I'm not, I've got knicks underneath my shorts. and we are talking about multi day touring in this thread.

The OP said "Won't need tent gear for this trip. But I will take tools, raingear, the necessities.", so it sounds like a credit card tour. I am really surprised how strong some of the opinions are on a simple topic like laundry and how much clothing to carry. We certainly are an argumentative bunch.

re using a towel to get a lot more water out of washed bike clothes--in hotels, there are always towels, sometimes two per person.
If only one, simply use one small section of the end of towel to dry yourself off, then use rest of dry towel to do the "roll and step on" technique.
By rolling the towel around the clothes into a big sausage, the "towel to clothing" contact area is maximized, so stepping on the rolled up towel gets the most water out of the clothes.
The less water in them, the faster they dry. The better you place the items for sun or airflow determines how fast they dry.

Getting this all done not too late helps a lot for having more drying time and exposure to sun is available, but in a hotel room, more time and or rigging up clothes near a fan or ac unit fan will always help.
And of course, if not dry, use your second set and bungee your clothes to rear panniers or whatever if not raining.

No we aren't and you're a jerk!

(jocularity here folks, no need for alarm)

I think you meant short ride. But I wear special gear for just about any ride. I don't know about other people but I'm mostly drenched in sweat within the first mile from my house regardless of weather. By mile 5, I definitely in need of a shower. And, no, I can't just go slower. My Saturday commute is 5 miles downhill to my local co-op but I'm still soggy by the time I get there.

For me, the bicycle clothes are more about managing sweat than avoiding saddle sores (I've never had one). In the winter, the bicycle clothes offer more insulation then regular clothes would and in the summer they offer less. Plus they offer freedom of movement. I've ridden in "regular" shorts a few times and they just don't feel right. The constrict my legs and cut me across the stomach. On my thighs, the regular shorts feel like someone has wrapped a cable around my thighs and is pulling them down so that I can move. I suppose I could get used to it but why?

I have used hiking type shorts in the past...Cannondale back in the 80s make them...and I hated them as much as I hate riding in regular pants or shorts for the very same reason. They were just too constricting. Wool shorts were better (but baggy) but Lycra is about as close to wearing nothing as you can legally get. Lord knows I don't wear them for "fashion"...only for function.

I usually wear bike shorts on a ride over 10 to 15 miles, normal civilian clothes for shorter. If it is cold, I might wear cycling underwear or bike shorts under long athletic pants.

I disagree with 3Speed on several topics, but when he said most of the people he sees in his City are not wearing bike clothes, that generally is correct. Madison WI is also my City so I see the same people. There is a lot of cycling near campus and a lot of people on the east side of Madison even use cargo bikes for their daily shopping. There are times in summer when I have to put a battery charger on my truck because I do not drive it enough to keep the battery charged up, otherwise the slow drain from electronics will drain my truck battery. But when I take my errand bike (a vintage Bridgestone mountain bike I bought at a garage sale) to the grocery store, I am wearing civilian clothing.

But beyond the urban area to the south or west of Madison, you see a lot of cyclists out for an exercise or training ride, they are almost always wearing bike gear.

hey mr transit, I would like to add that given that you will be riding x days in a row, make sure that the bike clothes you are wearing, shirts, shorts, socks, are all ones that you use regularly, and therefore know work ok for you, and not cause any chafing or whatever.
Its common for folks who havent done multi day rides to either find out that the stuff they wear for short rides have issues with long days riding, or multiple days, or sometimes folks buy new stuff and really havent ridden much with it.

just a heads up to avoid discomfort , I mean its no fun having something not work well and finding out only after riding for 4 or 5 hours.

Besides Merino wool, don't forget about lamb's wool. Just as good as Merino, for warmth, and maybe even softer. 🙂

Touring here in Michigan provides many opportunities to wash clothing. Jump in a lake! Works wonders. Can even use some hand soap to scrub away the odors if needed. Usually just swimming for an hour does the trick.

As to actual laundry? I like a 2.5 gallon zip lock for a few things to wash. My all purpose cleaner ( 1/2 shampoo/1/2 dish soap) works fine.