Stinking riding gear

Have you tried some Halo sports wash on it?

Halo

There are "Sports Cleaners" like Halo - or Eco versions of it.

Or leave it out in the sun (not the best time of year I guess 🙂 )

Hmmm... halo sports wash it is!!

Or Milton?

Napisan.

If it's that bad I'd soak it overnight & then wash.

Dettol Laundry Antibacterial Cleanser Sensitive
Solved all my Merino wool washing at 30' issues and I have skin and nose more sensitive than most.

Another vote for the halo and also the dettol antibacterial wash in in place of fabric softener.

Defo get them out to dry as soon as they finish too - not least damp in the machine for any time.

I had several items that were constantly horrid (shorts particularly) until i used the Halo + Dettol anti-bac.

Oh, and I've found that draining the water out of the washing machine (with the syphon/ drain pipe usually near the filter) + clean the filter beforehand will also help - don't wash the rank old water into the clothes that's stayed in the machine since the last wash !

white vinegar will stop them smelling. not even smelling of vinegar.

lots of different methods from soaking to adding to washing on the internet. i just poured a load in the drawer and did a normal wash. it left the clothes smelling fresh.

Halo sorted some older base layers / t shirts for me. Took a few cycles of washing / wearing / washing but it got there where normal laundry detergent didn’t.

dettol antibacterial wash in in place of fabric softener.

Fabric softener does not belong in anyone's house if you care about your sports/technical clothing. It doesn't even soften a lot of stuff...it's just perfume!

draining the water out of the washing machine (with the syphon/ drain pipe usually near the filter) + clean the filter

Empty boil wash with vinegar, or a machine cleaning tablet would be better as it will clean all the scum behind the drum 🙂

Original question...I also use Halo, and if I want to chuck some normal clothes in with my riding gear they just get the Halo treatment too, I hate doing partial loads!

Hall works to an extent but leaves stuff with a slightly different stink

Fabric softener does not belong in anyone’s house if you care about your sports/technical clothing. It doesn’t even soften a lot of stuff…it’s just perfume!

+1

+1 on make sure the machine is cleaned. Ours has a tub wash setting - clean filter, pop it on that and the amount of gunk back in the filter is eye-opening.

Also, what temperature are you washing at and what powder? We used an own brand for a while and my baselayers began to hum. Swap back to Persil and they don't. We also tend to do 40*c minimum.

Vanish/supermarket own brand 'stain remover'/Napisan is all the same stuff - Sodium Percarbonate

We have a lot of riding and running gear washed at 30degC with one of the above (whichever is on offer), and it all comes out pong free.

I've found a couple of washes with Vanish stain remover gets rid of mild stink.
Potent stink it's time for the napisan, find that is a bit more effective.

For anything non-waterproof (or where the DWR coating has long since gone), I chuck it on the longest cotton cycle with some oxy cleaner. Seems to do the trick. Especially this time of year when inevitably wet kit sits in a basket for a while before getting washed.

And +1 for washing machine cleaner/descale.

While all the solutions are good, depending on what the kits made from will have an impact on how well it responds to being cleaned. If the bacteria are well imbedded between the fibres it may be that no amount of solutions will remove the smell every time you get a sweat on

sorry

Antibacterial wash can damage some clothing.

I use Assos sports wash. It seems eye-wateringly expensive at £20+ for 1l, but you need very little, only a capful per wash, so it works out not too bad. And it's brilliant at keeping down smells. Significantly better than Halo sports wash in my experience.

I sweat a lot and I leave wet/sweaty kit in a basket for several days, and the Assos stuff cleans it easily every time.

I know that freezing trainers/ riding shoes when they get stinky works.
Perhaps try that, I leave my shoes in my car overnight in winter when I know it'll be a really cold one.

Especially this time of year when inevitably wet kit sits in a basket for a while before getting washed.

It does? I tend to hang anything wet/manky up in a corner somewhere if it's not likely to be washed for a couple of days. Or drape it over the top of the basket.
And if it's really muddy/wet/manky it gets a quick wash in a small load first (my machine has a "tiny load" mode) or in the olden days of 2010, chucked in a bucket and soaked/rinsed with soapy water.

Clean the washing machine thoroughly including the filters and run one of those empty load boil washes. Chances are that some of the stink is actually manky water being washed back through the load.

And then as above, Halo or Assos Sport Wash or Dettol antibacterial wash should sort most of it.

While all the solutions are good, depending on what the kits made from will have an impact on how well it responds to being cleaned. If the bacteria are well imbedded between the fibres it may be that no amount of solutions will remove the smell every time you get a sweat on

interesting.

