Lightweight towels

Stuck on a Giant
Stuck on a Giant Posts: 256
edited May 2008 in Tour & expedition
Off to Brittany in a month's time and looking for towels to take - have seen the felt-like ones, fibre ones, and the ones like artificial chamois. Any thoughts on what it best? and what size is needed?

Thanks

Comments

  • heavymental
    heavymental Posts: 2,076
    I've used one of those Pack Towels and its awful. You just end up pushing the water around! Then again, I think they're supposed to get better after a few uses but I think I'd just take a small towel in future and hope you get enough sun to dry it off easily.
  • andymiller
    andymiller Posts: 2,856
    I hated mine. I got a nice little microfibre which works well, seems to dry reasonably quickly and isn't too heavy.
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  • ThatGuyOnABike
    ThatGuyOnABike Posts: 198
    i got a lifesystems soft fibre towel from blacks and it seems to work fine. don't buy cheap though cos i did that once (£4-5 i think from lidl) and got a towel that created static (???) and felt like carpet against the skin.
    In the valley of high oil prices the cyclist is king!
  • ThatGuyOnABike
    ThatGuyOnABike Posts: 198
    oh and size wise get the biggest one so you can use the corners for your face and the middle for the rest.
    In the valley of high oil prices the cyclist is king!
  • megilleland
    megilleland Posts: 786
    Plenty of comment herefrom past post.
    The more you spend - the faster you go - the less you see.
  • PHcp
    PHcp Posts: 2,748
    I use a small micro fibre cloth from the pound shop and a good quality cotton hand towel.
    The cloth gets me nearly dry and the proper towel is far better for the last bit than any of the expensive camping towels I've had. The two together pack in about the same size as a large travel towel. The only downside is that the cotton one is slower to dry.
  • Magnus Thor
    Magnus Thor Posts: 239
    I've been using a "Pack Towl" from Cascadedesigns for the last few years. The trick to using it is to get it wet before you start drying yourself off. Wring the water out of it, dry yourself, wring it again, dry again and so forth. Gets you quite dry. I usually enter the shower in my cycling shorts and rinse them off, then after I wring most of the water out of them, I wrap them in the Pack Towl and wring them again, that way the shorts are almost dry when I hang them out by my tent.
    The good thing about these packtowels is that they work even when wet, since you can just keep wringing them and using them again...


    Magnus Thor
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  • ut_och_cykla
    ut_och_cykla Posts: 1,594
    Agree with Magnus - tho' rest of family hated theirs I love my pack towl. Doesn't get 'siffy after a few days of dampness either.
  • kluged
    kluged Posts: 6
    I bought a Tesco OneBody sport-towell the other day. I've only used it once but think it's pretty good. It cost 4.99.

    I'll reiterate the previous advice that you need to keep wringing them out as you dry yourself off.
  • Squeak191
    Squeak191 Posts: 24
    I own one of the Life Venture soft-fibre towels and whilst they are great as they do pack up small - you really need to get the biggest size you can afford. I'm a petite 5ft 3" and I have a Large size towel. I really wish I'd got XXL size towel!
  • daviddd
    daviddd Posts: 637
    the Lifeventure ones are great - mines lasted for ages after much use still works very well, Dries very quickly too.
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  • vernonlevy
    vernonlevy Posts: 969
    ut_och_cykla wrote:
    Agree with Magnus - tho' rest of family hated theirs I love my pack towl. Doesn't get 'siffy after a few days of dampness either.

    They are great for drying the tent flysheet too!

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