Hot answers tagged clothes
27
I thought spandex shorts looked weird too, until my wife bought me a pair with the padding. Now, I can't ride in regular shorts at all!
The shorts with padding help protect your sensitive groin parts, as well help keep you cooler and drier (preventing nasty sores) by wicking the moisture (sweat) away from your body. There's no binding or rubbing in the ...
24
I'm currently a senior in high school, so I understand your concern about style. In my opinion, and that of all my friends, wearing lycra shorts to school looks ridiculous, no offense. I don't know how far your commute is, but when I take my road bike to school, it's only 3 miles, so I just wear regular shorts and bring another t-shirt I can throw on so I'm ...
23
Cycling gloves come in different varieties (like full-fingered or half-fingered). Typically:
Cycling gloves have extra padding at the palms, which for me makes a difference when riding for hours at a time.
They protect your palms in case you attempt to use them to break a fall.
Like regular gloves, they can keep your hands warm in cold weather, especially ...
20
No, you will not ride faster in any meaningful way unless you're doing time trials at an elite level where mere seconds (or less) of improvement are gained through optimizing a long list of equipment (with clothing in the middle of that list). As always, the overwhelming determinant of performance is training.
The real reason for wearing a jersey is the ...
17
Cycling gloves do a few basic things:
reduce friction between your hands and handlebars, which could otherwise cause blisters
dampen vibrations which might cause hand/finger numbness
reduce pressure on your ulnar nerve, which also causes numbness
Of course, if none of these are problems for you, it's fine to ride without them. Other types of gloves ...
17
Start with short sleeves, arm warmers and a light jacket and layer.
Everybody has different tolerance for temperature changes, but here is what I normally wear on my upper body.
65°F (18°C) or higher: Short Sleeve Jersey
55-65°F (13-18°C) Short Sleeve Jersey with Arm Warmers
45-55°F (7-13°C) Short Sleeve Jersey and a ...
16
Lightweight polyester or microfiber materials do the job. Pearl Izumi is my favourite. Bike specific rain jackets are a must if you are looking for comfort. Generally they are very thin and have air vents in them. There is no reason to wear heavy rain jackets. Instead, layer up up with a base layer (often merino wool or synthetic thermals) + mid layer + the ...
16
Studded tires are a must on ice. They are expensive, but well worth it! A couple of points to consider that have not been mentioned:
Footwear: Winter specific riding shoes or boots. For mountain biking and cross, I ride with Lake boots. On the road, I use an older pair of road shoes that have been stretched to accommodate thick wool socks and neoprene shoe ...
16
The short answer is that, in practical terms, the difference isn't great. The longer answer requires some explanation of "visual conspicuity."
In optical engineering, conspicuity is the study of what makes things "conspicuous," and some researchers split the tasks into "detection" and "identification" (see, for example, the works of A. Toet et al, such as ...
15
What type of shorts?
First you need to work out what sort of cycle shorts you are looking for:
Regular cycling shorts - these are your classic lycra bike shorts, no bibs, no extra fancy bits.
Generally quite comfortable
They do have a tendancy to "roll up" under your gut a bit, particularly for those of us that carry a bit more weight than we should.
...
15
There are several terms around this subject. A key thing here is reflectivity (or more specifically retroreflectivity), rather than fluorescence. Fluoresence is the property of a material where it absorbs light at one wavelength, e.g. ultraviolet sunlight, but then reflects back light from the visual spectrum. This is most useful in daylight conditions, ...
15
Wear some non-Lycra shorts/tracksuit bottoms over the top of your Lycra ones if you are self conscious about them.
Change out of the Lycra ones in a toilet cubicle if you are concerned.
You can also buy baggy cycling specific shorts which have many of the advantages of Lycra based ones but without the concern about showing off your entire package.
A quick ...
14
I have a continuum of clothes that I add on as the weather gets colder.
During the summer, I ride like you do with shorts and a t-shirt. As things cool of a little bit, down below 60F/15C, I'll put on a windbreaker over my t-shirt and some full-finger gloves on my hands. The next step for me is to add an Under Armour Cold Gear shirt (many companies make ...
14
There are a few good reasons for it.
More aerodynamic, we humans don't put out much power so every little bit helps
Padded shorts. You want these for anything longer than a short ride. Most shorts with pads happen to be spandex.
Moisture wicking
Read some things a few years ago about muscle fatigue when jiggling (rough road/mountain biking) is greater than ...
14
Protective plates? You mean Fenders/Mudguards?
