Embrocation still a thing?

[bahyow]

Embro just reminds me of college era cold rides in New England. Now, I'm a cold weather pansy, kinda miss the post-shower burn...felt like you were alive.

Watching the spring classics, the announcers definitely made references to embro.

[Spoker]

Just walking into the pre-race dressing room was intimidating; the real racers are here!

[Gummee]

Originally Posted by Pegoready

The embrocation era was a good one. I remember these things well:

• Hitting refresh on the Belgium Knee Warmers blogspot every morning
• Rim brakes and 700x25 tires
• Being hard and doing dirt roads on said 700x25 tires and 53/39 crank
• Clip on fenders, filthy drivetrains
• Bib knickers
• ISP bikes from Ridley, Gualzetti, and Speedvagen
• A magazine called Embrocation. Also, Roleur.
• 3T Rotundo bars and other round bend drop bars
• Classic Flite, Regal, and Concor saddles on your state of the art road bike
• Nemesis tubulars
• Cotton cycling caps under your helmet
• iPods and corded headphones on the bike, sometimes
• 10 Speed drivetrains

What a time to be into cycling! (I'm still into half of these things)

you mis-typed 19c there tough guy.

The rest? I didn't do Rotundos, prefering other bars. Love Flites. Pretty much always ran Mavic tubular (and still do)

M

edited to add: tho I rode mostly on 23c Supercomp HDs back then

[krooj]

Originally Posted by oldguy00

... during the Velocipede/cool kids era ...

Side note: I want this era to come back so bad. It was just... better.

[Likes2ridefar]

It doesn’t do anything so that may be why, unless you consider skin irritation that creates a warm feeling affect to be actual warmth. Perhaps it is powerful enough to convince the mind to move blood still to extremities dodging the survival response?

[Mark McM]

I wonder if emobrocation has the opposite of its intended effect, and actually makes you cooler? In cold weather, the body naturally reduces blood flow to the skin, in order to decrease heat loss. Embrocation may make the skin "feel" warmer, probably in part by increasing blood flow to the skin - but that may actually end up reducing core temperature. In days of past, they would often give an alcoholic drink to people suffering from hypothermia, because this would make the person feel warmer. But in reality, the alcohol would interferer with the person's thermo-regulatory system, making the situation worse.

Another thing I wonder about is even if embrocation makes a rider's legs feel warmer, does it really increase blood flow to the muscles/joints? It is generally best not to over-stress the muscles and joints until having a changes to "warm up" (increase blood flow), so if a rider feels like their legs have warmed up before they are really ready, could that result injury if they push too hard too soon?

[oldguy00]

Originally Posted by Likes2ridefar

It doesn’t do anything so that may be why, unless you consider skin irritation that creates a warm feeling affect to be actual warmth. Perhaps it is powerful enough to convince the mind to move blood still to extremities dodging the survival response?

I actually do agree with this, and was always how I felt about it. Its just a mild chemical burn. But it does make your legs look shiny lol.

[oldguy00]

Originally Posted by krooj

Side note: I want this era to come back so bad. It was just... better.

Haha, they were def interesting times. I still remember the pics a certain member posted of himself wearing like full body armour to keep himself safe on road rides.......lawsuits almost happened....

[ghammer]

Edited to refer to the ointment.

If I were still racing I'd use it. Nowadays, it's legwarmers only. BTW embrocation does work, but it's a ritual and one has to respect the process.

[jkbrwn]

I think the OP was about embrocation - as in the balm you put on your legs in the cold - but it has transformed to a discussion about the publication?

[KJMUNC]

Funny, a racing buddy from 20yrs ago recently posted about using embro and I thought "is that still a thing?!"

When we lived in MA I considered it but never did.....no need out here in SoCal

oh yeah, I still wear a Mapei cotton cap under my helmet on virtually every ride :-)