surak

Cycling cap. Wicks sweat, the brim blocks some rain and sun, and I'd rather have hat hair than helmet hair.

fietsbob

People wore cotton cycling caps even under "Leather Hairnets" , so a well established tradition..



...

rumrunn6

assuming you're asking about moderate weather not "winter". I use lightweight stuff, sometimes cotton & sometimes synthetic, but not a cap cuz my helmets have visors

zatopek

With my shaved head, in winter, I need a cap to keep warm. In hot weather, I wear a cycling cap to keep sweat from flowing into my eyes. Works for me.

cthenn

tl:dr the whole thread. Assuming yet another vote for headband. Keeps the helmet a bit more snug on my head, and the headband is necessary in summer for me. Sweat in the eyes during a prolonged, hard effort is not fun.

Wileyrat

Early on I posted nothing under my helmet. Sunday I rode 22 miles into the early morning sun, and I'm tired of that, so I ordered a wicking Garneau cycling cap yesterday.

Hopefully that helps.

NoWhammies

I'm going to give a wicking cycling cap a go. The cotton ones I wear, while good at saving my head and hair from bugs, can be improved upon.

August West

I always wear a Headsweats shorty, except this morning because I wanted to go try on some new helmets after the ride and didn't want to get it all sweated up since I like to wear it when picking out a helmet. Remembered about 1/2 way up the cat 2 climb why I always wear it. Sweat all over my glasses and dripping everywhere making it difficult to see. I ordered a couple more from Headsweats today. They have a few styles on clearance I liked. The things are stupid expensive for what they are but work so well they are worth it to me.

Sy Reene

I liked the headsweats better before they made them all "super duty" and got rid of the terrycloth liner.

WhyFi

The thought of a cotton cap under my helmet gives me the heebie jeebies. Last year, I inadvertently touched a club mate's hat (it was sitting on the table) after a ride - the dampness made me a) immediately decide that that was one piece of club kit that I wouldn't be buying and b) made me thankful for my Giro Pelotons. Oh, and the hat wasn't even cotton, so I would imagine that cotton would be worse.

rumrunn6

I pretty much always bring a change of covering as well. regardless of what I use, about 1/2 way thru a ride I'll stop & wring it out. the cotton stuff I'll change for sure & wrap around the bike or bag to dry as I ride. I'll often change a synthetic as well, but they wring out better & can be used again after a few minutes of air drying

DomaneS5

Summer skull cap for road and gravel rides in the warmer months. Thermal beanie in the winter.

The skull cap serves 3 purposes.

1. Keeps UV rays off of my pale, bald scalp
2. Keeps ticks off of my scalp on gravel rides
3. Keeps sweat out of my eyes

mstateglfr 

Cycling cap on every ride regardless of temp. If its cold, i add an ear band over the bottom of the cap.

80% of the time, the cap is backwards with the bill over my neck. It gets turned the correct way when I am riding into the sun when its low in the sky.
My most often worn cap is cotton and the other is polyester, and neither is washed after every ride(eek!). I dont really care if the cotton one doesnt dry quickly- all i want is coverage for my head, neck, and to keep sweat out of my eyes and the cap does those things.

I should probably clear out the other 6 or so caps from a drawer since i never use them.

jadocs

If you ride hard you have to have something on your head that wicks sweat otherwise you will sweat so much it will get all over the inside if your glasses and in your eyes so much that you will be riding with the one eye that burns the most closed, while trying to see out of the other eye that burns slightly less 😂

Rides4Beer

+1, don't like the super duty ones. Just found some of the regular ones on Amazon, ordered three of them.

Sy Reene

hmm.. last year I thought I had found the regular ones, as the Amzn listing didn't say Super Duty, but nonetheless they still came in with SD construction. Good luck

Rides4Beer

The picture looks exactly like the one I have, so hopefully it's the same, I'll let you know when they get here. It's the only one I like wearing. I'll wear the super duty ones I have if I forgot to wash my other one, but I hate them. lol

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

NoWhammies

This is the problem I am currently having with my hats. In some instances the sweat builds up and gets in to my eyes. Or the sweat hits my glasses and then causes other vision problems. Worse still is when the sweat and sunscreen get all mixed up and THAT drips down.

Anywho, a wicking cap is definitely something I need to look in to. That said, as I mentioned earlier I do like the look of the Walz caps.

jasnooks

Helmet?

UniChris

Forgot the headsweats when heading out for Wednesday's ride and even though it wasn't that hot, the sweat in my eyes made me really regret it.

Harumph

Summertime, no. Wintertime, yes.

noodle soup

It blows my mind how many people don't wear anything under the helmet in the summer months.

UniChris

I think it's the intuitive illogic of it - "I'm already hot, why would I want to put on even more?" But you learn about why others find it useful, you give it a try yourself, and you discover that it actually works.

Opting for a long sleeve jersey required some similar willingness to consider if there might be less obvious effects.

Rides4Beer

They're the originals! Also, they turned out to be black and grey, which I like even better.