Anyone have any good tips to stop my handlebars stinking after a hard workout?
I cut a towel in half and used a piece over each hood the other day which seemed to help but wasnt as comfortable as using just plain bars so I may scrap this.
Iv just got hold of a second fan which iv set up to aim at my hands and arms so will see how this goes.
Other than this do I just accept the tape will get ruined over winter training and replace it each summer.
Think part of the issue is that it is cold at the moment so even when I wash the bars they still smell as they don’t dry out.
I have a folded hand towel on my bars and a fan blowing on my hands.
I do the towel on the bar thing too (yeah, its not as comfy as bar tape) and adjust it through ride to distribute sweaty spots. I also find wristbands are a must for when I race. I have a wall fan above the TV that I set a timer on for a few hours after a race/ride plus a dehumidifier is on permanently in my bike room.
I found this really annoying as well. I didn’t care for the towel deal so what I do is get a really cheap set of bar tape and only wrap the bars on the tops to the hoods. I don’t ride on the drops very much on Zwift anyways. The after they start to show signs of the nasties I dump the tape and use the other half for a fresh set. I can get two wrappings on the top out of one set. Not the cheapest way but its works for me. Also gives me a reason to do a deep cleaning of the bike in the middle of the winter indoor season and get some of the sweat grime off bike.
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i wrap my bars with self amalgamating tape instead of bar tape for indoors. there’s no padding but it’s not like you’re gonna hit any potholes. or if you don’t need the grip for sprinting you may as well just leave them unwrapped
I’d say to have a big industrial fan blowing on your hands - if it is powerful enough then I find I don’t sweat so much.
For that purpose I have a 450mm fan on the floor angled up underneath the front of the kickr bike.
Small home pedestal fans are just not enough. This is the exact one I use:
Only if I’m riding flat out do I need to use the second speed. The third speed will blow down walls!
I have a small towel nearby but usually don’t need it.
Thanks I did think about trying this and wrapping over my current tape to see if that helped but wasn’t sure if I never wrapped it right it may end up trapping more sweat inside.
The fans I use are really good so il see how it goes with them but I may try the sweatbands on the wrist.
Do you think using a cheap pair of gloves would be better or worse? As I’d think they should stop more of the sweat getting onto the bars but don’t know if your hands would end up getting too hot and sweating more inside
This is a great idea, I replaced my tape last week but didn’t think of just wrapping the tops.
My pain cave is my garage so it’s pretty cold in the winter, too cold to switch my fan on before I warm up. I then find that if I don’t turn it on at the right time I get too cold when I do if already very sweaty… So I end up sweating more than in the summer when I have the fan on full from the start.
That’s why I got the remote fans as it’s to cold when you first start then you can up the speed as you need more cooling.
Done a 2hr training session and didn’t seem to bad today with a fan on my body and then one aiming at my bars, will run this for a while and see if it improves will also use a towel every now and then to wipe the sweat off my arms and hands
I always wear bike gloves and wash them in the sink frequently.