Personalized cycling shorts
Outside of your bike and its key components, and of course your helmet to protect your head, cycling shorts might be most important bike gear purchase you make.
We always suggest prioritizing “contact points” when thinking about upgrading your bike. What more important contact point than where your backside meets your bike seat?
Cycling shorts are critical to anyone who spends much time on a bike. A good pair of cycling shorts will prevent saddle sores, reduce chafing, and make the overall cycling experience much more comfortable. Additionally, having the right quality cycling gear will help you be more responsive and safer on the bike, reducing the distractions caused by discomfort and allowing you to focus on the road or trail ahead of you.
Construction Quality. Build quality is important in all of your cycling gear, and that goes for your cycling shorts as well. A good pair of cycling shorts will be made of reliably tough material that is suited for your intended use. The shorts will have strong stitching that should last through many, many wash/wear cycles, but the stitching should be flat against your skin.
Seat Pad. Seat pads are woven into the saddle area of the shorts, and usually made of chamois. Chamois is a napped cotton-flannel blend that acts kind of like moleskin on your bottom, making sure that any friction between your body and the bike seat is minimized. Outside of a proper bike fit, the chamois pad could perhaps play the most important role in keeping you comfortable on a long ride. A good seat paid will have as few seams as possible, seamless stitching into the pants, and just enough cushion to keep you comfortable. Some cyclists apply a cream — chamois cream — to their shorts to reduce friction even more. We suggest not taking that gooey step unless you really need to. Most cyclists don’t. Just be sure that your seat bad gives you the comfort you need on long rides. Besides having major comfort benefits, studies have shown that a good seat pad, along with a quality bike seat, can reduce worries about certain health issues and function in male cyclists.
Leg Grips. One of the areas where the cheap bike shorts show their inferiority is in the leg grips. Having a bad leg grip is a quick way to make you throw a pair of cycling shorts into the trash. Imagine a scratchy or rough leg group on your thought, rubbing you just the wrong way as your leg goes up and down 50 times per minute. Yeah, you want good grips. A good leg grip will have enough elastic to keep its firmness for many rides, but will be completely smooth to the touch and offer nothing abrasive or uneven.