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Where do you keep your towel?

Old 02-27-11, 04:13 PM
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Where do you keep your towel?

You do have a towel don't you?

I want to start bringing a towel since today I got tired of wiping my forehead with my shirt.

Do you just let the sweat drip? Have a headband?
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Old 02-27-11, 04:32 PM
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I don't trust towels, they tend to ramble on about towel safety and get high. Overrated.
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Old 02-27-11, 04:35 PM
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Packed away. It's for drying off after I get out of the shower, if there is one. On the bike I just drip.
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Old 02-27-11, 04:46 PM
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fellow dripper here
if still damp in morning, it goes on top of my tent to dry out.

thats my towel story and Im sticking to it.

Don't Panic
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Old 02-27-11, 05:10 PM
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I sweat profusely and in warm weather the sweat will get into my eyes if I'm not careful. To stop this, I wear a head sweat (doo rag). I even choose the color to match my jersey, when I can!

I also carry a handkerchief in my jersey pocket and, on hot and sunny days, wear a bandanna around my neck.

I've never carried a towel to wipe my face. I only use mine to dry off after a shower and it says either in my panniers (dry) or on the rear rack (wet).

Ray
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Old 02-27-11, 05:29 PM
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Try cotton banadanas from walmart, 2 for 3 bucks, made in china.

Or, Headsweats Coolmax head wraps made expressly for bicycling, about $10 on sale. These are much better than cotton, in that they dry quickly since they're polyester.

https://www.headsweats.com/products/C...E-Classic.html

edit: just like raybo said.

Cotton bandanas are also good for general camp towels, bathing, cleaning pots, drying pots, shaving, wiping off tent floors and gear, and first aid.

They make a synthetic pack towel that is intended for drying off after bathing. It works OK for this purpose, although it will never take the place of cotton.

Last edited by seeker333; 02-27-11 at 05:32 PM.
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Old 02-27-11, 07:52 PM
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1'x1' ultralight microfiber towel stuffed into the side pocket of my bento box. It has a loop I can use to hang it from a camelback strap if I am so inclined. Also dries super fast for when I fancy it wetted to smear liquid all over my sweaty face. I love my little microfiber towel.
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Old 02-27-11, 07:52 PM
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1. My helmet pads and the wind seem to take care of any facial sweat I might have.

2. If my towel is wet from my morning shower, it gets attached to the exterior of a pannier to flap in the breeze as I ride. If my towel is dry, it gets packed away inside the pannier.



Just curious ... does the OP think he is posting in a Spinning Class thread?
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Old 02-27-11, 10:42 PM
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I'm a sweater, so I have to wear a headband. Halo brand polypro ones are the best IMO. I wring them out when they get saturated in spin class, and put them back on. On the bike, the wind evaporates the sweat out of the band so it doesn't drip in my eyes. And of course you're wearing a helmet when you ride outside, right?
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Old 02-27-11, 11:45 PM
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I keep my towel in a basement behind a locked door marked "Beware of the Leopard!"...but when it's not there, I keep it in a locker at work...

As for sweating whilst riding, if I know it's going to be a long/sweaty ride, I usually have some sort of do-rag or something I wear under the helmet. I'm thinking of getting one of those sweat-channeling headbands, as well...
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Old 02-28-11, 12:37 AM
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Originally Posted by mjoekingz28
You do have a towel don't you?

I want to start bringing a towel since today I got tired of wiping my forehead with my shirt.

Do you just let the sweat drip? Have a headband?

Whyen I saw the subject I thought we were going to talk Hitchhiker's Gide to the Galaxy..
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Old 02-28-11, 12:52 AM
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Originally Posted by Sirrus Rider
Whyen I saw the subject I thought we were going to talk Hitchhiker's Gide to the Galaxy..
So you keep yours with a bag of peanuts?
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Old 02-28-11, 12:57 AM
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Coolmax Do Rag here. Dry towel stays packed inside a panneir. Damp towel gets tied down to the outside of a pannier. I use a camp towel so it dries quickly.
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Old 02-28-11, 05:30 AM
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Headsweat user here as well. In warm weather my helmet pads are good for about only about 5 miles of sweating.
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Old 02-28-11, 05:43 AM
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It seems like whenever I pick a time and place to tour abnormally hot temperatures are guaranteed. I sweat like crazy, but my only towel is for drying after a shower. It is packed away if dry and if wet is on top of the rear rack or under a pannier flap if it is raining.

