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Leg shaving....

rooftest

rooftest

Monkey
Jul 10, 2005
611
0
OC, CA
I figured that since now I'm a serious roadie, I've got to shave my legs. (I just made the switch from baggies to spandex, too.)

Why is it again that 99.9% of roadies shave their legs? It's a frickin' pain in the ass! That took way too much time! (and my legs aren't nearly as tan as I thought.)
 
I

ito

Mr. Schwinn Effing Armstrong
Oct 3, 2003
1,709
0
Avoiding the nine to five
Bah, end of summer is no time to be leg shaving. Keep that hair going unless you are apeman's brother and rock it until spring time, then shave for race season after you've spent the winter pounding out miles on your fixie.

I shave off and on, mostly during race season when I can justify it. Otherwise I rock the leg hair all year. I would consider myself a real roadie too, up until entering the real world and getting a job this summer I was putting in 250-300 miles a week (3-400 last summer when I worked at a bike shop). No leg shaving for me, let the legs speak for themselves.

Sounds like you already did the deed though so here is some advice. Shave regularily or prepare to not be sleeping with any females (prickly is bad). Moisturize or deal with scaley legs (not fun). Use sunscreen (hair=protection). Keep a sharp blade. And most of all do not shave at 4am in the morning with an old blade while rushing through a shower to catch a plane in LA (two inches of my skin went down the drain :dead: ).

Finally, there is no reason, roadies are just gay like that. It goes with the territory of tight shorts and staring at men's butts all day.

The Ito
 
J

JoeRay

Monkey
Feb 19, 2004
228
0
In Squalor
One word --- WAX.

Shaving is a waste of time and I'm not a fan of cutting my legs every second day.

Every five weeks I go in for a half hour and done, plus the wife loves them afterwards.
 
jacksonpt

jacksonpt

Turbo Monkey
Jul 22, 2002
6,791
59
Vestal, NY
I'll never understand the need/desire to shave your legs. Maybe (and that is a HUGE maybe) if you race at a very high level, but even then...
 
GravityFreakTJ

GravityFreakTJ

leg shavin roadie
Jul 14, 2003
2,947
0
at a road race near you
jacksonpt said:
I'll never understand the need/desire to shave your legs. Maybe (and that is a HUGE maybe) if you race at a very high level, but even then...
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have you went down on the road yet? shaved legs makes road rash much easier to clean and take care of
 
jacksonpt

jacksonpt

Turbo Monkey
Jul 22, 2002
6,791
59
Vestal, NY
GravityFreakTJ said:
have you went down on the road yet? shaved legs makes road rash much easier to clean and take care of
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No, but still...

shaving my legs every other day for 5-6 months (during the summer) versus dealing with road rash for a week once or twice a summer (if you have to deal with it at all).

Shaving just sucks, no matter what part of your body you're talking about.
 
jacksonpt

jacksonpt

Turbo Monkey
Jul 22, 2002
6,791
59
Vestal, NY
I can see how being shaved makes it easier to keep wounds clean and makes bandages/tape come off easier, but I fail to see how hair affects healing.
 
be-radd

be-radd

Chimp
May 31, 2004
96
1
O-town
the hair keeps the wound open longer and theres is more chance of scaring and infection(which is cool for most people on here) i had a couple bad road rash's with hair and i would give anything to have shaved right before it happend. haha, when i raced XC i used to make fun of all the rodies with shaved legs at the starting line. A classic line i got from one kid off the CAT team was and quote " its proven that shaved legs makes you .02% faster in a track race" i yelled nice legs as i passed him down he DH section of sugar as he was sliding on his side in the mud, it felt so good.
 
rooftest

rooftest

Monkey
Jul 10, 2005
611
0
OC, CA
ito said:
Bah, end of summer is no time to be leg shaving. Keep that hair going unless you are apeman's brother and rock it until spring time, then shave for race season after you've spent the winter pounding out miles on your fixie.
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End of summer? C'mon - you're from Southern California, too - we don't have seasons here. (I went mountain riding in shorts and short sleeves on Xmas day last year.)

Good tips - I notice I feel much cooler with the shaved legs - even while wearing pants (it's in the mid 90's out here today.) Taking the time to shave them sucks though.
 
B

blue

boob hater
Jan 24, 2004
10,160
2
california
johnbryanpeters said:
Myth.

I've had my share of road rash and I believe that the effect of hair on healing is zero.
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Possibly true...

But shaving makes it a lot easier to care for leg wounds, which in turn has the affect of helping you heal quicker/sans infection.

All of the ER nurses/docs have been very happy that I've shaved my legs whenever I've made a visit :)
 
S

scottjustscott

Monkey
Feb 25, 2005
274
0
seattle, wa
GravityFreakTJ said:
have you went down on the road yet? shaved legs makes road rash much easier to clean and take care of
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Then why don't you shave your arms/chest/back/anything else that would scrape across the pavement when you hit the deck? Or are you so good at crashing that you can pick what apendage you want to slide across the rode with?
 
DirtyDog

DirtyDog

Gang probed by the Golden Banana
Aug 2, 2005
6,598
0
scottjustscott said:
Then why don't you shave your arms/chest/back/anything else that would scrape across the pavement when you hit the deck? Or are you so good at crashing that you can pick what apendage you want to slide across the rode with?
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Genius, 80% of road rash happens on the legs.
 
peter6061

peter6061

Turbo Monkey
Nov 19, 2001
1,575
0
Kenmore, WA
MtnbikeMike said:
Plus, nothing feels better on the sheets than a frsh pair of shaved legs :love:
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Go jump in a pool too. That feels very cool.

I used to shave them for swimming championships each season in high school. Then when I got into road racing I started shaving again. It definately helped with a few road rash cases. Hey, people crash when racing, look at the TDF. Since I stopped racing road, I stopped shaving. My fur coat has been going strong on near 10 years now. I don't think I'll shave again.

Oh, and don't forget about the mental bit.... You FEEL faster on the road when your legs are shaved. Take that for what it's worth. Some people believe that a lot of the race is in your head.
 
douglas

douglas

Chocolate Milk Doug
May 15, 2002
9,887
6
Shut up and Ride
peter6061 said:
Oh, and don't forget about the mental bit.... You FEEL faster on the road when your legs are shaved. Take that for what it's worth. Some people believe that a lot of the race is in your head.
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sometimes in group rides I am the only one up front w/o shaved legs on a bike that cost less then everyone elses wheelset - helps my motivation to hang w/them :thumb:
 
peter6061

peter6061

Turbo Monkey
Nov 19, 2001
1,575
0
Kenmore, WA
douglas said:
sometimes in group rides I am the only one up front w/o shaved legs on a bike that cost less then everyone elses wheelset - helps my motivation to hang w/them :thumb:
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True as well.

A buddy of mine used to ride road on his Klien Rascal MTB with 26" slicks and pull the groups for quite a long time. His only issue is he would spin out when they got going quite fast. Rumor had it that no one liked having him there as he was not a 'true' roadie on a road bike, but he was still kicking all their asses. I thought it was awesome. Damn, he was fast.
 
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