The nasty truth is that this invisible affront to cycling etiquette is nearly universal—at least some of your riding gear has a stench that just doesn't go away, even after washing. "We call it 'permafunk,'" says Sandy Nicholls, marketing director for Giordana clothing and other brands. Here's what you can do to defeat permafunk—and what to wear so it doesn't happen in the first place.
MECHANICS OF STINK Technical clothing, especially when it's synthetically based, has very tightly woven fibers. The tight weave makes the garment relatively rugged and lightweight, and can contribute to the fabric's stretchiness as well as durability. But a tight weave has a potentially ugly downside: a million tiny spaces that promote bacterial growth. The good news is that it's not you who smells, it's your stuff. The better news is that killing the bacteria, or at least inhibiting its growth, even on synthetics, isn't that difficult.
STOP THE STENCH Some of the solutions are obvious. "Don't leave your just-worn clothing in a gym bag overnight and don't wear it for several rides in a row without washing it," says Castelli's brand manager, Steve Smith. Instead, do wash it right after riding, "and hang it on a line to dry, because these fabrics do better air drying than being broken down by the heat of a dryer," Smith says.
It may smell fine dry, but if the stench returns 15 minutes into a ride, you didn't defunk it enough. To take it to the next level, try using hydrogen peroxide along with your regular laundry detergent, or use a color-safe anti-stink detergent such as No Sweat ($37/2 liters, or 64 washes; nosweatlaundry.com), which contains hydrogen peroxide in a low concentration. As for other so-called eco ways to stifle bacteria, we found no evidence that adding citronella, peppermint, tea tree or other oils to the wash does anything but temporarily mask the smell. And whatever you do, avoid the use of fabric softeners, cautions Castelli's Smith: "The chemicals in fabric softeners really damage the breathability of high-performance fabrics."
This is a bicycle blog that will inevitably go off on wild tangents, exploring culture and what it means to be a human.
19 August 2010
jersey stink
Now that we are on the subject of jerseys, I should warn, don't be the funky guy. I mean I don't care, cause it might just be me. Everything below taken from BicycleMagazine.com
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