Who's shaving their arms?!

:rofl:

Yup I’ve been shaving my arms for over 12 years. Started when I started swimming and now I do it for vanity reasons. Having shaved legs and hairy arms looks weird to me. I’m probably hairy than most so it more necessary for me.

It takes 2 seconds in the shower.

I lost a bet while I was camping with friends when I was 17/18. The penalty was to have one leg shaved. Getting into my sleeping bag that night was very weird. I could only feel my hairy leg and the other was devoid of sensitivity. It felt like I had one leg.

Do it. It’s a crack.:+1:

3 Likes

I’m not going to disappoint my wife so I can theoretically gain 4 seconds over a TT, when my position and clothing would likely cost me 60+ seconds alone. If you’re racing at a level where you’ve accounted for all other major variables, or you like the look/feel, rock on. If you are shaving your limbs to ā€œget fasterā€ and have not tweaked your position, clothing, helmet, etc. then LOL

Bike, position, helmet and clothing are pretty well optimised. I’m sure if I spent a wedge of cash at a wind tunnel I could shave a bit more off but there’s certainly no low hanging fruit. The saving in the link I pasted was 19 seconds over 40k, I’ve had multiple occasions where I’ve missed a podium or could have been a step higher on a podium by smaller margins than that, it’s a meaningful amount of time. If my wife is disappointed at the fact that I trim my leg hair and spend a large amount of time hanging out in garish lycra outfits with other men then she’s hiding it very well, and I’m sure a bit of arm trimming isn’t going to tip her over the edge.

For my wife, it’s a no go, and frankly not something I personally want to keep up with either. I’m also skeptical of any meaningful figures unless your usual look is that of Robin Williams. If you’re at the level where it makes or breaks a race win, by all means. However I think most cyclists just do this because they think its just something you have to do to fit in in the cycling community. Some videos I saw (I believe from GCN tests) showed a savings being there, but much less significant, I seem to recall 4 seconds or .4w or something of that nature.

One more reason to ride gravel. Save on razor blades to buy more tires.

3 Likes

The only issue with LS SS is that they can get very hot. Skin is slow. So that can be a balancing act. May depend on how much you sweat, how hot it is etc.

I have started wearing UV sun sleeves to cover my super hairy arms. They not only provide UV protection so that I don’t have to put on sunscreen, but also provide (I hope) some level of improved aerodynamics.

1 Like

You can get aero arm sleeves for not too much money. I’ve never tried them tho

https://www.nopinz.com/product/nopinz-blizzard-arm-warmers/

Always shave them in the summer. Easier for sunscreen, easier to bandage in the case of road rash.

1 Like

i’m surprised at that aero! i trim them, but when i shaved them I didn’t like how it looked when they started growing back in…

Can confirm. I’ve removed bandages from a hairy arm that was more painful than the crash that required 12 stitches in it. Fark. Now = trim.

I clipper my upper arms as I don’t want to look like a gorilla. I’m 53, it happens to us all eventually :joy::joy::joy:

1 Like

Shaving is just part of the pre-battle ritual - Today is a good day to Tri.

You start with the legs, then wonder about the hairy feet, then how high do I go? Then the arms…armpits? Yeah ok, now your body looks too hairy…and so on.

Then you google Veet and have a good laugh.