Expensive shorts, worth it or waste?

[up hill struggle]

interested in this thread thought id check out some of the items you lot were talking about & oh my god, now i am the first to admit that im a tight stingy git & bought a few pairs of lidl specials last week as my first venture in to the lycra clad world of cycle riding & was trying hard to justify spending £10 on a pair of shorts but ive just came across bib shorts on a few sites at £278.00, do these come with golden threads woven into the fabric? Or come with a massage function built in to constantly rub baby oil on your plums while your riding to increase fertility?

Seriously £278.00 for shorts why so expensive? that's £38 more than my bike cost. For that kind of money id expect them to do the peddling so i could sit back & relax. Being blissfully ignorant can somebody explain why (unless you were in the tour de France & needed every advantage you could get) would anybody spend that kind of money on something that is basically going to cover the plumbing. When ive heard you guys & girls talk about dear shorts i kinda thought may be £80-£100 max

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

<snip> Being blissfully ignorant can somebody explain why (unless you were in the tour de France & needed every advantage you could get) would anybody spend that kind of money on something that is basically going to cover the plumbing. When ive heard you guys & girls talk about dear shorts i kinda thought may be £80-£100 max

that bit is essential to sitting on the bike for an extended period of time, day in, day out...

the ones I purchased have worked out at less than £20 per year which I have no issues with. I commuted in them, I have toured extensively in them and I would not be without them, having tried much cheaper ones and know how bad some of them can be!

 

[the_mikey]

Dhb pro race bib shorts, best shorts I've ever had, you can spend more money on other 'premium' brands and get a lot worse.

 

[welsh dragon]

I must admit, I'm a bit of a cheapskate. I have 3/4 tenn shorts, that cost me less than £20.00 and I also admit I'm more than happy with them. On the other hand I freely admit that I don't do anywhere near the mileage that some people on this forum do. Maybe when I up my mileage, I'll feel the errr need to buy more expensive kit.

 

[vickster]

I buy my shorts from mid range brands in the sale. It helps that I tend to be at the larger end of the sizing and can get some good prices on clearance. It also means some brands simply don't fit me - DHB for one, higher up the tree Castelli, Mavic, Rapha, Assos

 

[zizou]

If i could only afford one expensive bit of kit then it would be a good quality pair of bib shorts (assos is my prefered brand). Some people are lucky and get along fine with budget shorts unfortunately. The price is difficult to stomach but as it makes a huge difference to my riding enjoyment i feel it is money well spent at the end of the day.

 

[up hill struggle]

each to there own i guess, i do know this though, if i was to home at any point & inform the other half i needed to spend a mere £278.00 on a pair of shorts id be told that its my decision but the money may be needed to put towards the divorce.

when riding the motorcycles i could have justified to myself the need to spend big money on tyres, clothing, helmets. Quality helmet saved what little amount of brains i had at 17, Good boots saved my lower right leg being removed in another accident at the age of 18, hundreds spent every 2-3 yrs kitting myself out in the best i could afford from a safety point of view.

but i don't think that i could ever justify £278 on pair of shorts unless i won the lotto, in which case id be a pair for each day of the week & a pair for each member of the the cycle chat forum with matching tops & helmets & shoes of course.

 

[Dave 123]

Worth it....I've got several pairs of Assos bib shorts and wouldn't ride without them.

And we're all thankful for that......

 

[jazzkat]

each to there own i guess, i do know this though, if i was to home at any point & inform the other half i needed to spend a mere £278.00 on a pair of shorts id be told that its my decision but the money may be needed to put towards the divorce.

when riding the motorcycles i could have justified to myself the need to spend big money on tyres, clothing, helmets. Quality helmet saved what little amount of brains i had at 17, Good boots saved my lower right leg being removed in another accident at the age of 18, hundreds spent every 2-3 yrs kitting myself out in the best i could afford from a safety point of view.

but i don't think that i could ever justify £278 on pair of shorts unless i won the lotto, in which case id be a pair for each day of the week & a pair for each member of the the cycle chat forum with matching tops & helmets & shoes of course.

While I can't argue with your sentiment and I'd agree that £278 is a lot of 'hard earned' for a pair of shorts, it's 'only' £23 a month or £5.80 a week if they only lasted a year. Some of my 'lesser' spendy shorts are many years old.
As I ride at least four times a week (usually 3x 1hr ride and a long one, 3hr+, at the weekend) thats £1.45 a ride.
£1.45 a ride to have my backside cosseted?
Sounds like a bargain.......... where's that credit card?

 

[GreigM]

I thought spending £20 on some bib shorts at Decathlon was a bit too much

 

[Shut Up Legs]

The expensive shorts are worth it if you do a lot of distance, because the cheaper ones can result in some pretty painful saddle-sores.

 

[up hill struggle]

I thought spending £20 on some bib shorts at Decathlon was a bit too much

see, now that's more the kind of price range i would be thinking about, i ain't never gonna ride the kinda distance that requires £278 shorts. For me that's what the car is for, lazyitus is a hard condition to get rid off. Besides northern Ireland ain't that big, our longest motorway is only 27 miles or something along those lines.

 

[Matt-g]

Anyone considered a gel seat as an alternative instead?
I did this (after a sit bones measure) and now buy cheap shorts(aldi, lidl, etc) as the seat has a gel pad

 

[up hill struggle]

Anyone considered a gel seat as an alternative instead?
I did this (after a sit bones measure) and now buy cheap shorts(aldi, lidl, etc) as the seat has a gel pad

when i bought my first bike ( mountain bike) that was my first upgrade the original felt like i was sitting on a razor blade, ass was cut off me after the 2nd ride so the seat was replaced for the 3rd ride improved ride & comfort by since getting the hybrid i haven't got round to fitting the gel seat, original hybrid seat seems to be pretty comfortable.

 

[Garethgas]

I did 102.5 miles recently wearing a pair of 'George' denim jeans purchased from Asda for £6, and had no problems at all.

(That was before the hot weather kicked in. Were I to repeat the endeavor now, I'd probably convert them into shorts using a pair of scissors.)

Steve

Your poverty is embarrassing.
However, I too regularly do 50 to 60 miles in the more up market Matalan jeans. I've never had the need for all these girlie shorts.
I never had them as a kid (not even invented) nor as a teenager, nor an adult, and not even now in my later years.
A brooks is all you need