You've just purchased a brand new pair of RedWhite Bibshorts and now you're thinking about how to best care for them. Don't worry, this Guide has you covered. It is long and detailed and I highly recommend you to take the time needed to read it thoroughly.
I (founder, Yuva) ride regular century rides and started RedWhite Apparel in 2014. I focus exclusively on designing bibshorts that help riders tackle ultra-distance rides such as the Paris-Brest-Paris, Transcontinental Race and 24 Hour MTB challenges. Most of RedWhite's customers rely on our us for their all-day riding comfort.
In my years of designing and abusing bibshorts, I've found out what care habits are a "no-no" and what are the "gold-standard" that cleans and extends the life of your bibshort.
This Guide is written in 3 parts : Washing, Drying & "Quick & Easy".
The "Quick & Easy" section is a quick guide that tells you how to wash and dry your shorts in the most time-efficient and convenient way. It isn't best practice and you can expect slightly shorter life out of your bibs. I personally use this method since I rotate 2 pairs of bibs that I replace once a year. I'm okay accepting this since I'm time crunched and want convenience.
Please note that this Guide covers all other products sold on this website including Autumn / Spring & Winter garments.
You have 2 broad options. For maximum life extension, nothing beats a classic Hand Wash. However, not everyone has time for that (myself included). The next best thing is a Delicate Machine Wash.
Hand washing your bibshort is a pain. Don't let anyone say otherwise. Hand washing once or twice is fine, but is it an absolute pain to handwash your bibshort 3-4 times a week after a long ride. Especially when you're smashed and tired.
That being said, since this is the "gold-standard", let's crack on.
Step 1 : Soak your bibshort in a sink. Avoid mixing colours!
Turn your bibshort inside out and put into a sink. Throw on some detergent or even body soap (mild one with no softener, chlorine, anything harsh). Fill up the sink with cold water. Squeeze and massage the bibshort until the water foams up and it feels soapy. Let the shorts soak there for 15 minutes**.
**AVOID MIXING COLOURS : Long soaks can cause the red colour from the chamois to leech out into the water. This happens rarely, but it can happen. If you intend to long soak your bibshorts, I suggest soaking it individually without mixing with other light coloured garments.
Soaking in cold, soapy water is critical. This solution basically kills bacteria in rapid time. How it does this is fascinating and involves the interaction between soap molecules and the bacteria cell membrane. Here's a New York Times article about it.
I recommend a 15 minute soak because this gives time for your bibshort to be properly saturated and de-funked. I have tested increments of 5 minutes, 10 minutes, 15 mins, 20 mins, 25 mins and beyond. The benefit of soaking more than 15 minutes is negligible. So don't waste your time doing it. Please avoid mixing colours when you soak as well.
Step 2 : Rinse your bibshorts under the shower
This is best done while you're showering. You save water this way. Turn on your shower (cold water please). If cold water bothers you, here's an article about why cold showers are great.
With shower running, let the water hit your soapy bibshorts and rinse away the soap. Massage and squeeze the water and soap out until it no longer feels soapy. Let clean water re-saturate the shorts, and squeeze out the water. Repeat this until you're satisfied that it is clean.
You can run your shorts under a tap as well, but this wastes water.
Chances are high that most of you reading this article machine wash your bibshort. That's totally fine. It's what I do as well. Washing machine technology has come a long way in the last 10 years and there's no reason to be afraid of using it.
That being said, you cannot expect the same life expectancy out of your shorts if you machine wash it rather than hand washing using the technique above. On average, I find that my hand washed bibs last about 15-16 months and my machine washed ones last about 12-13 months. It is up to you to decide if that additional 3 month life (approximately) is worth the extra effort or not. Some customers may squeeze more life out of their shorts, and some less. It really depends on the amount of riding you do.
(I average 200-250km / week )
DO NOT TOSS YOUR SWEATY BIBSHORT INTO A LAUNDRY BAG AND LEAVE IT BEFORE RUNNING YOUR WASHING MACHINE. Your bibshort will literally rot. Sweat soaked lycra is a perfect habitat for bacteria. Bacteria will feed on the sweat minerals and excrete acid which will damage your lycra. Your lycra will deteriorate can become translucent.
If you don't plan on washing your bibshorts right away, rinse out the sweat at least and let it dry somewhere.
Step 1 : Turn your bibshort inside out & put it into a washbag
Turn your bibshort inside out. This will expose the pad and ensures it gets cleaned throughly.
You must use a washbag. If you don't have a washbag, order one online or go buy one from your local store. Get one that has a smooth interior and is not abrasive to the touch. No excuses to not use a washbag! Washing your bibshort without a washbag will expose it to the metal drum of your washing machine and to other clothing. This is not good because an exposed zipper (from your jeans), a velcro strap (from perhaps gloves?) has the potential of shredding your expensive bibshort.
Step 2 : Setup your washing machine. Use the "Delicates" setting.
If your machine is old and doesn't have a delicate setting, i'm afraid I simply cannot guarantee that machine washing will not damage your bibshort. The "Delicates" setting on my Samsung washing machine drops the water temperature, does 2 Rinse cycles and spins the clothing at 400 rpm. It takes a total of 36 minutes.
Your bibshort will come out slightly wet and you would need to squeeze out the excess water. If you washed on a full load, please note that most of your other clothing will not be as dry as you'd like.
*RPM UPDATE* : You can increase the rpm on your machine to 800rpm to get the excess water out. After extensive testing, this does not damage your bibshorts.
I usually run my washing machine on delicate cycle along with 2 sets of cycling kit, my running and swimming kit as well. It's a fairly large-ish load.
Drying your bibshort is a straightforward process. All you need to do is hand-squeeze out excess water and hang it indoors to air-dry.
Do not spin dry the bibshort in your washing machine**. Do not aggressively wring the water out, it isn't a dishcloth. And please do not tumble dry it in a dryer. The bibshort's lycra is made of nylon. Nylon is fantastic to the touch and is tough. It isn't good at handling heat unfortunately and will melt.
**EDIT : If you machine wash your bibshort using a delicate setting, there will be a spin dry phase of that wash cycle. This is fine. However do avoid running a dedicated spin dry cycle (not part of a standard wash cycle). These tend to run at very high rpms and could damage lycra. For example, the spin cycle rpm on my machine during the delicate wash setting is 400rpm (this is fine). The dedicated spin dry cycle runs at 1200 rpm (not good).
We all lead busy lives and sometimes, just can't be bothered to spend time washing our cycling kit in a fairly laborious manner. If you can afford to replace your bibshorts more often and are happy making the trade-off between lifespan of the shorts and convenience, you may wash your bib shorts using the following method :
. . . . . .
I hope this guide was useful and that you learnt something new or re-affirmed some good care habits you have developed after years of riding. For me, my bibshorts are the most expensive items in my wardrobe and the item that gets used the most. It probably is for you as well. For this reason, we all should give our bibshorts some extra TLC.
I always welcome comments. If you have any useful personal tips about caring for bibshorts, please leave them in the comment section below.
Finally, as a reminder
DO NOT TOSS YOUR SWEATY BIBSHORT INTO A LAUNDRY BAG AND LEAVE IT BEFORE RUNNING YOUR WASHING MACHINE / HAND WASH LATER. Your bibshort will literally rot. Sweat soaked lycra is a perfect habitat for bacteria. Bacteria will feed on the sweat minerals and excrete acid which will damage your lycra. Your lycra will deteriorate can become translucent.
If you don't plan on washing your bibshorts right away, rinse out the sweat at least and let it dry somewhere.
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