Encove Blog

Lycra and Xpandx is a manmade yarn that has natural elasticity but needs to be kept clean or it begins to break down. Although the fabric which is popular in cycling shorts contains elastane is usually used in Lycra, Spandex or Xpandex, one hundred percent elastane would be very uncomfortable to wear, as it wouldn’t breathe at all and it would be like wearing a plastic bag so it is blended with other fibres to make Lycra type materials . Depending on what the material is used for, the percentages vary, but the amount of elastane needed to give the fabric stretch and rebound is surprisingly little.

As with any mixed fabric, this can give problems as one part of the mix wears differently than the other. This is usually the cause of pilling, when the base fabric has short fibres which break and mesh together to make an annoying and ultimately very uncomfortable little ball on the surface. The appearance of these is usually a sign that the fabric will soon be going into holes and there is little you can do to prevent it. Keeping cycling shorts maintained by frequent washing is one way to stop this happening prematurely, as the sweat and body oils which accumulate within the material only serve to speed up this process.

A good way to prevent shorts wearing out too soon is to keep a couple of pairs in use at the same time. The old phrase ‘one off, one on and one in the wash’ could have been coined for precisely this situation, as by following it you will make sure that your shorts are always clean and fresh. By having at least three pairs, you won’t have to dry them in the tumble dryer because you need to wear them straight away, which will also add to their life as the pads won’t ruck up or wrinkle and the Lycra fibres won’t be exposed to excessive heat, which makes them break down more quickly.