What to wear Cycling

[ADarkDraconis]

I biked for years as my sole form of transportation and never owned any cycle-specific clothing apart from grippy winter gloves and a warm cap that fit under my helmet. Now I am back into riding and I have to say I did splurge... I bought some grippy winter gloves and a balaclava that fits under my helmet!!!

I usually have a t-shirt that wicks moisture (like UnderArmour but the knockoff Sears, Old Navy, or Target brands) that I also wear to work out, under a sweater or fleece depending on how cold it is; and stretchy comfy yoga pants that I also wear to work out in (which I put tights on underneath if it is close to freezing out, a great way to still use those tights and stockings you've got a run in, they also layer well for sledding or shoveling snow!) A sturdy jacket, shoes/boots as the weather calls for it, and you are all set! I had easily done that for five or six hours at a time before, but everyone is different and you have to find what is comfortable for you.

My brother bikes everywhere as his sole form of transportation, and he will put cycling shorts under regular shorts or pants for padding if he goes over 10 miles or so (he does not have as much cushion as I do, haha!) He also likes the fluorescent colored jackets so he has many of those. Just don't feel that you have to give in and buy special clothes because people have been cycling for centuries just fine without them, wear what you love!

 

[hoopdriver]

As above, a wicking T-shirt is a really good idea. When I cycled around Australia on the cheap I wore just board shorts and plain old cotton T-shirts which worked just fine in the desert where it was always hot, bone dry or both - when it's 40-odd degrees Celsius, humid or not, there's never the least possibility of getting a chill. Once I got back down to the south coast and into Tasmania, where chilly weather, wind and rain became a factor, I discovered just how bad cotton can be. Coming down with a fever anyway, and riding 90 miles one day in chilly rain, I gave myself a very nasty chill which developed into hypothermia. After I was well enough to resume riding again, I went straight to the nearest sportswear shop and bought myself a couple of cheap wicking T-shirts/base layers. Imperative if you're in any climate other than the tropics and going for any kind of long ride.

 

[fatjel]

This time of year keeping warm and dry would be the important consideration.
Gore Bike Wear wind stopper jackets and padded tights work well for me
Endura make good merino base layers
I have cycling club shirts
I tend not to wear cycling shoes cos they seem cold
Zamberlan boots are my preferred option
Obviously you need different stuff in the summer

 

[mjr]

As above, a wicking T-shirt is a really good idea. When I cycled around Australia on the cheap I wore just board shorts and plain old cotton T-shirts which worked just fine in the desert where it was always hot, bone dry or both - when it's 40-odd degrees Celsius, humid or not, there's never the least possibility of getting a chill. Once I got back down to the south coast and into Tasmania, where chilly weather, wind and rain became a factor, I discovered just how bad cotton can be. Coming down with a fever anyway, and riding 90 miles one day in chilly rain, I gave myself a very nasty chill which developed into hypothermia. After I was well enough to resume riding again, I went straight to the nearest sportswear shop and bought myself a couple of cheap wicking T-shirts/base layers. Imperative if you're in any climate other than the tropics and going for any kind of long ride.

Cotton's only bad if it gets wet and then cold and it's too near your skin. I sometimes wear a cotton flannel shirt as a mid layer in winter but always under some sort of outer. I often wear cotton T shirts as base layers but only when I know I can stop to change/remove other layers as needed without worry (of extreme cold, annoying other riders, stopping in live traffic lanes, ...). Synthetics irritate my skin but I'll reserve special criticism for those terrible fraud "bamboo" and "merino" base layers which are majority polyester, including at least one famous brand - avoid!

None of this needs to be cycling specific. It's just simple outdoors type clothing: base, mid, outer shell, varying according to activity and weather.

 

[hoopdriver]

I don’t know what brand of merino base layers you buy, but the ones I have are all made out of fine merino wool and perform marvellously. Perhaps you should read the labels more closely before you buy.

Sure, cotton is great - as long as you don’t get sweaty and then cold, or get rained on while you’re cycling hard, but that’s just the point. It happens often, especially when you’re cycling in a climate such as Britain’s

 

[mjr]

I don’t know what brand of merino base layers you buy, but the ones I have are all made out of fine merino wool and perform marvellously. Perhaps you should read the labels more closely before you buy.

Why would you read the labels closely if "the ones I have are all made out of fine merino wool"? I feel it's worth making people aware of this misadvertising. Can you honestly put your hand on your heart and say you wouldn't have been caught out?

Sure, cotton is great - as long as you don’t get sweaty and then cold, or get rained on while you’re cycling hard, but that’s just the point. It happens often, especially when you’re cycling in a climate such as Britain’s

If you're getting cold often, you're not wearing warm enough layers. If getting rained on gets your base layer wet, then your outer layer isn't waterproof enough or your mid layer is letting too much moisture inwards instead of conveying it outwards. Don't blame the fabric solely - you need to make other errors as well for cotton layers to become a problem... but maybe it's easier to blame the clothes than accept one made several mistakes.

Cheap wicking synthetic base layers dump a load of pollution into the water every time they're washed. Take a bit more care with your layer use, choose natural fabrics or pollute our water - which would you choose?

 

[Alan O]

I picked up half a dozen fine-weave long-sleeve cotton t-shirts cheap at Aldi, and I've been wearing them for cycling for about a year now (usually as a mid layer).

