Pinning on your race number

Get some thin double sided tape. Then get someone to stick it on your lower back.

Won't flap around and its easier to attach your number while wearing your jersey.

or just get someone to pin in on for you while you're in you "aero" position.

wear a semi seethrough gillet over your jersey with your race number.

Attach the number as lower as you can (but be sure it is still in your jersey and not in your lycra 🙂 )

The best idea I have heard is 3M adhesive spray...comes in an aerosol can. Spray a little on the back and your number is a big sticker!

Crunch it up prior & then smooth it back out - then I just use 6 or 7 of those small stupid safty pins depending on the location. Left side 3 on top 2 on bottom & 1 in the middle on the left - For the center 3 on top 2 on bottom & 1 on each side in the middle.

Fold the number to a smaller size (whilst ensuring it is still visible) and use lots of safety pins ie. 3 on each side.

Quoted post said:

Originally posted by GuyStevens
Fold the number to a smaller size (whilst ensuring it is still visible) and use lots of safety pins ie. 3 on each side.

That's fine if you don't mind the very real risk of not being scored or DQ'd. As an official, I really resent riders who make my life harder by making their number less visible for some perceived negligible benefit.

i say that your best bet is to put the number on with the jersey not stretched at all or even slightly bunched up. Then when u put the jersey on, it takes up any slack in the number. the slack is often caused by the fabric of the jersey sliding along the pins due to improper placement and/or alignment of the pin itself.

main point of this is not to pull the jersey tight as it seems many of you have been doing, but to pull the number tight (or slightly loosen the jersey).

A few tips:

1) Take a whole bunch of extra pins to the race with you.

2) Fold it to make it smaller

The best tip though is to make two holes in both the number & jersey with each pin: Go down through the number and fabric, then back up though the number & fabric before fastening. Do this parallel to the edge of the number. This way helps to keep it flat. To stop the parachute put more pins along the top edge.

Or... how about if we just skipped the whole number [censored] and WROTE them in ink on our calves/arms like in triathlons??? Or issue numbers that go where the head tube meets the top/down tubes? I don't understand all this attention to $1300 wheels, only to wreck it w/ paper numbers.

I put my jersey over my steering wheel of my car then use at least 6 safety pins to hold that sucker in place.

Quoted post said:

Originally posted by HKP

The best tip though is to make two holes in both the number & jersey with each pin: Go down through the number and fabric, then back up though the number & fabric before fastening. Do this parallel to the edge of the number. This way helps to keep it flat. To stop the parachute put more pins along the top edge.

HKP hit it on the head.
The above technique is called flat pinning and is the only way to do it. I use 8 safety pins and flat pin each corner and then the middle of each side and get no air under my numbers. I saw it done at a TT a number of years back and haven't pinned a number on any other way since then.

You rarely see close up pictures of the pros numbers but if you do, chances are they'll be flat pinned.

flat pinned or stuck on. A lot of the pro races have numbers that are actually just a big sticker and stuck directly to the fabric with no space for air to get under it.