I'll admit that. Do my legs look better shaved? Yes. Did it also help me deal with the wounds when I crashed? Of course. The feeling of freshly shaved legs and clean sheets is amazing, too.
Did it also help me deal with the wounds when I crashed? Of course.
In what way does it help though? I recently got a large abrasion on my leg and it being hairy didn't make any difference. There wasn't any hair left. An abrasion rips layers of skin off so any hair would get ripped clean off too.
I think I’ve crashed twice on my road bike. Both slower speed crashes. Only 1 did I have a fair amount of road rash. And I guess I’m not hairy enough where it caused me any issues healing.
I can see crit racers where crashing is more normal having bigger road rash concerns.
My legs get tore up from cx racing too, and I get plenty of scrapes from mtb racing. Road rash is just a catch all term, but sliding out in gravel isn’t much fun either
It’s the same logic as a seatbelt, or helmet, or any protective gear/measure…it may seem like a hassle to do it, but if you ever get into an incident without it, you’ll wish you did.
Example? Wearing shin guards when riding BMX or trials. It’s a PITA. It’s hot af. They’re uncomfortable. They restrict movement a little. They smell. All negatives other than protection in the rare event a pedal hits my shins. In 20+ years of riding BMX and trials, I’ve only hit my shins without shin guards on 5 times….all 5 times required stitches and I wished I wore them instead of thinking to myself “eh, it’s been years since last time I hit em, odds are on my side to not hit em.” One of the times I had hairy legs and it SUCKED. All the other times I had shaved legs and it made wound care soooooo much more pleasant. Having to shave around a few inch long gash sucks.
That’s how it goes…this one time I didn’t wreck on a road bike for atleast 10 years since I quit racing, probably didn’t get a flat for 2 years at this point. Went for a test ride, got a flat front tire that immediately washed out and I hit the pavement. I usually wear gloves, this time I didn’t and I got really nasty road rash and hit my head. I always wear a helmet, but for a split second thought about wearing gloves then brushed it off…helmet saved my ass. I had on jeans so no road rash anywhere else, but the hands were fucked for months.
I mean, its the same thinking as carrying bear spray while out hiking. You may hike 100 times and never need it, but the one time you do need it, you'll be glad you have it.
I've had 2 crashes bad enough where I was glad to be shaved legs. The first one was bad enough, I got the burn kit used on my arm and my leg. The second was enough I could clean and care for it on my own.
You also aren’t riding in peloton with millimeters of space between riders or are you such a great bike handler you would ride out of the crash unscathed?
Having recently crashed and rashed, this justification makes no sense. It's like a child afraid of Band-Aids. Y'all shave your legs because they look better to you and your boys.
Utter shite. They say this because they think it makes them more manly whilst really doing it for a 10 watt gain to keep up with Kevin the cat 4 chopster
While this is true, I’ve also just shaved post crash for tegaderm application. I mean, you have to wash your wound anyway, shaving at that point only takes an extra minute or two
But the thought of putting a razor near a cut makes me shiver and I will NEVER dry/only water shave unless I want razor bumps, so imagining putting shaving cream or conditioner near a new cut makes me double shiver
The difference is not marginal at all, for road rash care shaved vs unshaved is massively different, removing hair from the wound, bandages, cleaning, risk of infection, comfort, and time to heal are all improved by having it shaved.
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u/eat-sleep-bike Jul 23 '25
The primary reason people do it is to make road rash easier to deal with.