GlennR

What do you use to clean your kit in the washing machine?

Ghazmh

Tide or whatever is on sale. I use a very small quantity however and wash on the hand wash setting.

indyfabz

Laundry detergent?

hrdknox1

I use Tide pods Sport Odor Defense and Tide liquid Sport Odor Defense. The pods go in the drum, and the liquid goes in the pre-wash drawer. I wash the bibs and jerseys inside out with the zipper closed. I put the machine on pre-wash and wash with cold water. I hang dry.

SethAZ 

Gentle setting, cold water, normal Tide pods, and then hang them out to dry rather than subject to the wear and tear of the dryer. These aren't diesel mechanic overalls or whatever that might require some special stuff - as far as I'm concerned they're the easiest kinds of clothing to clean, not the toughest.

rumrunn6

regular detergent. but sometimes I use spray-n-wash on the armpits. best to wash it all right away & not let any sweat dry into the fabric

Twang -O- Doom

Atsko Sport Wash, the best thing for getting the stink out of sports fabrics.

August West

Whatever I happen to have on hand. Using Persil now I think since I ran out of Tide. Bibs & Jersey's go in with whatever else is getting washed. Just did a load today in with the sheets. If I wore high dollar gear I probably wouldn't do this but with the inexpensive stuff I wear I don't really care and have never had a problem anyway. Only rules are to zip up all zippers and made sure not to let any of my wool socks inadvertently go into the drier.

CadenceCrazy

If any gear has somehow picked up a dastardly case of mega-funk through no fault of the wearer, I recommend Sink The Stink. It is designed to remove noxious leftover scents from maltreated wetsuits and other water gear. It isn't designed to remove major set in stains but does an outstanding job removing any funky orders.

canklecat

For light duty washings, whatever "free and clear" liquid detergent I have around.

For heavy duty funk, mud or grease from bike chains, Tide liquid or pods.

Usually I hand wash in lukewarm water and hang to dry over the tub with a fan blowing.

JohnDThompson 

Unless the garment has special care instructions, it gets treated just like the other laundry.

RidingMatthew

I use some sort of sport wash detergent in cold water on hand wash cycle. I hang to dry.

skidder

Regular liquid laundry detergent. The only bike-specific clothing I have are shorts. I typically hand wash in a basin of cold water/soap (also throw the gloves in the mix); knead them, let them soak for 10 minutes, then knead again. Rinse, then hang to dry in the backyard.

FWIW: I've also used shampoo for washing, too. I had some off-brand unscented baby shampoo that I never used, so rather than throw it out I used it for washing shorts. Worked fine, and the bottle lasted about a year.

sdmc530

we use All Free and Clear detergent. My son has sensitive skin so that is that. I just use less when washing my cycling stuff. I wash it alone and unless the tag says something very specific I just was like everything else. No issues over the years. I have bibs in the rotation from PI, Spec. and Bont.

rumrunn6

since I'm working from home I thought I would skip a day of deodorant. weird, even tho I showered & didn't exercise yesterday the under arms of 3 garments had to be laundered, t shirt, shirt & light fleece jacket I wear off & on & slept in last night. wonder if it was the hummis I ate?

wipekitty

Nothing special for my bike kit. It goes in with the regular clothes on cold with regular laundry detergent. I usually air dry it, though.

Hydrogen peroxide is good for removing blood. I'll put some vinegar in if the clothes are particularly funky. (Also works well on smells from cats and teenage boys.)

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.

rumrunn6

tried something last night. some might think inappropriate but I thought it was smart. I often take a bath after a ride & shower off to rinse. I stop the tub, add epsom salt & bath soap. but yesterday, afterwards, I considered the amount of clean bath water & that I wanted to wash some hand towels & my riding clothes. I'm riding more now so there are more small loads of riding gear. this time, while I started the machine & added detergent, I also added several buckets of bath water. so at least I saved some water for the 1st fill of the wash cycle

Phil_gretz

My wife does the washing, I help with hanging and folding. We use Tide and wash riding gear with regular clothes.

BlazingPedals

It all gets treated as regular laundry, with one exception: shorts go on low heat in the dryer.

HeyItsSara

I get my stuff used and or cheaply so I don't fuss over it much. wash on hot since my building's hot water isn't all that, and dry on low with a couple of towels.

Ross520

Hand-wash only with perfume and dye-free detergent. It doesn't take long, and honestly, it's become almost a ritual for me. I understand that most clothing companies design their products to withstand a machine wash, but why wear-out your kit faster if you don't have to? I can understand Jerseys, but some bibs very delicate, almost like silk (at least that's how my Pearl Pro bibs are), one would have to assume you're significantly shortening their lifespan by machine washing.
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Koyote

Dreft, and not much of it. It's gentler than regular laundry detergent.

Gentle cycle, light tumble dry on lowest setting, air dry to completion. Only exception is for wool and wool-blend jerseys, which see no dryer time.

Sy Reene

I don't understand why there'd be any additional wear putting stuff in a machine. I look thru the window of the front loader.. and see the clothes simply sloshing around in some soapy water. Not sure how doing some type of scrubbing and washing by hand is gentler?
Anyway.. I use the same Tide free&gentle on cycling clothes as we use on the rest of our stuff. I do air dry on plastic hangers though.. just because this stuff dries so fast anyway so why not.

RGMN

Nathan Power Wash. I wash all my sports gear (cycling, skiing, running) separately from our regular clothes. Learned long ago that normal laundry detergents can cause "the funk" in technical gear. Tried a couple of other technical gear detergents but the Penguin Power Wash that Nathan Sports later acquired worked the best, and got the funk out of some of my older cloths.