A lot of the cyclists who will read this won’t remember the good old days. When I say good old days I’m only talking at best 20 years ago. You see, I pretty much know my demographic as a blogger. The cyclists who have been riding long enough to remember this generally don’t read blogs. I think it’s their loss. I’ve learned a lot of good things from reading blogs. The simple fact is that most bloggers don’t have the advertising agenda. Bloggers can write whatever they want. They don’t have to worry about Kraft or Nabisco or Procter and Gamble and anyone else who pays the regular media. But I digress. What I want to talk about today is your crotch and how to protect chafing and blisters when you’re cycling. Let’s face it, if you’re doing 90 revolutions a minute and you’re riding for three or more hours, there’s some friction going on. Back when I started cycling, the pad and shorts were simply a piece of leather also known as a chamois. From what I can tell, most pads and shorts weren’t made from chamois. It was usually deer or sheep skin, or in some cases, the hide of a cow. Nevertheless, once you washed these things, you had to treat them. That’s where chamois cream came in. Then as cycling grew around the world, so did the technology of the shorts. There is no shortage of different types of synthetics in shorts all with the promise of hours and hours of riding chafe free. As most guys who spend upwards of five hours a day in the saddle can tell you, those shorts or pads don’t exist. Most who ride long distances still use the same chamois cream that was used in the past on their leather shorts. Adding the cream allows a cyclist to go much longer without chafing, if at all. I told you that to tell you this. There are many creams made specifically and “engineered” to work synergistically between man and the synthetic pad. These creams work well. Two of the best on the market are Chamois Butt’r and Assos Chamois Cream. Although these are very good creams, in my opinion, they are quite expensive. In order to save money and get the same effect if not better, try these. The first is Bag Balm. The second that I like is Udderly Smooth. Both of these creams were originally used back in the old days when people milked their own cows. The creams also have an antiseptic that helps prevent bacteria. The great news is, they are less than half the price than the ones specifically made for riding a bike. A couple of side notes here. I generally on long rides like to mix the combination of Bag Balm and Udderly Smooth. The other note, never use Vasoline or other petroleum products. They don’t work. And if you do use Vasoline, good luck getting it out of your shorts. Before you think I’m going senile, I do realize I’ve written a similar blog before. In the cycling world I get this question more than any other, so I thought it would be alright to touch on this again.
