As we knew would happen from time to time, my brother and I learned a new word this past week. It all started several weeks ago when my brother and I went on one of our longest rides ever and encountered our biggest problem . . . sore butts. We handled the ride just fine but found ourselves unbelievably uncomfortable. We knew that we had to ask for help from our heroes to solve this problem, and so . . . we turned to Twitter.
We asked how we could solve our chaffage problem that was occurring downstairs and two of our heroes, @kelownagurl and @indianabackdoc came to the rescue to tell us about the Chamois and Chamois cream. We thanked them for their help and then we discussed how we would use the chamois and chamois cream to solve our “problem.” It was only then that we realized that neither of us knew what a chamois was. So, we asked our heroes and they told us.
A chamois is the thick pad inside the bike shorts which helps to reduce chafing from the bicycle saddle. For long rides, sometimes the chamois is not enough and many people recommended a variety of different things, but the one that resonated with us was Chamois Cream, which if I understand it correctly is a numbing agent that uses novacaine to force the rear end area to lose feeling when riding.
My brother and I certainly don’t like to have sore butts for any reason and so, with that in mind we plan on wearing our bicycle shorts . . . which contain a/the chamois and will be looking to invest in some chamois cream.