When to wash your bibs/workout clothes

lol
No worries, when your done with your kit, send it this way for my 5 year old.

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No worries mate - well done. :joy:

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Exciting might be a stretch, and it is a LONG boring story for probably an equally boring result. Short version:

-Spent most of my 20 year marriage paycheck to paycheck. Even when I was earning a nice wage when I was active duty military.
-Divorced, decided I would rather be a hobo with a savings account than live nice and be broke.
-Currently live in a travel trailer at my grandmother’s house. Mostly because I just look after the place so she can live out as much of her life in HER home as possible instead of going into a retirement community (she is independent otherwise). I bought a retired ambulance for “vanlife”, and will eventually move into that unless the market collapses and I can buy cheap property locally.
-Luckily learned that there are women out there who actually don’t care about any of the above stuff. Some of them are actually highly desirable and not total crackheads!

I have a very stable, reasonably good job. So I just try to balance my hobo life with living in regular society.

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Nah, exciting fits very well. Kudos for making all this work. Also respect for taking care of grandma. :blush:

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How well waiting to wash your kit works can vary with how dry/humid the air is where you live.

It’s very dry where I am now, so anything dries quickly. I washed my trainer mat off in the shower last night and laid it out in the hall, it was dry by the time I got done dusting and wiping the rest of my stuff down. But I lay my kit out in the laundry room and generally wash it when I’m ready to do laundry. I’m more likely to do several small loads a week than trying to get it all done at once.

But I used to live in the deep south and would be completely soaked after any ride. With high humidity things didn’t want to dry out and can get funky quick. Even after being washed if you didn’t get them hung up quickly they’d get stinky.

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Bibs when riding outdoors? No question.

On the turbo? ‘Under shorts’ work better IME…

  • Keep you way cooler than bibs as they’re shorter in the leg & have no fabric above the waist, no straps etc. NB not for public consumption though :laughing:
  • Dirt cheap vs bibs
  • <Half the fabric vs bibs, so more eco in manufacture and each wash

Instead of using older bibs on the turbo like many say they do, I use mine off-road instead so I’m not so worried about trashing them when I fall off - which I seem to do quite regularly when riding trails as opposed to roads…

Mine all get placed in the hamper then washed once a week. Having played hockey for many, many years, putting on gear (shin guards, elbow pads, shoulder pads, etc) that were only are dried between uses, or sprayed with a disinfectant, my tolerance for “funk” might be a tad higher than everyone else’s. :grin: :grin: :grin:

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Pretty much this.

Just fell down the rabbit of finding out how disgusting dirty clothes are. I was about to decide to never wear used clothes again, when I found this. This seems like the magic solution.

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I wash my bibs/jersey/socks between most rides, unless I didn’t really break a sweat and didn’t use chamois cream.

My process is to hang up my sweat-soaked bibs in the bathroom or on my clothes drying rack, let them dry, then put them in a cold-wash hamper. [My SO and I have a lot of wool clothes so we have 2 hampers to separate cold wash from warm wash] Whenever we run out of clothes or the hamper is full, we’ll throw them in the washing machine with normal non-scented detergent on a delicate cold wash cycle, then hang dry.

No issues, everything comes out clean with no funk. Since I’ve got lady parts, I’m a little more conscious of keeping things bacteria free down there, but this system has worked great for me and the cold/delicate wash preserves my bibs. I’ve had one pair for 6-7 years that are just now at the end of their life.

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Interesting reading through all this as I was wondering the same topic a few days ago. Not that my way is correct, but first and foremost, my method is clean kit every single ride. Doesn’t matter if it’s 10min or 100 miles. Clean bibs, base layer, socks, jersey, etc. I am also a strong advocate of building up your own personal pro level / service course of cycling clothing gear. As stated above by one of the brands, wearing and washing garments puts tons of stress on the fabrics. There are guys on my team who buy one or two bibs and wonder why they wear out so fast. If you ride a lot, investing in good clothing is a must over time.

after each ride, all kit is laid out or hung to dry. I try to wash what I have worn once a week. only exceptions are if the kit got really dirty riding through rain or after every CX race where most of them tend to be muddy.

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once I get off the bike, kit comes off and goes into the bathroom sink for a washing and then gets hung up in the shower to dry. after some particularly tough workouts I am surprised at how dirty the water can get on the first rinse. if nothing else, that convinced me to wash after every ride.

