Camilo

I look at it this way: are cycling clothes any more "fragile" than the synthetic t-shirts, hiking clothes, sports (and regular) bras, etc. that we use? No. And we don't think twice about throwing those things in the washer and dryer - at the appropriate settings of course.

We use whatever regular detergent we're using. I just wash in the regular top loading washing machine, regular cycle, warm water. We use warm rather than cold because with the water pressure in our house, it fills faster, making the cycle shorter. The water's not much more than skin temperature, so I can't see how it would hurt anything, and it doesn't

The only laundry sorting we do is to separate all of the technical/synthetic fabrics (cycling and other) from the regular cotton-type clothes we wear, but that's just so I don't have to sort through a load of wet laundry for the dryer and have two separate dryer loads for a load of washing.

For these technical fabrics I set the dryer at extra low (which, again, is about skin temperature, maybe 105 or so F, ) but they also dry reasonably quickly at the no heat setting. I do baby my most favorite bibs a bit - usually hang to dry.

The only thing I do special for washing bike clothes is that I put my bibs in mesh bags so the straps don't get all tangled up with other stuff when the washing machine spins. I also put gloves in a bag so the velcro doesn't catch on other stuff.

I've never found any of my technical clothes, including bike clothes, to have any problems, certainly not longevity problems, with regular machine washing and extra low tumble drying. This stuff lasts for years and years, and it's not washing that wears it out.