I can think of 3 things that could help, other than simply bringing a change:
Bigger fenders (wider, and/or go down the tire more). Basically, some fenders are better than others. A front fender that's wider than the tire with a stay (rod) going back for support that hugs the tire fairly closely and ...
14
Unless you are travelling really far (5+ miles) or going for some kind of home to school time trial record, just wear your regular clothes (tuck your trousers into your socks if need be) and cycle a little slower.
Too many people are too obsessed with racing their bikes places, but if you think of cycling as a faster and more efficient way of walking then ...
11
The human eye is more sensitive to some colours, peak sensitivity is at the yellow-green portion of the visible spectrum.
So generally speaking, a yellow vest or jacket should be better than an orange one.
11
Bike-specific full-finger gloves are generally going to give you more dexterity, allowing you finer control over shifters and brake levers. They'll also have padding in the places you need it when riding. However, very few of these gloves will be warm enough for winter riding.
The best solution I've found is to ride with a few layers of gloves, using ...
11
Safe is a relative term in this instance. A shirt might protect you in a fall, but only just. You'll know immediately whether a shirt can protect your skin from sticks, branches, and prickers dangling into the trail. If you were going fast enough flying insects may even make an impact, though I can't imagine it'd be terribly painful.
Shirts do offer some ...
10
Most rides in the cold I start out freezing. Once my body has generated some heat I'm great. Typically my outer layer is wind blocking followed by a jersey. Depending on the temperature I'll have either a long sleeve polypro shirt or just my arm warmers under that.
I have both leg warmers and fleece lined tights. I wear the tights if it's colder. If it's ...
10
Yes, get a jacket. Also, you can get reflective bands which you can put around your ankles - I think these show up really well to drivers.
For road riding, it's all about being safe and that means you need to be seen by others. Top of the range expensive lights will help you see where you're going. They will help drivers see you too, but most drivers have ...
10
While the obvious answer is that you really should have lights and a reflective jacket or vest, I'm assuming this is the real world and you have limited resources! Let's go by what conditions you ride in:
If your route is mostly well-lit and being seen is more of a requitement, I'd concentrate on a decent cycling jacket or safety vest. I prefer ...
10
I wear a pair of Austin Pedal shoes by Keen to work at my government office every day.
They're a fine shoe—they look decent and accept SPD's.
They aren't anything special. There is no gore-tex liner (I think it'd be overkill for my commute most days). There is no reflective tab, though that would be nice. There is no carbon-reinforced toe-box—also ...
10
This page contains a table with improvements that can be made with various aero clothing and equipment. Unfortunately the baseline is already a cycling jersey, not a standard cotton t-shirt. Given the improvements that clothing can provide though I would suggest the bike jersey would make a pretty big difference.
For me, though the big improvement is in ...
10
Most ordinary baby wipes will get grease out of clothing if you get to the stain quickly enough - or, at least, get enough of it out that the rest will later wash out. You can also carry spray-n-wash pads or keep them in your desk at work. However, baby wipes are also good for cleaning your hands - handy after changing a flat, or fiddling with a bike chain.
...
10
While you can certainly wear BMX armour, or possibly even use motorbike armour and wear full face helmets, I would put much more emphasis on changing the way you cycle to reduce the risk from cars.
You say cars turn without seeing cyclists- well, you have two options:
become more visible. It isn't high fashion, but wear colours and lights, flashing and ...
9
Cycling gloves dampen the vibrations coming into your hands from your handlebars.
I find that if I cycle for more than one or two hours without gloves I slowly loose feeling in the tips of my fingers and I get a tingling feeling in the pinky side of my palms near my wrist. This slowly spreads to essentially make both my hands feel numb. It goes away ...
9
Rainclothes designed for cycling, preferably in a material that "breathes" (Goretex being the best known, I think). You will still get wet from the inside if you go too fast, but this type of material is way better than "non-breathing" varieties.
I have a Gore Bike Wear Path jacket and pants that I am pretty happy with. Rainclothes for biking is essential ...
9
I bicycle year round in the Pacific Northwest and follow the mantra: there is no inappropriate weather, only inappropriate clothing. (Well, snow and ice may be inappropriate weather for bicycling) Despite commuting daily, I only purchased dedicated cycling rain gear yesterday -- and only did that for better visibility and more convenient pocket locations.
...
9
YELLOW - and according to EN471...
There are regulations for high visibility clothing used by people that work on highways. Their employers have a duty of care to make sure they are in the correct HV wear. In the UK the standard is BS EN471 and this applies pretty much the same across the whole EU.
3M - the people that pioneered high visibility clothing - ...
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