Submitted 7 hours ago by sem@piefed.blahaj.zone to [deleted]
Do people shower before wearing bike shorts, use a bidet, or some third thing? What is the preparation process?
I have some padded bike shorts I’d like to wear on a bike ride, but I’m getting pretty in my head about poop particles getting into the shorts and not washing out in the wash.
Wash your ass crack well and often. If it’s smelling, you aren’t cleaning it often enough. If it’s leaking, see a doctor.
Don’t know why you’d think a clothes washer wouldn’t do the job it’s intended to do. If your clothes are coming out of the wash dirty, that’s a different problem.
Have you ever tried washing exercise clothes? The smell persists.
Farting is normal, and i assume that with the gas escaping, little poop aerosols come out too. Not something any doctor can help with. It’s just part of being human.
Your rectum has an internal and external sphincter. When the internal sphincter encounters pressure there’s a whole neural pathway that decides whether to let the external sphincter relax based on if it’s gas or solid.
My exercise clothes come out the wash as fresh as a daisy, and they have been through a lot and get washed at 30C.
You are worry about the poop particles and not the filthy stuff the tires pick up from the road and spray all over you?
Poop is water solable, so washing your bike shorts will wash out the poop.
When I bike ride, I just put in my bike shorts and go. I’m about to get really disgusting anyway from the sweat and road gunk flinging up. I’m going to stink and regardless, my bike shorts will probably be shoved in my crack for an hour or more.
I’ll go further into disgusting and also say that since I only have two pairs of bike shorts, that if I’m training daily, I will hang dry them and put them back on the next day and get a couple wears between washes. I’m gonna shower when I’m done anyway, I don’t have sensitive skin that gets irritated by dirty shorts, and my exposure to others is not existent when riding.
I’m sure I’m not alone, but I’m probably in the minority.
Do you rinse between wears? I don’t think i could put the shorts back on if they’ve got ass worn into them without at least rinsing.
If it’s bad enough, I may drag them through the shower with me and then hang dry after, but I’d say probably not most of the time. I haven’t biked in a minute since I’m training for a half marathon, but I did a triathlon last year and was biking most days.
Wash your arse properly after taking a sh1t. Maybe invest in a toilet shower
Already have two, they’re not expensive.
I imagine what you normally do to prevent poop particles should be fine. Also I believe most people wear underwear under bike shorts? I cycle almost daily but just wear regular clothes or gym clothes so not entirely sure with padded bike shorts.
Also, having grown up all my life with bidets and “bum guns”, it never hurts to clean down there with some water and soap anyway.
They don’t wear underwear while cycling in bike shorts.
That’s a great way to rub one’s balls off. (Or severely raw. Or whatever they’re packing for junk.) eliminating friction is the whole point of the things.
For laundering, normal cycle with cold/not-hot water should be more than sufficient. (Hot water wears out the elastic.)
The point is honestly just fashion unless you are a pro. I ride 200 miles a week in boxers and slacks. Weekend warriors who can’t touch a bike without $400 of spandex are cringe.
Now I’m kinda weirded out that all the people I see in bike shorts are going commando under there…
If you’re getting serious about biking, then you wear a “chamois” underneath your outer bike shorts. For example, I wear fox mountain bike shorts and the chamois that came with them are designed to wear under the shorts instead of underwear. They are padded where you make contact with the seat.
You will just wash them when done riding for the day since you were grinding your dirty balloon knot on the chamois all day.
Definitely good to use a bidet in general though, OP. Start out clean and it helps a lot.
I sponge-bathe or use a French showerhead, washing all of the bits that are going to be in the shorts. I’m not so worried about fecal matter, even though I don’t want to skid-mark an expensive pair of shorts. But I am concerned with the skin flora balance.
Can you say more about the skin flora balance? I’ve met some hippy types that use soap sparingly for this reason, but not sure that’s what you mean.
I’ve met some hippy types that use soap sparingly for this reason
TL;DR: This is exactly what I’m talking about.
I am one of those dirtbag hippie types.
Some background: My skin is so oily, I could singlehandedly solve the Suez Canal blockade. I struggled my whole life with blackheads and boils, especially crotch boils from cycling and blackheads just about everywhere else. No exaggeration, when I was commuting 52 miles every day, I always had at least two crotch boils going, despite showering before and after my ride at both ends of my commute. I also always had at least one boil on my head, face, or back.
About 20 years ago, I met a dermatological researcher at a party, and he was talking about his latest clinical work. He mentioned a bunch of testing with disrupting vs maintaining skin flora and microbiota. Stuff like S. aureus and Prevotella being held in check by [other micro-organisms, can’t remember the names], but that the skin also produces antimicrobial substances (catechins? or is that the stuff in green tea?). The pH of skin also tends acidic, but soap is alkaline. His tentative hypothesis at the time was that most people shower too much and too vigorously, and that creates a whole host of downstream issues. He mentioned that based on his early findings, he stopped showering every day, instead opting to sponge-bathe with showers being a rarer occurrence. And then only to rinse off sweat from a serious workout.
With nothing to lose, I gave it a try. Sponge-bathe the foldy bits every day, and before and after rides. No more chlorhexidine soap, no more Bag Balm on my crotch before rides, only Dr Bronner’s soap. I only take quick, cold showers to rinse off from heavy sweating. Every couple days, I’ll exfoliate the long bits with just a damp cloth. My skin cleared up almost in the same week, the blackheads all went away, and no more visible puddles of skin oil. I haven’t had a crotch boil since, despite plenty of crotch abrasion and more than a few skin tears from crashing my mountain bike. I also haven’t had skin infection since changing up my wash routine.
Extra bonus points: lower water and electricity bills. Or when I lived on my sailboat, less power required for water generator and hot water heater.
GatesMcBalmer@lemmy.world 7 hours ago
Whether you are putting on bike shorts, board shorts, or no shorts at all, always fully clean yourself after you poop and live worry free.
sem@piefed.blahaj.zone 6 hours ago
When you put it that way, it seems simple.
But let’s say i haven’t pooped in a while. There could be all kinds of poop particles that have leaked out.
So i guess i should poop first, then clean, then put on the bike shorts.
fuckwit_mcbumcrumble@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 hours ago
If your butthole is leaking when you don’t want it to you should seek out a doctor.