Road Cycling Clothes
One thing that makes road cyclists stand out is the clothing we wear. The coolness of your cycling outfit or kit is inversely proportional to the distance to the bike. On the bike, or next to your bike, your kit looks great, the sleek helmet, the fancy jersey, the 8 panel shorts and you carbon fiber soled cycling shoes. But walk into a store to buy water, say, and you are wearing a plastic coated polystyrene cup on your head, a form fitted shirt that amplifies any paunch you may have with bright colors, tight shorts with a noticeable pad and shoes that clatter of horses hooves across the floor.
Helmet
However, everything in your cycling kit does have a function. I remember in high school, I would ride with a baseball cap or Campagnolo cap, now I cannot imagine going anywhere without my helmet. Your helmet is very important for your safety. In California, helmets are mandatory for children and optional for adults. There is legislation pending (SB 192) that would make helmets mandatory for adults as well. The California Biking Coalition is against it. They believe that it discourages people from riding and would prefer the State and local governments make the roads safer instead.
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| Photo by road.cc |
The helmet is a polystyrene shell with a plastic coating, which largely protects the shell underneath from damage and allows for nice color designs. Most helmets that you can buy have met the Consumer Protection Safety Commission (CPSC) impact requirements and are safe to wear regardless of price. The price difference comes from helmet weight and the number of air vents in the helmet. Lighter helmets with more holes will cost more. Helmets run from under $100 to $300. If you get into a crash and your helmet hits the pavement, it must be replaced. And most manufacturers recommend that you replace your helmet after a few years because the UV rays from the sun will begin to breakdown the material.
Jersey
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| Photo by Mar |
The cycling jersey is where you can express your personality.Plain or fancy, inexpensive or very pricey, the choice is yours. The cycling jersey is supposed to be a tight fit so that the fabric does not catch the wind and flap like a T-shirt will do. A flapping shirt is slowing you down. And cycling jerseys have pockets in the back, almost always three, where you can stuff food, tools, you name it. I have seen spare bike tubes, pumps, bananas, energy bars and all manner of tools stuffed in the back pockets of jerseys. Cycling jerseys with finer fabric are generally more expensive and will catch on other items in the wash causing them to ‘pill’ like a sweater. Also, jerseys with full zippers rather than ¾ zippers are more desirable. To wash them, you might want to consider a lingerie bag. All jerseys should be washed in cold water and then hung to dry. The heat from the dryer will break down the elastic and the chemical that will reduce residual odors in some jerseys.New cycling jerseys can range from $40 up to $140. You can go retro and wear a wool cycling jersey, from Rapha and others.
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| Photo by Richard Masoner |
There are some unwritten rules about cycling jerseys. Almost all cyclists shy away from wearing leader jerseys from stage races, like the yellow jersey from the Tour de France. Many think that since clearly they did not earn them, then they should not wear them. Also, wearing current team kits is not nearly as cool as wearing kits from past teams. So wearing a Seven-Eleven Pro Team jersey is cooler than wearing a current team jersey.
Shorts
I rode without cycling shorts for a short while in the beginning. Of course, you go without the Lycra shorts, but for any sort of ride longer than 10 miles or so, the road bumps will begin to get to you.I remember my first ride with proper cycling shorts, it was so much easier on my body, I could not believe that I waited at all. Shorts fit snug to help prevent chafing and saddle sores. Loose fitting shorts or normal shorts, will rub against your skin as you pedal, causing your skin to chafe. On a long ride, your skin, where you sit, will become red, irritated and painful. Bibs are better at keeping the material tight against your body since the bib straps will constantly pull up versus relying on the elastic in the waistband of the shorts holding them up.
The pad helps with bumps in the road but will not eliminate the vibrations and bumps.The primary job of the padding and the shorts, in general, is to wick moisture away from the body, keeping the parts of your body in the saddle for hours dry. That leads to the top rule for cycling shorts, Do Not Wear Your Underwear Underneath Your Shorts. This introduces a layer of wet between your body and your shorts and will cause your body to slip around while pedaling. Underwear or panty, lines stamp you as a newbie.Quality shorts have firm pads that are contoured to your body, thicker here, thinner there. Also, the number of panels in the shorts is often used to display quality. 8-panel shorts are more expensive than 6-panel shorts which are more expensive than the low-end 4 panel. The panel count comes from when shorts were made of non-stretch wool and shorts with more panels offered more comfort and a better fit for the cyclist. Now with lycra, the quality of the fabric and the durability of the pad is more important. But the panel count is a signal of these other elements. Cycling shorts start around $50 or so, running up to $120. Merino wool shorts start at more than $100. Bibs also start at over $100.
Shoes
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| Photo by Glory Cycles |
When you are ready to take the plunge to use clipless pedals instead flat pedals then it is time to get cycling shoes as well. Using flat pedals that we all knew when we were children is ok to start out with, but the efficiency you gain with clipless pedals, where your feet are locked onto the pedals cannot be understated. The name clipless pedals are bit confusing since you do clip into them. The name comes from the toe cages, or toe clips that were used during the 1980’s. The technology used in clipless pedals is similar to ski clips, where you can easily step on and lock in your foot and just as easily clip out, releasing your foot. The toe clips from the 80’s were harder to get out of. You need cycling shoes with cleats to use the clipless pedal systems that are out there today.
Road cycling shoes have stiff soles to help transfer power from your legs to the pedals without flexing your shoes. Stiffer bottom also help your feet from developing “hot spots” where the pedal connects to your shoe. Road cycling shoes have smooth surfaces on the bottom of the shoes making them hard to walk in. Mountain biking shoes have rubber soled bottoms and are much easier and safer to walk in. Some road cyclists choose mountain biking shoes for this reason.
Cycling shoes come in three types of soles; nylon, a combination of nylon and carbon fiber and carbon fiber alone. The stiffer the soles the better the power transfer between your legs and your bike. Carbon soles are the stiffest soles with nylon carbon fiber than nylon-carbon combination and nylon only. Carbon soles are more expensive than the other two types of soles. Road cycling shoes have vents to allow cool air into the shoes. On winter days, you can wear booties that go over the shoes to prevent cold air from getting to your feet.
It is important to try the shoes on before you buy. Shoes that do not fit will become troubling after a few hours of riding. Your feet will swell as the day wears on and tight shoes will hurt. Or your feet will move around in shoes that you can tighten enough. Sadly, you can’t do a demo in new shoes. To help get a better fit, you might want to wear regular white socks instead of thinner cycling socks or try them on later on in the day, when your feet are more swollen than early in the day.
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