tips for hand-washing motorcycle pants?

[breakdirt916]

I commute daily in them, so after 2 months of soaking up summer-sweat, entrapped farts, residual poo odor, salty rain, and grundel dampness, they STINK.

When I take them off after getting to work, I can smell them from 4 feet away.

What do you guys do?

Fill up a tub with hot soapy water, let them soak, knead it a little, wash out the soap and hang it to dry?

Can you dry it in a dryer without damage?

Will the velcro lose some of its ability to adhere?

Will the pants shrink?

Does water get trapped in any particular location (leading to mold)?

Don't say buy new ones.

[Ducrappy]

buy new ones

I have no idea how to clean riding pants, but it might be helpful if others knew what material your pants are made of. Are they leather? textile? I doubt you would want to submerge leather in water.

[SSearchVT]

I clean my leather pants with Armor all leather wipes for the outside. I turn them inside out and then sponge clean the inside with cold water and liquid laundry soap, and then go back over them with just a damp sponge and hang them up to dry.

Textile pants you should be able to hand wash and rinse in either the sink or a wash tub with cold water and liquid laundry soap, and then hang them up to dry.

[patricia929]

not trying to be a wise ass, but i thought that most items of clothing had labels sewn inside them with the washing instructions.

if that doesn't work you should probably buy new ones

[RandyO]

I put mine in my jacuzzi

[MsHap]

What are they made of?

What do they smell like? eeww


Oh, buy new ones.

[taylor]

look for a motorcycle fetish forum - some pervert would probably pay you lots of money for them

[snowborder]

dry cleaners

[breakdirt916]

They are textile pants, and all the instructions on the tag say, are:

-Hand Wash Warm Soapy Water (with a picture of a hand reaching into a tub)
-do not dry clean
-do not iron
-do not tumble dry

Ok...so this is what I did:

-took out the armor
-filled up a small tub w' hot water, mixed in some regular clothing detergent (I think my parents use Tide...so that's what I did), added more water
-turned the pants inside out, and slowly placed a 10" section of the pants into the soapy water...made sure it was soaked, removed it, and continued w' each 10" section of the pants until the whole thing had been exposed to soap
-I smelled it...still stinks
-I slowly lowered all of the pants, folded up, into the tub of soapy water and let it sit for a few mins
-I took the pants out, replaced the soapy water with clean water, and rinsed
-I placed the pants in the shower and ran water over it until there wasn't any bubbles left
-I tried hang-drying it, but it took too long. So I threw it into the dryer using regular dry, and checked for it the next morning
-everything looked fine (the pants didn't shrink, and they came out dry), and from a regular distance (ie. from your waist to your nose), you can't smell anything

But when you hold the pants up to your nose, you can now smell a mixture of soap and remnants of the wretched odor

The smell is not all noticeable, but from up close, it's still there. So this weekend I'm going to try a longer soak with more soap. The instructions on the tag weren't all that helpful.

[breakdirt916]

Originally posted by taylor
look for a motorcycle fetish forum - some pervert would probably pay you lots of money for them

wow

[richw]

Your done

Fabreeze them now

If there is any soap left you lost your waterproofing

NIKWAX has water proofing and other cleaning stuff for fabric pants.

All else fails petruli oil (sp)

[Currently]

Next time, take a shower before riding and after riding ...

Next time, before washing, go to Agway and get some odor neutreulizing solution and spray the pants down.

Let it set for a while and then wash with Woolite.

[typeone]

my washing machine has a setting called 'ultra delicate', i flip it to that for my textile pants, remove armor, toss 'em in with regular detergent (small amount) and run the cycle.

air dry in dryer for 20min, hang on rack to fully dry

they still look new (except for super ground in dirt) and smell frrresh.

[ancosta]

Originally posted by Bhavesh
summer-sweat, entrapped farts, residual poo odor, salty rain, and grundel dampness