does anybody hand wash their cycling outfit?



gemship

New Member
Sep 19, 2006
185
0
0
hello, this morning I took a nice 25 mile ride. Towards the end of it I hit some good size puddles and you guessed it a rooster tail up the backside of my white jersey.As I don't have access to a washing machine at home I opted to wash the jersey and rest of my outfit by hand in the kitchen sink with liberal us of laundry detergent. Most of the dirt stains came by simply wringing out soapy water and rinsing and wringing repeatedly. Curious to know what everyone else does besides just throwing your clothes in the washing machine. Do any of you use a old school washing board?
 
I wear mostly wool or wool blend jerseys.

I wash those by hand and hang them to dry.

My bibs get a mix of machine washing and hand washing. My Ibex or Rapha bibs are mostly hand washed due to the wool in the blend.
 
LewisBricktop said:
+1. My Campa bibs are just too important to be tumble dried.
Honestly, with the spin cycle on a modern washing machine for synthetics like cycling clothing (admittedly I do not wear wool) the stuff comes out almost completely dry. Half an hour, max one hour everything is ready to wear.
 
Machine wash on synthetic cycle, hang dry. With my screwy schedule, I would rather be riding instead of hand washing my cycling clothes. I don't really get enough time to ride anyway:(!
 
I sometimes hand wash my tops, coz otherwise it's hard to get the b.o. out. Fairdinkum, with the tops sitting way up in the armpits, they suffer b.o. like no other shirt I own :p
 
I can't imagine anyone having so much spare time that they would hand wash anything, or purchase anything that would require it.:)Also can't imagine a man who can't use or isn't "allowed" to use the household washing machine, I thought that sort of thing went out with Mrs. Cleaver meeting Ward at the front door with a string of pearls on her neck? :):) Note saying neither of the above is not done, it just does not compute in my world.

Oh, I've done plenty of hand washing when I didn't have ready access to a washing machine. Enough to know it is about the last thing in the world I would ever spend time on.

I often put my cycling gear in the dryer if I don't have the time to wait for it to line dry. Extra low or no heat. That temp is probably not more than 100 deg. F - the clothes are just warm to the touch. There's no way tumbling at that temp will damage my cycling stuff - at least I've never noticed it in about 15 years.
 
I throw mine in with everything else, warm water cycle.

Hang dry.

sometimes I wash things while in the shower after a ride...
 
I wash my gear in the blood of virgins...real blood, not the synthetic stuff. Use body heat to dry it.
Works for me.
 
stevebaby said:
I wash my gear in the blood of virgins...real blood, not the synthetic stuff. Use body heat to dry it.
Works for me.
I'm staggered that noone took the **** before the 12th post.
 
I thought this was the alternative forum for those who were/are beyond standards?
wink.gif
 
Guess I had to expect some goofy responses to this. Gee I thought it was a valid question in the correct forum? I mean cycling attire is sort of like cycling equipment. Heck I only have about 350 dollars invested into looking like a fairy on my bike :p Out of four bikes I own there's only three I choose to where a helmet when riding on the fourth one is a cruiser/fun vintage bike and wearing a cycling out fit or helmet makes me look like a dork and out of place when riding it. The Cervelo is the only bike I wear the cycling attire on and happens to be the lightest, fastest but not by much.
I basically don't own a washing machine so I have to go to the laundry mat and spend money,time washing clothes which I do but only on a twice a month frequency. So if I want to keep the cycling outfit clean and not waste the above mentioned resources then cleaning by hand is on the order. It actually works well and is quick and easy but I do think I could make it easier with a old vintage washing board.
 
gemship said:
Guess I had to expect some goofy responses to this. Gee I thought it was a valid question in the correct forum? I mean cycling attire is sort of like cycling equipment. Heck I only have about 350 dollars invested into looking like a fairy on my bike :p Out of four bikes I own there's only three I choose to where a helmet when riding on the fourth one is a cruiser/fun vintage bike and wearing a cycling out fit or helmet makes me look like a dork and out of place when riding it. The Cervelo is the only bike I wear the cycling attire on and happens to be the lightest, fastest but not by much.
I basically don't own a washing machine so I have to go to the laundry mat and spend money,time washing clothes which I do but only on a twice a month frequency. So if I want to keep the cycling outfit clean and not waste the above mentioned resources then cleaning by hand is on the order. It actually works well and is quick and easy but I do think I could make it easier with a old vintage washing board.
I'm one who made a snide comment about hand washing - mostly in jest, but obviously your situation requires it.... unless you buy two weeks worth of cycling attire so you can save it up for your trips to the laundromat.

As for the washing board, my opinion is that using a washing board would be hard on the synthetic clothes, as hard or harder than using a normal cycle washing machine. A washing board is for hard scrubbing for stuff that's durable and really dirty. Gentle hand washing technique has always avoided the washing board and just used soaking, hand squeezing, scrubbing material against material, or "kneading" on a smooth surface. By the way, soaking for a while will do 90% of the work for you! At least that's what my mom did. She just used the washing board (built into her large laundry sink) for the heavy cotton and/or really dirty stuff. This was a divided deep, two sink set up. Both sinks had kind of angled front side for washing clothes. One sink was smooth, the other sink had a built in washing board. Yes, I did some time handwashing under mom's supervision. She'd sit on a chair smoking a cigarette and nursing a cocktail yelling at us kids to scrub harder and beat us if the clothes weren't perfect! :D :D
 
Camilo said:
I'm one who made a snide comment about hand washing - mostly in jest, but obviously your situation requires it.... unless you buy two weeks worth of cycling attire so you can save it up for your trips to the laundromat.

As for the washing board, my opinion is that using a washing board would be hard on the synthetic clothes, as hard or harder than using a normal cycle washing machine. A washing board is for hard scrubbing for stuff that's durable and really dirty. Gentle hand washing technique has always avoided the washing board and just used soaking, hand squeezing, scrubbing material against material, or "kneading" on a smooth surface. By the way, soaking for a while will do 90% of the work for you! At least that's what my mom did. She just used the washing board (built into her large laundry sink) for the heavy cotton and/or really dirty stuff. This was a divided deep, two sink set up. Both sinks had kind of angled front side for washing clothes. One sink was smooth, the other sink had a built in washing board. Yes, I did some time handwashing under mom's supervision. She'd sit on a chair smoking a cigarette and nursing a cocktail yelling at us kids to scrub harder and beat us if the clothes weren't perfect! :D :D
+1 about the wash board. My Mom never made me wash the clothes:D! Anyway don't use a washboard on your cycling clothes, they weren't made for it. Unless you get down and roll in the dirt, you should be good with the gentle hand washing described above.
 
Ahh thanks Camillo, and Kdelong I know I can count on someone to set me straight on this. Its funny I used to see those old washing boards all the time at flea markets and antique shops and lucky for me I haven't seen em for years. Makes sense that they would be too abrasive on the lycra. So I guess I did the right thing with just a brief soaking in the suds and wring and rinse by hand. The whole process was actually pretty quick about 20 minutes of my time if that including hanging and bringing the clothes off the line. Thanks again, peace.
 
LewisBricktop said:
I thought this was the alternative forum for those who were/are beyond standards?
wink.gif
Not really.... When I first read that post about the 'blood of virgins', I first thought of nubile ladies during that time of the month staining shorts... as it were.

:drool
 

Similar threads