I wear a cotton bike hat either under my helmet or in lieu of my helmet when it is very hot. I still get sweat in my eyes, but it is reduced by the hat. In the California desert last year I sweated at a rate heavy enough that a big drip dropped off of the visor of my cap every 1 second or so. Evaporation made the sweat more and more concentrated so I rinsed the hat out and put it back soaking wet at every opportunity.

I wipe my face either on my jersey or with my cap when the sweat really starts to burn my eyes.
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Old 02-28-11, 08:00 AM
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Originally Posted by mjoekingz28
You do have a towel don't you?

I want to start bringing a towel since today I got tired of wiping my forehead with my shirt.

Do you just let the sweat drip? Have a headband?
I have a bath sized pack towel that I use for showers and it is packed in the panniers. I also carry a small pack hand towel for wiping my face. I bungee that on top of the sleeping bag so that it dries while I ride.

I find that sweatbands help a little...a very little...while I ride to keep some of the sweat out of my eyes but they are often overwhelmed within a few miles. ICK ALLERT!!! I squeeze about 50 ml of sweat out of the sweat band every time I stop.
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Old 02-28-11, 08:43 AM
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Originally Posted by Sirrus Rider
Whyen I saw the subject I thought we were going to talk Hitchhiker's Gide to the Galaxy..
Of course,

Somebody who can stay in control of virtually any situation is somebody who is said to know where his or her towel is. The logic behind this statement is presented in chapter 3 of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy thus:

“ ... a towel has immense psychological value. For some reason, if a strag (strag: nonhitchhiker) discovers that a hitchhiker has his towel with him, he will automatically assume that he is also in possession of a toothbrush, washcloth, soap, tin of biscuits, flask, compass, map, ball of string, gnat spray, wet-weather gear, space suit etc., etc. Furthermore, the strag will then happily lend the hitchhiker any of these or a dozen other items that the hitchhiker might accidentally have "lost". What the strag will think is that any man who can hitch the length and breadth of the galaxy, rough it, slum it, struggle against terrible odds, win through, and still knows where his towel is, is clearly a man to be reckoned with.


Douglas Adams got the idea for this phrase when he went on holiday and found that his beach towel kept disappearing. On Towel Day, fans commemorate Douglas Adams by carrying towels with them.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phrases..._to_the_Galaxy
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Old 02-28-11, 10:21 AM
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Originally Posted by 531phile
I don't trust towels, they tend to ramble on about towel safety and get high. Overrated.
Love it!
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Old 02-28-11, 02:27 PM
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When it's hot I use a headband and am really glad to have it. Otherwise I am constantly wiping sweat out of my eyes. In Central America every time I stopped to take a break I wrung a gallon of sweat out of it, or so it seemed. These puddles would start forming under me, dripping from everywhere. I also carried a cheap washcloth to wipe off my arms and such. Stowed it out in the open under a bungee cord to get it halfway dried out before next use (which didn't work all that well since it was so humid).
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Old 02-28-11, 06:44 PM
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next to my peril-sensitive sunglasses
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Old 02-28-11, 07:59 PM
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I keep a washcloth, bar of soap, and speedo chamois towel in the original plastic chamois container. I prefer to give myself a hygenic "shower" in the evening to prevent chaffing or saddle sores. Also, who enjoys going to bed gross with a week's worth of sweat, sunscreen, and road grime? Isn't a towel fairly necessary to keep from getting into your sleeping bag damp, whether from exercise or a shower?
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Old 03-02-11, 07:35 PM
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I often carry a bandana in the right hand outside pocket of my handlebar bag, just barely visible in the photo but that is for wiping my nose, not for sweat.

You can see I have several articles of clothing strapped on top of my front panniers as it warmed up during the morning, I have also strapped damp towels on the top of front panniers. The classic ortlieb panniers have a convenient strap over the top that I use. I think less dust accumulates on the front than on the back, thus that is my preferred location for anything that does not go inside the panniers.

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Old 03-02-11, 08:40 PM
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Buff is for wiping up sweat, gloves for wiping up snot. I usually have a few threadbare, nearly weightless wash rag scraps tucked away for and dishes. I'm a big fan of the T-shirt method, where you pick up discarded cloth items on the side of the road(Such as trashed t-shirts), use it as grease or dirt rag, then throw it away when it's saturated. The soft, clean terrycloth towel, however, is sacred and can be used for nothing but drying myself after a wash. With the exception of the buff, most of these items spend their time fluttering off a bungee.
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