Cycling to work..

[[XAP]Bob]

I've never understood the need for showers at work for cyclists.

Fit, healthy , normal weight people just do not smell if they have ridden to work and are clean beforehand

Lucky you. I smell, I just do. Even if I don't do anything active I smell at the end of the day.

That despite showering in the morning and applying "72 hour" deoderant from a "non fashion/perfume" brand.
I'm not substantially overweight (12 stone 6 at 6' tall), I'm reasonably fit (can happily do an imperial century).
I have digestive health issues, but they are well managed.

I can normally get away with a change of clothes and liberal respray at work, but not always.

[simonineaston]

Fit, healthy , normal weight people just do not smell if they have ridden to work and are clean beforehand.

I don't know which universe you hang out in, blackbike, but in mine, I can't even remember the last time I saw someone "normal"... !

[Vorpal]

I've never understood the need for showers at work for cyclists.

Fit, healthy , normal weight people just do not smell if they have ridden to work and are clean beforehand.

I sweat a lot. No help for it, I just do. And I have 10 miles up hill to work. I could probably get away with not showering. But I see no reason to have a shower, then get sweaty. I have showers at work, so I'd rather do it the other way around.

Anyway, the shower feels really good on a grotty winter morning.

p.s. there's no need to be insulting about people who are overweight

[Mick F]

I cycle commuted for years, latterly as far as 17miles each way (with hills) and although I had easy access to showers etc, I never ever bothered.

I had clean uniform at work, and always arrived fresh, clean and non-sweaty. I don't sweat much and never have done. Maybe it's why I don't drink very often when riding. I know folk who can't go five miles without a drink. Me? I can go up to fifty miles without drinking.

We all have different fluid intake and expenditure requirements. Some folk sweat, some folk don't.

[iandriver]

I don't sweat profusely except in heatwave conditions, but the last mile of my 16 mile commute I do ease right off and have a warm down. Slowing down 2 or 3 miles an hour cools me down a lot and makes very little difference to my journey time overall. Quick wash up in the sink in the loos and I'm good.

[robc02]

I currently ride just over 10 miles to work, sometimes 15. In the summer I generally wear lycra shorts and a short sleeved top, as it gets colder I'll add arm and knee warmers. In the winter I'll wear much warmer longs and windproof fronted jacket.

I exercise restraint and ride relatively slowly on the way in to minimise sweating - though sometimes in the summer this fails completely! (BTW, I normally make up for this restraint on the way home!)

I keep a towel and a couple of spare sets of clothes at work, and have a wash before getting changed. Sometimes I am able to hang around in cycling clothing for a few minutes if I need to cool down (e.g. in hot or humid weather).

[Psamathe]

I don't cycle to work, but re: sweating I think it is either a question of noticing it and/or humidity.

On a hot day I've got home sometimes completely dry like I've not sweated at all, never felt sticky the entire ride, only so notice white salt stains on my clothing. But when the humidity is higher I do notice sweat - but I suspect it is more because it is not evaporating.

Ian

[karlt]

I cycle commuted for years, latterly as far as 17miles each way (with hills) and although I had easy access to showers etc, I never ever bothered.

I had clean uniform at work, and always arrived fresh, clean and non-sweaty. I don't sweat much and never have done. Maybe it's why I don't drink very often when riding. I know folk who can't go five miles without a drink. Me? I can go up to fifty miles without drinking.

We all have different fluid intake and expenditure requirements. Some folk sweat, some folk don't.

Me too. I used to religiously fill my water bottle for my 15 mile each way commute, then gradually it dawned on me that I never, ever, felt the need to use it. So I stopped and saved the weight. I do 30 mile club rides and manage with the cafe stop.

I get smelly if I don't use deoderant, but I don't need to shower after cycling to work, even at a fair lick (16mph on a hilly run)

[NATURAL ANKLING]

Hi,
And if you cycle all day and then tomorrow you would (camels excepted i.e. Mick F ) at some point down the line need to make up for not drinking during or even just after exercise.

Even if its down the pub in the evening, saying you dont need much water and you dont sweat is not a virtue just being pig headed I.M.O.

Next you will be saying that you dont eat much because you have a slow metabolism...............

[Flinders]

One of my friends fitted an electric unit to his bike so he could arrive at work dry and cool.
Big company, but no showers for cyclists.
Even where there are laws about this sort of thing, there are now so few inspectors that many companies ignore them. They're highly unlikley to be caught, and even less likely to be punished if they do get caught.

A lot of those laws in the old Factories Act about what companies had to provide/do were scrapped some years ago. For example, they don't have to provide heating in cold weather or cooling when it's hot. In the good old days, if the temp got below or above certain limits, they (in theory) had to send you home, there were even official thermometers with the bands printed on, which depended on whether the work was sedentary or not, but we no longer have those sots of protections.
Progress is a wonderful thing, eh?

[Vorpal]

For example, they don't have to provide heating in cold weather or cooling when it's hot. In the good old days, if the temp got below or above certain limits, they (in theory) had to send you home, there were even official thermometers with the bands printed on, which depended on whether the work was sedentary or not, but we no longer have those sots of protections.

This not true. Temperatures for working conditions are now coverd by Approved code of Practice for the Workplace http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/books/l24.htm

I don't remember the requirements, but it seems to me that it was something like minimum 16 C (61 F), unless it is a physical labour environment, in which case it can be 13 C. Offices may have to be warmer.

[[XAP]Bob]

Presumably with an exception for freezer workers...

[Vorpal]

Presumably with an exception for freezer workers...

Yes. And people working outdoors. But employers have to provide warm clothing if their employees have to work outdoors, or in freezers.

[horizon]

I think what we might be up against here is not the lack of a shower but the ubiquity of the public washroom. What is achievable in a private washing cubicle (a quick rub down with a wet flannel and dry with, well, a dry one) isn't so easy in a shared washroom with people (such as your manager) coming in and out. Culturally it's a bit strange to be half naked when everyone else is smartly dressed. A facility for the disabled is often a godsend in these circumstances.

As for fresh clothing, in the absence of any shift from a Victorian attitude to office workwear, smart-casual (a sort of golfing attire) will usually survive IME the journey to work.

The ability to look a complete clown at work (i.e. suit and tie, or skirt and high heels for females) is dependent on some form of labour-free transport (car, train, taxi etc). I cannot believe that there isn't some association in the minds of many people between that and status. Sweat, you horny-handed loser!

[AlaninWales]

I used to commute 16 miles each way to a job where I wore a suit and tie. I left the suit at work for the week, took in fresh underwear and shirt each day (rolled together in a bin-bag in a pannier), washed and changed in the mens wash-room. Over the 10 years I worked there, the washroom became my de-facto consulting office as people came there to find me as I shaved (brief me about the days work/meetings). On the occasions I had to go to another office etc. I had a polyester suit that rolls small and looks good when unpacked. Sweat was occasionally a problem if I rushed to a meeting after washing as I would break out again even if I 'felt' cool. No-one called me a "loser" because I was sweating, I thinks that is a chip too heavy for the shoulder.

A few months ago I drove to London, parked on the outskirts and got the Mezzo out of the boot to cycle the last 6 - 7 miles to the office where my meeting was held. I wore a suit and tried to refrain from chasing overtakers. I arrived cool but started sweating once in the air-conditioned offfice. There was mild ammusement but more interest in the Mezzo. No denigration of the labour, simply disbelief that a normal person could ride in London (the 'you must be very fit' syndrome).