Le maillot
An ultralight clothing kit
This is the second story in a series about bike traveling.
The first part “Le vélo: An ultralight travel bike” is worth a read if you fancy some inspiration for an ultralight bike setup.
In this second part I outline my clothing choices both on and off the bike, let’s start with the jersey, or in French, “le maillot”.
Le maillot
You can probably go on a road-trip in jeans and a cotton t-shirt, but you’ll quickly get uncomfortable: Chafing and over-heating will become an issue.
A cycling jersey is great to prevent this, synthetic and wool materials are light, breathable, moisture wicking, they dry quickly and the body temperature always stays nice. The other advantages of a jersey are pockets, usually 3 in the back, providing space and direct access to stored foods like energy bars, gels, a can of coke, a bag of peanuts, a local draft beer, champagne, or other random snacks.
The fancier jerseys also often provide a fourth zipped and waterproof pocket, this allows to safely store electronic devices like a phone, and sensible things, like a passport and cash. I also usually store my house keys in the zipped pocket.
Bright colourful jerseys are a great way to stay safer on the road. Anything red, orange, pink, yellow, will do a great job to improve one’s visibility.
A Castelli summer base layer below the jersey allows for better air circulation between the skin and the jersey, cooling down the core body temperature, and lowering the hearth-rate.
Down to the shorts, I use so-called “bib shorts”, they come with braces and prevent the shorts from moving while cycling, they also provide some padding for the bottom… and you want padding… you need padding.
Shorts are also nice to store more food because you can slide energy bars up the thighs. I find this to be even easier to access than pockets in the back.
One last thing about shorts: You do not want to wear any underwear in them, this will only create discomfort, chafing, and bruising… I’ll explain how to keep this precious area comfy and clean in a future post.
Apart from these essentials I also used cycling gloves from Specialized, a Garmin hearth-rate monitor to control my efforts, comfy cycling socks from Castelli, Oakley cycling glasses, and one of the lightest helmets on the market: the very ventilated Giro Aeon.
The shoes I use are the Giro Grynd, they are very versatile: they provide good grip, are Shimano SPD compatible, solid, breathable, stiff in the sole, and remain comfortable enough for walking, they are also pretty light compared to most mountain bike or touring shoes and don’t look too much like I’m coming from planet cycling while walking around in a city.
A few ultralight cyclists also recommend the use of minimal running shoes or futsal shoes because of their low weight and comfort off the bike. I really like the feeling of clipless systems though, so I went for bike shoes.
La garderobe
During time off the bike, or while I was washing my kit in a lake or a hostel sink, I changed into other clothing.
The previous principles also apply to these extra pieces of clothing: lightweight, breathable, and quick to dry. I also require them to be functional, and not already part of my baggage (except for a second pair of socks). There is also no space for another pair of shoes, or my favourite bright hipster shirt.
Based on these rules I added:
- a running t-shirt
- swimming shorts: not only useful for swimming.
- a second pair of socks, fresh.
- mountain-bike overlay shorts, they also feature a small pocket to carry my phone and papers.
- a headband, like a buff in case it gets cold around the head, the neck, etc.
- a cycling cap when it gets cold or rainy on the bike.
- a cycling vest, for when it gets cold or rainy off and on the bike, it also features 3 pockets, and a fourth waterproof zipped pocket.
This is all I had, and it allowed me to be very adaptable. I enjoyed jumping in a lake the very first day, I walked around in my “off bike” clothes like I’m going for a run, but I was just eating ice cream. I didn’t get cold or wet thanks to my vest and cap on the bike, and always felt very fresh when I changed my socks.
To summarise: you want to pack lightweight, breathable, functional and purposeful clothes.
In future articles I will dive into self care, packing, and camping.
Feel free to leave comments if you would like more information about some subjects, I’ll try my best to answer and update this story with more details.
You can always cycle naked if you like 🚲
