From: jbrandt@hpl.hp.com (Jobst Brandt)
Newsgroups: rec.bicycles.tech,rec.bicycles.racing
Subject: Re: A silly question on shaving legs.
Date: 8 Sep 2000 20:31:07 GMT

Forest Reid writes:

>>> I mean, why do road cyclist shave their legs?

>> It's the same in weight lifting and body building, neither of which
>> have any of the excuses so often listed.  At least women don't
>> grasp for such lame excuses for their vanity.  Michelangelo didn't
>> sculpt those beautiful bodies in smooth marble because hairy sand
>> stone looks better.  Muscle definition is elegant and we like to
>> see it.  Men often have a problem with that, both as actors and
>> observers.  All the excuses presented here on wreck.bike are just
>> so much urban legend and have a life of their own.  To repeat them
>> is unabashed trolling.  Deal with it!

> Yeah, you're right in some ways, but that's not the reason we all
> start shaving to begin with.  It's peer pressure!  Pretty much
> everyone feels really funny about it when they start, but they do it
> because that's just the way it's done.

First they are lemmings and must do it because "they do it" but feel
self conscious about it and make up lies for why they do it.  Then
they figure out that bicycling is a weirdo sport anyway and continue
doing it because they are on the fringe anyway... but still tell the
same lame stories why.

> Then, after a year or two of doing it all the time, they get so they
> can't stand looking at themselves with hairy legs, and besides, it's
> all wrapped up in personal identity as a bicycle racer.  It's the
> "secret code" where initiated members can tell who they are.

> But you're right, it does look better.  I can't ever stop bike
> racing now, so that I continue to have my excuse to keep shaving.

You don't need to make it up.  Just flex your leg and show 'em your
sculptured lines.  Why do track riders not wear socks?  The same
reason.  The defo goes all the way into the shoe and since you don't
need socks for sprints, you do it.  I recall guys crashing into
stopped traffic as they looked at their beautiful defo in store
windows.

Jobst Brandt      <jbrandt@hpl.hp.com>

From: jbrandt@hpl.hp.com (Jobst Brandt)
Newsgroups: rec.bicycles.tech,rec.bicycles.racing
Subject: Re: A silly question on shaving legs.
Date: 9 Sep 2000 20:58:20 GMT

Jim Martin writes:

> BUT.... I recently fell coming down Emigration Canyon at 35+mph (hit
> a small sharp rock and instantly double flatted). Pretty darned hard
> fall on fairly rough asphalt; lots of sliding with the occasional
> roll thrown in for fun.  Lots of road rash with hair in it. This was
> my first fall with hairy legs and I can tell you that the wound care
> was MUCH more painful and labor intensive than I ever remember it
> being with shaved legs. Doesn't mean I'm going to start shaving
> again, but it does lend some credibility to the pre-wound-care
> justification.

I take it you weren't injured other than a raspberry or the doctor
would have shaved your abraded areas whether they were shaved or not.
Maybe you can be more specific about the problems.  I can't imagine
the scabs being any different with or without hair.  In fact they
don't break as easily with re-bar in them.  I've had plenty of
experience with the routine.

Jobst Brandt      <jbrandt@hpl.hp.com>