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Archives for March 2008

Bandanas or sweat bands?

03.25.2008 by Ray Niekamp // 15 Comments

When I first started biking last summer, one of the big irritations was the sweat that kept dripping off my brow and into my eyes. Then I rode with an experienced biker friend, who tied a bandana around his head as a sweatband. I tried one on my very next ride, and I was hooked.

The bandana was easy, quick, and available. I had a good half-dozen tucked away in a drawer. Most are the old-fashioned red ones with the black and white pattern. One is similar, but purple. One was issued by a local building supply chain, and has logos of all the brands they carry. The newest one was pilfered from my dog, who wore it at Christmas a couple of years ago. Its pattern is red chili peppers.

bandana.jpg

Emily the beagle and her (now my) chili pepper bandana.

I was hooked because the bandana worked. No sweat in my eyes. None even on the brow. Loved it. There’s only one problem: because they’re rather thin cotton, they absorb moisture quickly. At the end of an hour’s ride, my bandana is saturated. Not a big deal, because the ride is over. But after an hour and a half, or two hours, it’s dripping again. I suppose I could pull it off at a rest stop and wring it out — and I have. But that got me wondering: Is there a better solution?

The local bike shops have several alternatives. One is a full skull cover, that you tie behind your head. It has a sweat band sewn into the bottom hem. If you wear it, you look like a pirate, until you put your helmet on over it. Or, there’s just a plain headband that’s got some elastic for stretchiness. These things run from $10-$17, altho there do seem to be some you can get for as little as $5. Should I stick with the bandana, or try something new? Or do you have a different idea?

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Easter ride

03.23.2008 by Ray Niekamp // 2 Comments

I had to get out on the bike this morning, because it was a gorgeous day in Austin.  Bright and sunny, but breezy, and temps in the low 60s.

My mileage has been off lately, so I figured this would be a good day to go a little farther than usual.  I opted for Mopac, and figured I’d take two circuits of the route.

It was terrific.  At first.  With a north wind at my back, I hit 30 mph on a slight downhill stretch.  But when the road turned to the west and became slightly uphill, I started to struggle.  Still, I made decent progress.  I always look forward to the turnaround to head east, because there are some nice downhill stretches there where you can really let it all out.  Not today.  The wind had shifted a bit to the northeast, and was hitting me in the face.  I also had to pay more attention than usual to broken glass along this part of the route.  Luckily, the tires came through intact.

When the route turned back north, the wind really hit me.  This is the toughest part of the route for me, because it has more uphills.  I can usually take it easy on the downhill parts, but today the downhills were like uphills because of the wind.  Pushing the bike downhill at 11 mph into the teeth of a gale is not fun.

The stoplight at the top of the last hill gave me a minute to catch my breath and down some sports drink.  I considered heading home, but remembered my quest for more mileage, so I went around again.  If anything, the wind had picked up by now.  By the time I got to the northbound leg, I was struggling.  And to add insult to injury, two small groups of riders sailed by me, pedaling at what appeared to be an easy cadence.  They must have been going 20 mph.  I was at 13, and slowing.  I stopped at the top of a hill to drain the rest of my drink, and just rest awhile.  I was at the 17-mile mark, and told myself that if I were in an organized ride, I would have pulled off at a rest stop by this point anyway.

My cell phone rang.  It was my wife, reminding me that we had a tee time at noon.  She was a little perturbed when I told her I was still 20 minutes away from home, and it was already 11:10 (She had done the double Mopac loop yesterday, when the wind was lighter, and today was thinking not about bikes, but about golf).  I hustled home, and we got to the course late, but there weren’t a lot of golfers out today, so we got on the course with no trouble.

My totals: 21.2 miles, time 1:23:47, avg. speed 15.2 mph.  Conclusion: As much as I like to think I’m improving, I’m still a biking newbie.

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Categories // Rides

Bum cream

03.22.2008 by Ray Niekamp // 8 Comments

The question arises periodically, on Bike Forums, in my club’s Yahoo! group, and just in chats among fellow bikers: Do you use chamois cream?

This is goo you rub into the chamois of your riding shorts or tights. The chamois (SHAM-ee) is the pad that cushions your tender bits against the rub of the saddle. It used to be leather, but is now made of synthetic fabric, but still retains the old name. Some people like to smear a liberal dose of the cream directly on themselves, as well.

The big names are Assos cream and Chamois Butt’r. We’ve had a couple of jars of Assos cream, and like it. There are drawbacks to the Assos product, though. One is that it uses menthol. Once you come into contact with it, your bottom will tingle for awhile until your attention turns to the road. The other is price. It’s $17 a jar! You go through it pretty fast. I stopped buying it for that reason.

Chamois Butt’r comes in a sort of squeeze tube. It’s not mentholated. Price runs about $14-15. This is what we’re using now, but we’re still experimenting. So far, I’m happy with this product.

Performance Bike has its own name brand of chamois cream, as does its corporate cousin, Nashbar. The Performance cream goes for $8.99, Nashbar’s $7.99. Then there’s Body Glide, Queen Helene’s Cocoa butter, and even Vaseline.

creams.jpg

We’ve got some of the Performance stuff, which seems a bit thinner than the Chamois Butt’r. Seems to work fine, though. Haven’t tried the rest yet.

Is chamois cream really necessary? I used to diligently apply it before every ride — even short 6-8 mile jaunts in the morning before work. I’ve come to believe it’s not needed on those short rides. Now, I won’t use it unless I know I’ll be out for more than an hour. I’m aware of plenty of riders who don’t use it at all.

Some sensible advice I’ve seen recently is to pay attention to the fit of your saddle, the fit of your shorts, the quality of your chamois — and maybe on long rides to hit the restroom of a convenience store along the way and wash yourself off. Then, you might not need to mess with creams at all.

Thoughts, anyone?

 

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