They're very comfortable, and they've never really got wet. I don't really get wet through sweat these days, through a combination of not pushing it especially hard, and having wind evaporation drying me off. And they don't get rained on - I don't ride when there's a risk of anything like serious rain, and I always have a top layer that's good enough to keep off light showers.*

On a ride of any distance, I also carry another couple of layers in my bag, so if I really did need a replacement for a wet one (which I never have so far) I'd be fine.

(*Except for when I go out in summer rain on my MTB and come home soaked and caked in mud - but that's part of the fun)

 

[hoopdriver]

Why would you read the labels closely if "the ones I have are all made out of fine merino wool"? I feel it's worth making people aware of this misadvertising. Can you honestly put your hand on your heart and say you wouldn't have been caught out?


If you're getting cold often, you're not wearing warm enough layers. If getting rained on gets your base layer wet, then your outer layer isn't waterproof enough or your mid layer is letting too much moisture inwards instead of conveying it outwards. Don't blame the fabric solely - you need to make other errors as well for cotton layers to become a problem... but maybe it's easier to blame the clothes than accept one made several mistakes.

Cheap wicking synthetic base layers dump a load of pollution into the water every time they're washed. Take a bit more care with your layer use, choose natural fabrics or pollute our water - which would you choose?

I’d choose wool. Which, in fact, I do choose.

Cotton is notoriously bad for sportswear and, since you bring up the environment, cotton growing is also notoriously bad for the environment and water usage. Believe me if you are genuinely concerned about water you need to read up a bit more on cotton growing and it’s considerable impact on the environment.

Wool is a natural fibre, warm when it needs to be, cool in lighter weaves, and wicks wonderfully. It also resists smelling funky if you have to wear the same thing for several days as you might on long expeditions. I know I have. And it has none of the considerable environmental impacts of cotton farming.

 

[Alan O]

Wool is a natural fibre, warm when it needs to be, cool in lighter weaves, and wicks wonderfully. It also resists smelling funky if you have to wear the same thing for several days as you might on long expeditions. I know I have. And it has none of the considerable environmental impacts of cotton farming.

I only wish it didn't turn my skin into an itchy blotchy mess

 

[hoopdriver]

My wife has problems with wool too.

 

[mjr]

I’d choose wool. Which, in fact, I do choose.

Which wasn't the impression/advice given earlier:

[...] I went straight to the nearest sportswear shop and bought myself a couple of cheap wicking T-shirts/base layers. Imperative if you're in any climate other than the tropics and going for any kind of long ride.

Cotton is notoriously bad for sportswear and, since you bring up the environment, cotton growing is also notoriously bad for the environment and water usage. Believe me if you are genuinely concerned about water you need to read up a bit more on cotton growing and it’s considerable impact on the environment.

There's cotton and there's cotton. It always help to look beyond the label.

Wool is a natural fibre, warm when it needs to be, cool in lighter weaves, and wicks wonderfully. It also resists smelling funky if you have to wear the same thing for several days as you might on long expeditions. I know I have. And it has none of the considerable environmental impacts of cotton farming.

Yeah, because most wool animal farming is soooo environmentally friendly(!) I hope we can agree at least that natural fabrics probably aren't hanging around in the water for as long as synthetics seem to be.

 

[ADarkDraconis]

I’d choose wool. Which, in fact, I do choose.

Cotton is notoriously bad for sportswear and, since you bring up the environment, cotton growing is also notoriously bad for the environment and water usage. Believe me if you are genuinely concerned about water you need to read up a bit more on cotton growing and it’s considerable impact on the environment.

Wool is a natural fibre, warm when it needs to be, cool in lighter weaves, and wicks wonderfully. It also resists smelling funky if you have to wear the same thing for several days as you might on long expeditions. I know I have. And it has none of the considerable environmental impacts of cotton farming.

I'd rather the sheep keep their own clothes, thanks. It is not 'natural' if we have domesticated them and bred them to continuously grow hair and need sheared or risk overheating, that is manipulative of nature. Give me organic cotton any day.

 

[hoopdriver]

Well...enjoy wearing your cotton jerseys on those long rides.

As to wool, people have been raising sheep for millennia and the world, and the sheep, have managed to survive. I am not a vegan and have no interest in becoming one.

As to organic cotton, it accounts for 0.7 per cent of world production. You must be looking at the label of your cotton jerseys far, far, far more closely than you looked at the labels of your merino/non-merino base layers!

 

[mjr]

Well...enjoy wearing your cotton jerseys on those long rides.

I do - thanks

You keep "enjoying" your sheep

 

[ADarkDraconis]

Well...enjoy wearing your cotton jerseys on those long rides.

As to wool, people have been raising sheep for millennia and the world, and the sheep, have managed to survive. I am not a vegan and have no interest in becoming one.

As to organic cotton, it accounts for 0.7 per cent of world production. You must be looking at the label of your cotton jerseys far, far, far more closely than you looked at the labels of your merino/non-merino base layers!

I always look at labels (of my cotton t-shirts, don't wear jerseys), as it is a common-sense thing to know what you are buying. I do not have merino base layers as I just argued about sheep; but people have been doing stupid things for millenia, that is true. The domestic sheep are bred for human purposes, which is how they've 'managed to survive'. Wild sheep don't have nearly the same wool amount or texture and so are left alone to frolic in the wilderness. You tout responsibility of the Earth and yet really do not care to be bothered about it, well... enjoy contradicting yourself.