Just wondering if anyone has any tips for drying cycling gear during the day at the office after morning commute in and before commute back home....I have an electric rack dryer type thing which is ok'ish but only dries strips of the clothing and does not have a very big capacity for all the winter gear...
Nothing worse than putting on damp cycling gear (well apart from the damp helmet!!)
Can make the area where I dry them quite whiffy too (albeit this is a gym so semi excusable...)
Hand dryers? I can use the hand dryers in the toilet to get them to dry a bit faster, you can also use the kitchen roll stuff / blue roll to roll wet clothes in to get the outer layer of water off, squeeze them in that and it can speed up drying.
Room for a desk fan under the drying rack ? - they work surprisingly well. When I had space, I'd hang my kit on hangers off a shelf, and had the desk fan blowing the clothes dry.
Currently, I don't have the space - open plan office, so I bung my kit on top of an oil radiator I managed to 'blag'. If that 'went' I'd be snookered. Just sweaty clothing will probably dry enough just hung on hangers, but if it's wet, you'll need additional 'drying' capacity. TBH our facilities are shoot considering we are a 'green travel' promoting employer.
We do have a drying cupboard, but it's in a stupid location and involves getting changed one side of the building, walking to reception for a key, then walking again to cupboard, then walking back with key, then again to the office. Takes some planning and you are snookered if someone has the key. Was also pretty minging when the chain smoking motorbiker put his leather jacket in there to dry - wet stinky smoke.
We've go drying rooms, just some unused meeting rooms repurposed with some dehumidifiers, fans, heaters and boot dryers etc. Works really well. But thee are 20-60 cyclists in the office using it.
When it's just me in an office I just bring dry kit and bag up the wet stinky stuff to wash when I get home. Not-quite-dry kit is mingin, especially if it's had 8 hours in a warm office to develop it's own stinky microbiome.
Get your company to splash out on one of these, they’re invaluable in the winter if you commute on the bike.
http://www.pekodryingcabinets.co.uk/products/peko-ed-1900r-drying-cabinet-new-model/
Desk fan and hangers if you have room and a handy power socket
These
I can do most of my clothes wet except socks and shoes. These have been really good and a spare pair of socks in your back at the bottom takes up no space
I run IT (for lots of companies over the years), so in the past we always had a datacenter/server room where I could hide kit to dry. Apparently cold air drys stuff as fast as warm 🙂
My team hated my stuff being in there (even though I would hide it from view), but I was in charge so TFS! All cloud now so... pah!
We've got a tumble dryer in the kitchen which is very useful during mid-winter. There only tend to be a handful of us riding in through the year. Other than that, any radiator gets covered in damp boots and so on.
its all about air circulation - the desk fan under the heater drier suggested above is the best idea..
Cheers for the tips folks...much as those Peko dryers look the business I doubt the company will fork out £1k to dry my smelly cycling undies.
Sounds like the desk fan combined with what I already have plus some of those Drysure things for the shoes (with spare socks taken in with me) should do the trick - or certainly worth a go!
i put mine in the airconned comms room 🙂 although you may not have acess to yours to do so...
Mine dries okay- it’s all horrible man made fibres.
We have a dedicated drying room.
I rode to work for years. The first company had literally no where to dry kit so I'd ride back home in wet gear. Putting it on was never fun but after a few minutes ridding I was warm (ish).
The other place I had access to the air-conned server room so I'd put the wet gear in there. Appreciate a most people don't have access to air-conned rooms!
Cheers
PCB
I keep a spare set of cheap gear at work. Doesn't take up much room, only used a few times a year when its been heaving it down but is well worth it for those occurances
I've certainly had to ride in wet gear in the past - ride into an office that's not your base, attend meetings, get back into sweaty kit, blurgh. Best was having my own office, so just hung stuff on hangers and used the fan - anything soaked went on the radiator.
Open plan offices take more prep. Was able to hang my stuff in the store cupboard last year, and used a USB powered fan or two from a phone charger battery pack, but no longer as we moved desks.
I find a wind tunnel @ 40°C works very well! It's a reasonably niche office set up though.
I keep a spare set of cheap gear at work. Doesn’t take up much room, only used a few times a year when its been heaving it down but is well worth it for those occurances
This. Just buy an extra set of gear and wear fresh stuff for the ride home.
dehumidifier with laundry mode ? (it's what yachting types use when the weathers too bad to hang it on the rigging)
Spare test room with AC on and a rack to hang them on.
A fan on the shoes if soaked.
Hangers and an unoccupied heated store room. Leave the bike at work and blag a lift with really wet kit and in the morning with dry kit. Cycle home
I put mine in the boiler room, works brilliantly
+1 for data center. Works very well. I also have a pretty big AI training machine with 4x GPUs. That's nice to dry and warm your shoes/gloves
If you turn everything inside out then if it’s synthetic and quick drying the critical next to skin layer will feel pretty dry come home time.
Get there dry(ish) . Huger mudguards , decent over shoes etc. Then keep turning it around and let the air get to it.In the summer I keep a pair of old shorts at work for the ride home.
Thinnest, fastest drying lycra possible
I use the potter's kiln room which is lovely and toasty. (Slightly more niche than plant or data rooms).
