Should mountain or road cyclists shave their legs?

I know you’ve thought about it, and we’ll discuss it today. This marks my annual pilgrimage to shaved leg country. I do it in the spring and stop in the fall; why do I do it? Well, we’ll get to that in a minute.

But first, let’s talk about why road cyclist shaves their legs because we all know that serious road cyclists shave their legs. Discuss why they do it and whether it applies to mountain biking.

Why do cyclists shave their legs?

Here are the top 3 physical reasons why cyclists shave their legs. These reasons apply to road cyclists but not to mountain bikers. Let’s start.

Aerodynamic Advantage

First of all, shaving your legs provides an aerodynamic advantage that applies to road cyclists. But only if you’re time trialing at 28 miles per hour and need to gain a few seconds. This doesn’t apply to most road racers and, indeed, not mountain bikers.

Reduce the Chance Of Getting Infection From Crashes

Another reason road cyclists shave their legs is in case of an accident while resting on the road. This is a valid reason to shave your legs as a road cyclist. And I don’t look down on on-road cyclists who shave their legs, whether they are amateurs or professionals.

Road crashes suck. They suck. If your legs are shaved and you crash, it reduces the chance of infection because you don’t trap the dirt around the wound as easily as you would with hair on your legs.

Also, if you have to put bandages on your legs, which you usually do in a car accident when you remove those bandages, you don’t pull pieces of hair out of your skin. Also, after an accident, you may have to scrape the wound. The road debris and grime out of the wound are much less painful without hair on your legs.

Now, does this reason apply to mountain bikers? Probably not? You’re not as torn up in an MTB accident as in a road accident.

Easier massages

Another reason to have shaved legs as a road cyclist is that you can get a massage. It’s easier for the massage therapist and much less painful for you. Generally, a therapeutic massage is not a gentle relaxation. You’re pushing lactic acid out of your muscles, which can be painful, and having your legs shaved helps get the message across.

Now, does this apply to most road cyclists and probably not. Some get massages, and if you shave your legs. You know, if you’re a serious mountain biker or a cross country runner, you can get a massage, and having your legs shaved will help with that process.

Psychological benefits

So those are the three main reasons cyclists want to shave their legs. There are a few other pros that are not physical but rather psychological.

The first is that it helps you fit in with the culture. I remember the first time I shaved my legs in college when I was doing road races and felt like I belonged.

And also, your legs look better in a road race kit and spandex if your legs are shaved. Especially if you look at someone with really hairy legs in a peloton with a bunch of people with shaved legs, you look like you fit in better.

Intimidation factor Of Shaving legs

Also, there is a more humorous reason why some people shave their legs, which I have heard, and that is simply the intimidation factor.

If you show up at a starting line with hairy legs, people probably won’t take you as seriously as if you showed up with shaved legs. So that’s another reason that goes along with fitting into the cycling culture.

Should Mountain biker Shave Their Legs?

Now the question is, should mountain bikers shave their legs? Well, a mountain biker who shaves his or her legs has many different reasons than the other reasons I listed above.

Here’s my reason why I shave my legs.

I am a mountain biker. I often got kicks and sugar bites on my legs during the summer. I had a lot of tics that I got rid of from my legs. Also, I went through sugar hell after being manhandled by chiggers.

And if you don’t know what chiggers are, they are also called red bugs. And it’s a very intense itch that lasts about seven days. The only thing I’ve found to relieve it is to put heat on it, which will relieve it for a few hours.

Every time I was triggered, I would wake up in the middle of the night. And I would put a hairdryer on my legs or any part of my body bitten by the triggers to get a few more hours of sleep. It’s miserable and what I noticed was that when I rode with buddies who had shaved legs, they almost never got ticks on their bodies or had sugar bytes.

Now, if you ride by something with a tick or mosquito on it and your legs rub against it. I guess you can catch those bugs a lot easier with shaved legs. And so, by shaving my legs, I’ve cut down on the amount of cheating and tricks.

Ticks can be pretty serious. The trigger bites are miserable, and then they go away. But people who have had trigger bites from Lyme disease can be seriously infected.

So it’s not something you want to play with, and again, I had fewer ticks on my legs after I started shaving legs.

I also live in an area that is pretty hot and humid. So I get pretty sweaty in the summer when I ride my bike, and I get a little less dirty, and it’s easier to clean with shaved legs. But I wouldn’t shave my legs just for that reason.

How Often I Shave My Legs?

Now, I cannot stand shaving my legs. It is a pain. I only do it once a week after my first shave, but it still takes up ten minutes of my day, and I don’t like doing it. But when I get flies and ticks, I must do it regularly. There was a summer when I stopped riding for a month just because I didn’t want to go through that again. So going through the pain and hassle of shaving my legs is better than not riding.

So if you’re primarily a mountain biker and don’t live in an area where you can get ticks and cockroaches on your legs, you probably don’t need to shave your legs. As I said, it’s a hassle and a pain to do. And you probably don’t want to go through it if you don’t have to.

Beginner Cyclists Shaving Tips

Now, if everything I’ve said in this article has convinced you to shave your legs, let me give you some tips. If you’re shaving your legs for the first time, use clippers or a hair trimmer to remove the hair on your legs before using a blade. Because it will take forever with a blade the first time, you shave your legs.

Also, you should sign up for Dollar Shave Club; these razors are not high quality, and you need to be careful. Because they are very sharp and they can cut your legs. If you’re careful, it’s a good deal because you’ll use a lot of razor blades when you shave your legs.

So that’s the end of our somewhat humorous discussion about why cyclists, especially mountain bikers, might want to shave their legs. Anyway, I think this is humorous so if you have any questions or comments, leave them below. If it was helpful to you, give it a thumbs up.