Cycling Stinks: A Response

Nast

Fatty of the blog Fat Cyclist recently posted an old blog post of his about the stink that is an inseparable part of the sport of cycling. I had thought about the topic before, but definitely not in as great a detail as he visited in that post. I encourage you all to check it out: it’s good!

Of course, as a semi-serious rider, I have noticed the different sorts of stenches associated with mountain biking. What I realized after reading Fatty’s post, is that I have come to enjoy the stink. I’ll (or at least, I used to before I got married) go for several weeks without washing my cycling clothes. Being a dirt poor college student, I always wear the same ones. It brings me satisfaction to pull on my clothes and smell the mustiness of sweat mixed with mud.

Fatty mentioned that cyclists build up a olfactory immunity to this smell. I bet that I have built up something of a resistance as well. This is a really bad thing for the people around me. Yes, it would be bad for anyone. But as has been proven to me time and time again by my now-wife, my noise is generally dysfunctional. Yes, I have a handicapped nose. Chronic allergies impair my ability to smell, and while I definitely do have a sense of smell, it is not nearly as acute as the average person’s. Add on to that a resistance to the normal odors associated with riding, and that’s not a good situation.

I feel sorry for the people around me when I reek like that. Funny thing is, most of them are polite enough to not even mention it.


Fatty and I aren't the only ones are we?  You smell too, right?