Since my car’s in the shop, I’ve taken to biking to and from work every day instead of once every two months. I love it, but what has prevented me from doing it every day before is that I feel like a sweaty, sloppy mess when I finally get to the office. I’ll use a towel and some Handiwipes to wipe myself down, but my shirt is soaked with sweat and I generally feel grungy for the rest of the day. I would wear a “throw-away” shirt and pack my dress shirt and undershirt in my backpack, but then I’d be dealing with a wrinkly shirt all day.
Right now the weather is a cool 70-72°F which mitigates the sweating some, but when it becomes hot again, I’m afraid I’ll have to stop biking again.
There’s a shower at our office so that helps (the other people who do this, not me) but on the shirt front one of my coworkers drives in on the weekend with 5 shirts and leaves them hanging at his desk.
The other alternative is to leave suits and shirts at work and have the drycleaned at a location close enough to work that you can walk there at lunch. You don’t need to worry about home because they never make it there.
I get ready at work - we have showers, towels, lockers, etc. I bring my clothes in a pack and we even have an ironing board.
In your case, I second the suggestion to store shirts at work and change when you get there. I know a few of the riders around here just keep a bunch of clothes in the office downtown and take them to the drycleaners a couple of buildings over when they need to be washed (rather then taking them home).
Well, I can shower at my office, and can live with lightly wrinkled clothes, so I don’t have your issues.
But, a couple thoughts:
You could drive one day a week, and bring in dress shirts for the rest of the week, leaving them in your office. Bring a clean undershirt in your bike bag (who cares if the undershirt is wrinkled?), and you’re clean, dry and unwrinkled all week. Plus this way you have spare shirts at the office in the event of a coffee or meatball sub incident.
Another thought is that if you get a rack on your bike and a bag that attaches to it (the bags are called panniers if you’re fancy), then shirts might make the trip with less wrinkling. I think you can even get special hanging bags that attach to bike racks. Plus, as a bonus, your back will be much less sweaty than with a backpack, and it’s more fun to ride without extra weight banging around on your back.
Also, depending on where your office is, it might be worth checking to see if there’s a gym with showers anywhere close. And, depending on what kind of employer you have, you might be able to talk them into subsidizing some kind of limited gym membership so you can shower before work, if you pitch it as the same kind of benefit that they probably already provide drivers through free parking.
Here’s an example of a garment bagQuercus mentioned.
Shower before you leave. Exercise sweat is clean, wiping down after will be more effective. Try leaving earlier so you have time to cool off before dressing. Keep a fan handy to speed up the process if that’s an option.
Ditch the backpack, besides increasing sweatiness, there’s also comfort and handling reasons to let the bike carry the weight as it should.
Most of my advice has already been said. I’d just like to add that if you don’t have access to showers at your office, it would be a good idea to leave a few toiletries at the office, like deodorant and body spray.
I am lucky to have access to a shower. Since I am going to change, I wear spandex for the ride. I prefer to use panniers to carry stuff, but sometimes I ride my fixie in and I am not willing to put a rack on it* so I use a backpack on those days, and yes my back does get quite wet as a result.
If I am working on the weekend, I will often eschew changing at work. In that case I try to go in early while it is still cool, and take my time. I am fortunate that my home is a bit higher (perhaps 100’??) that the office, so I can almost coast to work if I wanted to go that slow. If it is warm I will take a fresh shirt and “spit bathe” before I change.
*I tend toward Fredness. I wan’t to keep at least one of my bikes minimalist though.
I can’t understand how people can bike to work and not shower. I remember a dude got on the elevator with me and our CEO and he was soaking wet from biking. The CEO knew we didn’t have a shower and he asked if the dude was coming to work. The biker said, “yeah” and the CEO told him to go home. He didn’t want somebody smelling like that at work.
My opinion on the matter is:
a) If you bike to work and you aren’t sweating, you’re not biking hard enough. IMHO, biking should be a workout. You should be getting fitter. Sure, you can slowly bike and save the environment, but you’re missing out on an amazing opportunity to get in shape.
b) If you don’t have shower facilities near work, don’t bike to work. I don’t want to work next to some stinky, sweaty person.
I go to a gym the next building over so I shower there, but I would NEVER bike to work and not shower. That’s just gross.
I also bring my dress clothes in my backpack and don’t find any excessive wrinkling. You sit at your desk for 15 minutes and you get more wrinkles than my shirt gets in half an hour in my backpack.
Not when you’re using it for transportation. Many people use bikes as their primary form of transportation - they’re not dressed in lycra and trying to go as fast as possible. Your objection is silly.
I bike to work in the summer. Sure, I sweat. I shower before i go, and when I get here, I go in the bathroom and wipe down with a cool wet paper towel. I don’t have to wear too fancy things, thankfully, so cool cotton blouses work. I also use lots of baby powder. I don’t bike really hard or anything - that’s ridiculous, that I should be biking for exercise no matter what.
It’s only about a 10-15 minute bike ride for me, so it’s not terrible. And the air’s on at work, so that cools me down too. Plus I try to get to my seat 15 or so minutes before everyone, so I have a few more minutes to cool down.
QFT. In the US bicycling is seen mainly as sport. The marketing focus is based on selling racing bicycles to people who don’t race, and off-road bicycles to people who seldom venture off the pavement. There are manufacturers that offer sensible utility/transportation oriented bicycles, but it is rare to find much of a selection in shops. They have to be special ordered, by in large.
That said, I DO use my daily commute as mini cardio workouts, but my bike is not especially light or fast, so many of the “serious” bikers will pass me. I am getting stronger and lighter with each passing month, so occasionally I find a slow guy on a carbon wunderad I can outrun. Especially if I am on my fixie, which is far lighter than my normal commuter.
Back to the OP: I usually bicycle 1-4 miles at lunch time, to nearby eateries. I never change, and just take it easy to avoid getting very sweaty.
I live in a climate where using biking as your primary transportation would be foolhardy if not impossible. That option isn’t really available so I didn’t/don’t consider it.
If you’re biking literally everywhere, then showering probably isn’t an issue. Your pace would likely be so that you would rarely get sweaty. In such a case, wouldn’t you just bike in your dress clothes and never even really consider a shower? It’s essentially asking somebody to shower after taking the bus to work. That, I admit, would be silly.
I didn’t really consider the constant commuter with no other option and who hated exercise.
Given my biking conditions and desire for fitness I honestly can’t conceive of somebody commuting any significant distance and not sweating. I would see that as pointless unless you hate exercise, but hate pollution or only have a bike to get around.
Well, not so much “hate” exercise as, umm, realize that it’s not a binary state, either 0% or 100%, either slothful repose or full-steam-ahead, with no grades or levels inbetween. :smack: Walking to/from the train station, for instance, is cheaper than the bus and it’s some level of exercise. Cycling at a non-Tour-de-France pace is the next level up.
I see your point about if you’re riding at a truly leisurely pace you could ride in your regular clothes. I see people doing that around Chicago, and I’ve done it myself (not going to/from work, though) a few times. There’s a mid-point, though (there’s that pesky binary thing again ) where you’re not going so fast as to become a sweat-ball but also not so leisurely that you could ride in a dress suit. In my experience, that’s the speed most bicyclists not in Lycra cycling outfits ride in Chicago traffic.
Again, this is just my opinion, but if you sweat enough that you can’t wear your dress clothes on your bike, you need to take a shower. To me, it really is that simple.
is the next level up.
) where you’re not going so fast as to become a sweat-ball but also not so leisurely that you could ride in a dress suit. In my experience, that’s the speed most bicyclists not in Lycra cycling outfits