Technique: Don't let your bike eat your pants

Posted at 10:52AM on Apr 24, 2008 by JayPloss

As long as you're riding a bike with no chain guard, you'll need to be watching out for getting your pants/skirt/shoelaces/ankle hair caught in your chain. Here are some quick solutions to this perpetual problem:

1. Roll up your pant leg. You can do just one (dorky but you can own it) or both. For a trimmer look and better chain-avoidance you can make a pleat in the leg before you start rolling. You'll see the pants-tightly-rolled-up-to-mid-calf look on a lot of messengers and faux-messengers. This works well, but is time-intensive if you're just gonna unroll again when you get where you're going.

2. Use some kinda gadget. MEC sells cheap reflective velcro leg wraps. Techno-dorky, and annoying because they add to the commuting paraphernalia you must wrangle. The visibility boost is real as long as you wash them if they become completely caked in filth.

3. Tuck your pant leg into your sock. This is both immensely dorky and my favourite method. Unless you're wearing long pants and sandals (why?), you'll nearly always have a sock handy when you need one. The tuck is fast (again, pleat for maximum effect), and you can get rid of it without bending over by just tugging your pants out of the sock. If you want to salvage some semblance of dignity, tuck both legs and then pull the fabric of your pants down over the top of the sock so that you can rock it like Tintin. Sweet! [It has been noted that guys' socks tend to be longer than gals' socks. Your mileage may vary]