For me I was never into fashion in any sense in any form, so when I got into cycling and I was told to shave my legs, buy very expensive super thin clothing I declined.
So if you are like me and cycling is a fun sport yet you will never go into competition you can wear more casual wear and still be fast.

Another issues for the cyclist who goes long distance is rashes and chaffing. Sweat, heat, and a constant rubbing leads to skin being highly irritated and in some cases it comes off causing some serious pain.

Females may have issues with their feminine parts causing pain and should wear specially designed clothing to avoid this.

You can also buy expensive cycling shorts with Chamois Bottoms for comfort. And you can use special creams for minimizing rubbing.

All this adds up money-wise, and the sport becomes very expensive.

If you are a casual cyclist like me, who does long distance, but is trying to keep the sport more manageable and not so expensive by going overboard to impress others, you can find alternative ways to minimize chaffing and rashes.

This is my simple setup:

Normal shorts. Simple Trunks underwear, mainly because normal short underwear the cotton seams can dig into the inner thighs causing rashes, whereas the trunks don’t have these seams in the inner thighs.
I often wear a singlet, or just a T-Shirt that I have cut the arms off.
And the normal helmet, and some sand-shoes/sneakers that cost around $200 about 10 or so years ago.