(moderate electronic music)
- [Matt] When away from home on a training camp,
a cycling holiday or even a multi-day event,
it's not always easy to get your cycling kit
cleaned and laundered.
Not all of us have the luxury of a soigneur
to come and collect our smelly kit,
wash it in the team bus and deliver it the next day.
So what can you do?
Well I'm going to show you, old-school style.
Often, all your kit needs,
if it's not actually muddy,
is a simple rinse through.
As you can see, my kit is actually pretty clean,
but I've been sweating profusely out here
in the mountains, in the Dolomites today.
So what I'm going to do is kill two birds with one stone:
clean me and my kit in the shower.
Using soap or shower gel,
gently work the lather into your kit,
concentrating on your chamois in particular.
Then simply rinse everything through under the shower
and then launch it over the shower and into the basin
which is generally perfectly positioned next to the shower.
Then give it a big squeeze
to extract as much water as you can.
Now dirtier kits, splashed with mud etc,
is going to need a little bit more of a soak
to get rid of that grit and dirt.
So as soon as you get in from your ride,
fill up the sink, you can even use the bath as well,
put in some shower gel
or a little bit of soap,
scrunch it around a bit once it's full up,
and then leave it to soak
for about half an hour or so.
And then after half an hour has passed,
rinse it through using clean water in the sink,
or alternatively if you want,
you can take it in the shower and rinse it there.
Now this is the cool bit.
I actually learned this technique
way back in the 1980s when I was on a stage race.
Basically what you do is lay out a towel on the floor,
get your jersey or whatever bit of kit it is
that's freshly squeezed out, okay.
Then lay it evenly spaced out on the towel itself.
Okay, and then roll up the towel quite tightly,
just like this, just like rolling up a bit of pastry.
Roll it up, remember to keep it tight.
Then twist the towel as tightly as you can.
Not too tight, but pretty tight,
and basically what will happen
is the towel will absorb pretty much all,
or nearly all, the residual water in the jersey.
Then unroll it.
It's pretty much effectively like it's been in a spin dryer.
Not perfectly dry, but this now,
once it's hung up, will dry very, very quickly.
Great tip.
And then it's just a matter of hanging your kit up
as high as you can, because it's generally warmer
in a well ventilated area, like so,
and your kit should be nice and dry by the morning.
No one likes a wet shoe.
It doesn't even bear thinking about.
And this one is remarkably easy.
First off, with your wet pair of shoes,
take out the insoles.
That'll help them dry far quicker.
And then get a newspaper
and gently, not too hard, stuff both of your shoes.
And that'll help to absorb the water
very, very quickly indeed.
It just takes a few minutes and the result is,
even if your shoes aren't perfectly dry,
they'll be good to go the following day
and you won't get cold and damp feet.
Once you've stuffed them with newspaper,
put them somewhere that's nice and ventilated,
and they should be ready to roll the following day.
That took about 40 seconds.
Please make sure you let us know
how you got on with those tips
and also we'd like to know
about your washing hacks and tips as well.
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Now for another cleaning/washing type video,
click just up here for how to wash your bike in a hurry,
and back to the mechanical stuff
because this weirdly is mechanical Monday after all,
click just down here for five roadside mechanical hacks.
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