The process of laundering padded bicycle shorts has confused me for as long as I've worn them. Over the summer I cycled pretty much every day, which meant having to wash the one pair of shorts I owned every night (the shorts were wool, but the
chamois still had to be washed). After several months of this the shorts looked like they'd been dragged through the hedge backwards, and I am sure the frequent washing and wringing caused this at least as much as the wear. The same happened in the fall/winter season with my synthetic tights. I've tried different techniques, washing by hand in the sink in the most gentle manner possible. I also try to wash just the chamois area and not the entire short, which speeds drying time and decreases wear on the rest if the fabric. Now that I have a new pair of special club-embroidered shorts, I don't want them to meet the same fate as my old ones. Is there a special soap I'm supposed to use? Is there a way to dry the shorts overnight without wringing them out?
The other day I received the packing list for CORPSCamp - my
upcoming 5 day trip to Death Valley - and this list says to pack 5 pairs of cycling shorts. As in, one for each day. I was kind of shocked to see that, and suddenly felt like that kid at school who gets made fun of for wearing the same outfit every day. Are you seriously telling me that cyclists own that many shorts? What about the people I ride with who always wear their club's kit - do they own multiple pairs of identical shorts, so it just looks like they're wearing the same thing?.. The logistics are mystifying.
So let me ask this straight out: Assuming you are a roadcyclist, how many pairs of bicycle shorts do you have in rotation at a time? And how do you launder them?
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