I don’t think of myself as a heavy sweater and it isn’t terrible hot where I live, but recently I’ve been training a little harder and annoyed by substantial sweat running down my forehead and into my eyes. It seems like my helmet pad gets saturated and then it’s just a stream.
Thoughts on how to manage the sweat? A cap, different glasses, helmet with more airflow, just a new helmet pad?
Thanks!
I’ve tried the Gutr (silicone band with a front channel to catch and redirect sweat) and a Halo (sweatband with a silicone strip along the forehead to redirect sweat). The Halo worked best and fit well under a helmet. It also works well on the trainer on its own. The Gutr was too thick and had to rest below my helmet, wouldn’t stay in place, and leaked.
Normal sweatbands would just delay the inevitable until they got loaded up, at which point I would get a flood of sweat into my eyes
I’m a lifelong heavy sweater. I wear a GripGrab summer cycling cap under my helmet and it works. It’s a good design as it doesn’t have a particularly long peak, so your vision is not obstructed. Sweat tends to gravitate towards the peak, then run off away from your eyes. For someone with zero hair on top living in Australia it’s also a good idea to wear a cap under your helmet to avoid UV exposure.
There’s been a thread about this on here before. I ended up trying a Halo skullcap off the back of that with some success (helmet fit dependent as it can add a bit of thickness), but now that I am back riding road more I have gravitated back towards caps.
My issue with caps (also being in Australia and also being devoid of good hair coverage) is that they vary in fit and thickness. Those GripGrab caps look good in terms of being a light weight fabric, so I’m going to grab a few colours - thanks for the recommendation, @Howard_Duncan.
EDIT: Found it - it wasn’t so much sweat management as skull cap recommendations, but the discussion kind of verred in the same direction:
Definitely give your pads a good wash. I went from mostly okay to sweat in the eyes constantly with the pads doing nothing, turned out I’d tried a sunscreen with a waxy substance in it and it had effectively made the pads waterproof.
Been using a Merino wool sweatband for some years and has been sensational at soaking up lots of sweat (there is no fabric better for moisture management than Merino wool) and it’s made and sold by Snowgum in Australia. www.snowgum.com.au
As a further bonus they’re on sale at the moment - Merino Accessories – Snowgum
Should say that A$15! And their beanie has also been excellent for riding when a bit cold. Moisture management in the cold makes a massive difference to comfort. Their base layers are great too, but Merino long johns with no fly are less attractive than other brands to some.
Good idea! I’ll give that a try, thanks!
Lots of good ideas, thanks all!
I tend to sweat a ton and use a Halo sweatband as it’s the best hot weather solution I’ve found yet. I’ll add that I also wash my whole helmet once or twice a month. I just take it in the shower and soap it up, pads, straps, everything. That helps reduce the stink as well as that nasty eye sting.
As my hair has thinned I’ve discovered that I can’t run or cycle without a headband, cap or bandana to wick away sweat. I find that anything made for the job works okay, especially with a well ventilated helmet.
I’ve found that helmets where the brow pad extends to the front lip of the helmet do a good job of diverting sweat away from your eyes and glasses. I have a Bell that does this but I think some Giro models have a similar set up.
Im a profuse sweater, outside a cap does the trick on all but the hottest, slowest rides. I’ve tried halos/gutters but find they’re not up to the deluge I can produce and the cap just works better. Indoors I use bandanas (tied Rambo-style), and keep one or two of fresh ones next to me to swap out when they get saturated.
I use a buff - full buff in winter, doubled over as a skull-cap into which I can tuck my ears (magpie season) and a buff cut in half in summer as a wide, light headband. That’s enough to wick the sweat from my forehead and allow it to evaporate away. Cheap, easy.
I HATE when sweat drips onto the inside of my glasses.
I am also a HUGE fan of the Buff headbands (CoolNet UV® Wide Headband). I actually ride with them all year round as in the winter, if it is chilly out, I just tuck my ears into the headband. They are fairly wide so I don’t need to worry about putting sunscreen on my forehead and then it dripping into my eyes.
I have an Oakley helmet where the forehead pads is rubber, not fabric. It looks kinda like a windscreen wiper. What this means is it keep sweat away from the eyes quite well if I go fast enough, but it all flooded down once I stop or slow 
.
I have been using cheap lycra looking headband with this helmet and it works quite well, no sweat!
That Oakley forehead pad is good. When I used it I found that you could feel the sweat building up and tilt your head to one side to allow it to drain.
I semi-successfully transplanted it into another, more comfortable helmet once too (POC, I think), although that did mean trimming the original pads.
That said, it’s still not as much of a certainty to prevent the dreaded sweat-inside-your-glasses-lens drip as a good old fashioned cap.
I like VeoStrip; you can get a free sample from them to try.
Single use, but they also provide an envelope (US anyway) to send them back for recycling. You can get them online from several places.
I don’t like sweat going anywhere on my bike, and the channeling bands keep sweat out of my eyes, but it ends up dripping on my top tube. I use Headsweats bands to absorb as much as possible. I get about 90 minutes out of them before they are saturated.
But back from my motorcycle roadracing days where sweat would hit the inside of faceshields under braking, is a maxi pad on the forehead brow. I will put one on the inside of a bike helmet for long, hot rides. You would not believe how much fluid those things absorb and hold!
+1 for HeadSweats. I use the Shorty and it has only failed me once in 8 years’ use- about 3/4 up a 2 hour climb in 90 degree weather. Otherwise these work well for me.
I tried the Halo but settled on Assos Robofoil skull caps (I suspect they have some other weird name now). In the summer they do a better job of cooling my head as well. They also have head bands but they aren’t up to the task for my level of sweat. In the winter I use their autumn weight which is fine for a Perth (WA) winter.
I need something as otherwise I can barely see where I’m going with sweat in my eyes.