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Shaving legs

11.20.2008 by Ray Niekamp // 10 Comments

The idea that shaving your legs can make bicyclists faster always struck me as silly. What will it gain you — three-tenths of a second over 100 miles?

Besides the increased speed, doubtful except at the highest levels of biking, there’s another reason to do it. Road Bike Rider says shaving our legs makes it less painful to remove the bandages that you’ll have all over them after a crash. We all know how much it hurts to rip a piece of adhesive tape off a hairy leg or arm. But even so, to shave your legs so you won’t appear to be a wuss also strikes me as — well, silly.

Until this week. After my fall last Friday, I wound up with a badly skinned leg. It’s not a deep wound, but it’s enough that it must be bandaged. The open sore doesn’t seem to want to scab over, so I change the adhesive bandage pad on it every day — and it’s no fun. In fact, it’s probably the most pain I’ve had from cycling. Just the act of removing the bandages gets me hyped up and nervous.

This morning, I was able to cut back from two bandages to one. One almost covers the expanse of the wound, and maybe by Sunday, I’ll be able to cut back to regular Band-Aids instead of the larger pads. I can’t wait for this thing to heal, if for no other reason than I’ll be able to avoid my daily painful bandage removal.

So maybe shaving legs does make sense. But I’m still not going to do it.

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Categories // crash Tags // crash, legs, shaving

Comments

  1. DocDelete says

    November 21, 2008 at 6:11 am

    Howdy Noob,
    Dave Moulton had a unique view on the practice of leg shaving.

    http://davesbikeblog.squarespace.com/blog/2008/6/20/why-do-cyclists-shave-their-legs-the-only-explanation-you-wi.html

    You stick to your guns, it’s not for me either. I’ll take the possible pain of dressing removal over the accumulated waste of time any day 😉

    Reply
  2. Red says

    November 21, 2008 at 6:22 am

    I have always felt like the shaving of legs was a silly pro cyclist wannabes act . Why even worry about the bandage removal problem? For pros falling is a regular occurrence.

    If the rest of us are falling so often that we need to shave our legs in order to make wound care easier, maybe we just better stick to walking.

    Reply
  3. Al says

    November 21, 2008 at 7:17 am

    I agree with Red. Shaving the legs is one of those things I will never consider. My face is already enough.

    Reply
  4. Nick says

    November 21, 2008 at 12:05 pm

    I had always heard that the idea behind shaving your legs was to make it easier to wash out the inevitable grit/dust/what-have-you from your legs after being on the road all day. Also, I think it’s supposed to decrease chafing. I know many distance runners (college level and up) do it, and don’t consider it a big deal, just par for the course. for a recreational rider who only rides 20-30 miles at a time, it’s probably an unnecessary hassle, but I can imagine that for someone riding 200mi a day, there’s no avoiding it.

    Reply
  5. Minamin says

    November 21, 2008 at 2:37 pm

    Couldn’t you use gauze and an ace bandage to avoid adhesives all together?

    Reply
  6. Cyclingred says

    November 22, 2008 at 6:59 am

    Chafing problems? Who are these guys? Sons of Sasquatch? 🙂

    Reply
  7. Bob says

    November 23, 2008 at 1:25 pm

    After a couple of bandage changes it should be easier because there shouldn’t be any hair left.

    I haven’t shaved my face in years and don’t plan to start shaving any other parts.

    Reply
  8. UltraRob says

    November 24, 2008 at 12:57 pm

    I’ve shaved my legs for years. I don’t shave in the winter. When spring rolls around I think, it’s too much bother to shave but one ride in shorts with unshaved legs makes me ready to shave.

    It’s more comfortable with shaved legs. I find bugs like to hang out on hairy legs. Cleaning up after a muddy mountain bike race is much easier with smooth legs. Washing off dried mud pulls the hairs.

    Reply
  9. Bikedunc says

    March 27, 2009 at 2:16 am

    Legs covered in black hairs look very unpleasant and dirty. I used to shave my legs (too old now) just to look clean and fit. You get a sun tan quicker with shaved legs and you muscles are more noticable.

    Reply
  10. Pirsey says

    April 24, 2009 at 4:55 am

    I follow your blog for quite a long time and must tell that your articles are always valuable to readers.

    Reply

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