I use just cotton t-shirts to ride in and many of them smell fine, then as soon as i start wearing them, its almost like fresh sweat activates the ground in stick and i start kicking up a right pong!

I will give some of the above mentioned products a go and see if i can get it out!

While all the solutions are good, depending on what the kits made from will have an impact on how well it responds to being cleaned. If the bacteria are well imbedded between the fibres it may be that no amount of solutions will remove the smell every time you get a sweat on

I'm not convinced, if it's not getting clean perhapse, but I've got lots of kit that's significantly older than 5 years that doesn't have any issues. Including things like baselayers where I don't care if they're a bit threadbare in places.

Nuclear option is the "whites" oxy cleaner which has bleach in it. Doesn't seem to affect synthetic fibres so the colour is fine, but probably best kept away from merino etc. And the occasional 40 (regardless of whether it says 30 on the label) rather than the usual 20 wash.

I find Halo sports wash does a good job at keeping the smell away but once an item starts to stink, there is no way back.

I've used the Nikwax BaseWash/BaseFresh combo in the past which is occasionally on special offer somewhere (like Go Outdoors).  While the BaseFresh (which is a conditioner type product) does leave a slightly chemically smell initially, that smell does go after drying and does seem to help for the next few wash/wear cycles.

Worth a try anyway.  as the name suggests they are for baselayers not outers.

I've put a few things in the freezer. Sealed in a zip-lock bag to help prevent free-thaw damage. Seems to work as well as any of the detergents. That is, it works for a bit.

I've found the best thing is to not worry about smells. My wife disagrees.

Bicarb worked for me.

Wet the clothing, sprinkle bicarb onto the cloth but target the smelly bits like the underarm areas. Leave over night then wash as normal.

https://home.onehowto.com/article/using-baking-soda-to-remove-bad-odours-from-clothes-1550.html

use just cotton t-shirts to ride in and many of them smell fine, then as soon as i start wearing them, its almost like fresh sweat activates the ground in stick and i start kicking up a right pong!

One of the worst things for embedding stink into clothes is deodorant, as it leaves a feint smear of, well, deodorant, on the armpit of the clothing which rarely washes off properly. This gives bacteria a lovely place to live, and when it heats up on next wear, the bacteria get working, and the pong begins.

So, unintuitively, if you want to pong less, put less deodorant on (and for riding/exercise gear, why use it at all, you're going to stink a bit anyway if you get proper sweaty).

I’m not convinced, if it’s not getting clean perhapse, but I’ve got lots of kit that’s significantly older than 5 years that doesn’t have any issues.

sure there are no hard and fast rules here. Clothes that have been frequently line dried, or washed at a higher temp may be less effected. It also depends on your own microbiome. As a general rule clothes made with cellulose or wool fibres; the bacteria cling to the material, for clothes made from oil, they tend to congregate in the spaces between the fibres. So any remedial treatment for man made stuff needs to be soaked in solution overnight.  (vinegar or baking soda) to prevent re-bloom -  the sudden increase in bacteria once you put on cleaned, but previously sweaty clothes and get warm again.

so, wash inside out, wash quickly after wearing, expose to UV (sunlight). But that’s for new stuff, for older stuff it could be that there’s no way anything you do now (as bacteria is well established) is going to work.

I used to live with a P&G scientist, it’s literally all she talked about

Halo works to an extent but leaves stuff with a slightly different stink

Yes my OH complains about the smell of Halo.

I use just cotton t-shirts to ride in and many of them smell fine, then as soon as i start wearing them, its almost like fresh sweat activates the ground in stick and i start kicking up a right pong!

I have cotton t-shirts like that but they have never been worn riding, just during the summer. Drive in a hot car for a bit and they stink.

@v7fmp @molgrips I have exactly the same problem with cotton t shirts and what I find is that a blast in the tumble drier on full whack after they’ve been through the washing machine seems to kill off the residual nasties for a few washes at least.

I have a number of old cycling jerseys, some merino blend, which still look great but start to hum soon after wearing and I’ve thought about trying the tumble drier trick on them too as nothing else has seemed to work (dettol, white vinegar, bicarb, halo… never tried an overnight soak though).

Don't tumble dry the merino, unless you've recently lost a lot of weight....

Dettol Laundry Antibacterial Cleanser

This has worked for our kit too and pretty easy to find in supermarkets. We sometimes use it for general clothes washing too.

Just lob a sterilising tablet in every sports wash (with normal detergent). Job jobbed. Cheap and effective.