Yes, that’s fine. In summer I get in the shower with my kit to rinse it, because I absolutely soak everything in sweat, but in winter it’s not a problem.

I wash my indoor shorts out in the shower…foamy soap in the foof and suds it up good. Rinse, wring it out after turning off the water and hang it up.

Outdoor kit goes directly into the bag and then into the machine…along with every other synthetic bit of clothing on delicate and then hung to dry.

I’m a fan of immediate cleaning. Letting it sit around evolving into new life forms just seems wrong.

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↑ Same

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Thanks to all of you chiming in, much appreciated!

It’s been an interesting struggle.

I tried hang drying bibs, and they would get musty, then we discovered our entire AC system was loaded with mold, and needed to be replaced. Then the replacement system poured condensate down the wall, seeding even more mold. After spending nearly a year in a house with plastic tents installed ‘for our protection’, and walls and cabinets replaced, the mold situation seems to be handled, but I still do not hang dry laundered kit.

I do hang dry between uses in the bathroom. I never use anything more than once, except for the beanie.

So the past year+, it’s been bibs and UA sleeveless tops. I hang everything up to dry after use, and do loads once or twice during the week. I recently discovered rinsing in the shower, so can’t wait for the look from the wife of me standing in the shower, fully clothed. It does definitely help with ‘sock funk’ so far. Then everything gets thrown in together, socks, tops, bibs, beanie, and washed in ‘tap cold’ with 3 rinses, with Tide Free, and occasionally some vinegar. Then, don’t hate me, I put everything in the dryer on Delicate, More Dry. Bib pads come out slightly damp often, and some actually come out very damp. I’m sure the machine drying it’s having some effect on pads, and some grippers are looking rough, but the bibs themselves seem to survive rather well. I’m so paranoid about reseeding the mold problem.

My idea on the pads is that whatever you put into them is likely to stay in them, so washing often is paramount, but not using bleach, or other things that could stay in the depths. And washing in cold hopefully counters the wear and tear of running through the dryer. PLUS I’ve had bibs, back when I was trying to hang dry things, that still had a soaking wet pad after 36 hours, which surprised me as it seems to be very dry in this house. Getting the pads drier quicker seems to me to be important to stop the ‘junk funk’.

What the wife complains about is the ‘stink’ of the pain cave. It keeps her out of my office, but she complains about the ‘stench’ often. I found a swifter style mop thing at Target, but I don’t think it’s nuking the grunge on the mat, just covering it up. I sweat a lot (with 4 fans), and have had enough sweat to actually run off the mat and be sucked onto the flooring underneath. I caught my puppy licking the salt crystals that buildup on it once and was immediately grossed out.

How do people deal with the indoor pain cave stink? I think I’ve got the ‘kit stink’ handled now. Sorry so long, but it’s been a struggle in so many ways…

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Is you pain cave damp/humid? You might look into dehumidifying it to help things dry out, or perhaps opening a window to vent out the smells. If you are sweating enough for it to roll off your floor mat, maybe you can put a strip of carpet/rug underneath that to soak excess sweat so that isn’t just sitting on your flooring and making a salt lick for the puppy.

I’m a little confused by the hang dry method being insufficient for drying chamois after 36 hours. Are you sure your house is as a dry as you think it is? If not, do you have a clothes line outside you can use? A hygrometer might be illuminating.

I’m using a dehumidifier in my pain cave this year and it really is worth it. I train in a spare bedroom and the humidity and smell were sort of a problem. I turn in on just before starting a workout and usually let it run for maybe 30-60 minutes after.

It’s a dry house, I just sweat a lot. I often have streaks in line with my pedals from the sweat coming out of the vents in the shoes. That’s part of the reason for turning my office into the Pain Cave. She doesn’t; have to see it, just smell it apparently. We used to share a room with a Peloton, and she (apparently) doesn’t sweat. shrug But I don’t eat much meat, so I’m surprised at how bad it smells, but have gotten used to it, after the banishment from the communal room, and Peloton throne room. :smiley:

The pads are thick. I have 2 pairs or bibs that the pad is still wet after running through the dryer. It surprised me on an indoor ride when I felt ‘moist’ down there, and grabbed the pad, and sitting on the saddle was actually wringing water out of the pad. The pad felt dry too.

I guess I should be grateful I do sweat. I saw a physician that said he rarely sweats, and it’s a real problem for him.