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cycling chinos wideMarks & Spencer launches cycling chinos
Forget MAMILs, stockbrokers and mass media claims that cycling is the new golf/squash/bar billiards. You know that cycling has finally cracked the mainstream when that most conservative of clothing stores Marks and Spencer introduces day clothes with cycling features.
That’s exactly what’s just happened with Marks and Spencer’s introduction of cycling chinos. The High Street giant describes the new trousers as ‘Tapered Water Resistant Cycling Chinos’ though there are very few other details about the cycling features on Marks and Spencer’s website.
Made from water-resistant cotton with two percent Lycra to give some stretch, the big game-changer here could well be the price: just £39.50 for trousers that look normal, but are comfy on the bike.
You can see them on the Marks and Spencer Website here.
Road.cc forum user ceepeeee drew the chinos to our attention. He got a pair yesterday and wore them for the first time this morning. He writes:
“First impressions are good - they fit well, are stretchy enough, the poppers to tighten the ankles work well, the reflective details are subtle enough. Can't comment on the showerproof-ness as it was dry.
“Two big plus points: they only cost £39.50 and they come in larger sizes. I have no idea how they compare to similar offerings from Rapha or Vulpine, for example, but as I can neither afford nor fit into them it's not a comparison I can make. Maybe one of the cycling magazines or website will review them but maybe M&S haven't sent any out - until yesterday they weren't even being sold as cycling specific even though there's a big label inside that says ‘Cycling Chinos’.”
Unusually for niche trousers, a large range of sizes is available, and two colours. They’re offered in 30in to 44in waist, in 29in, 31in and 33in leg length and in ‘charcoal’ (dark grey) or ‘stone’ (that horrid light brown that’s the inexplicable default colour for chinos).
As yet, though, there is no women’s equivalent.
John has been writing about bikes and cycling for over 30 years since discovering that people were mug enough to pay him for it rather than expecting him to do an honest day's work.
He was heavily involved in the mountain bike boom of the late 1980s as a racer, team manager and race promoter, and that led to writing for Mountain Biking UK magazine shortly after its inception. He got the gig by phoning up the editor and telling him the magazine was rubbish and he could do better. Rather than telling him to get lost, MBUK editor Tym Manley called John’s bluff and the rest is history.
Since then he has worked on MTB Pro magazine and was editor of Maximum Mountain Bike and Australian Mountain Bike magazines, before switching to the web in 2000 to work for CyclingNews.com. Along with road.cc founder Tony Farrelly, John was on the launch team for BikeRadar.com and subsequently became editor in chief of Future Publishing’s group of cycling magazines and websites, including Cycling Plus, MBUK, What Mountain Bike and Procycling.
John has also written for Cyclist magazine, edited the BikeMagic website and was founding editor of TotalWomensCycling.com before handing over to someone far more representative of the site's main audience.
He joined road.cc in 2013. He lives in Cambridge where the lack of hills is more than made up for by the headwinds.
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45 comments
That be a rule of thumb, but for those of us who are somewhat challenged in the height department, were we to follow your advice we would have to find somewhere else to store kidneys, liver, muscles, etc.
Heightist git!
And precisely what is wrong with being made for 60 year olds? I will certainly be buying a couple of pairs next time I am back in the UK - just as long as they are snow proof as well.
I'll go along with that one.
Jeeees
What is wrong with the internet....
If you don't want to buy M&S trousers, don't buy them. Personally, I think it's good that cycle-specific clothing is being made by the high street big names. I can only see this being a good thing overall. I've worn out too many pairs of jeans in the crotch department riding my bike around town.
This! I don't even have big thighs, how is it I can't even get most trousers on?!
From experience: don't ever try and buy a pair of trousers in Italy. You think cycling wear is oddly sized? Their jeans appear to be for children.
Sir Chris and Jason Kenny has some of Meccanica Cycles stuff. JC fits into their standard straight leg jeans. And they are Made in Britain! Check out http://www.meccanicacycles.com/category/Clothing PS they are a new British brand sizes up to 4XL
Yeah 'some cyclists' are odd sized...most of their heads are bigger than their waist sizes..but some appear to be able to fit them well up their own backsides...we are not all young skinny whippety pups...ya know...I'm off to Aldi to buy some more corny pastiches (sic)
Thanks for bringing it to road.cc's attention; I've ordered up a pair, as my Union34 trews are showing wear. Whilst I'm disappointed that there's no gusset to avoid centre seam, I'm hoping that they may be laterally stiff, yet vertically compliant.
Bloody hell, I must be abnormal with my 32 inch waist.
So because they don't stock your size, you hope they don't sell a single pair.
Thanks for the link, not seen these before. Hopefully I won't need to go up to a 4XL....
Nicely twinned with orthopaedic shoes for that definitive 'no exercise in 20 years' look!
Looking past the hideous trainers, and even the merits of the trousers as cycling wear, the arrival of specifically cycling-designed clothing in Marks & Spencer is a wholly positive sign of cycling's newfound popularity among normal people.
I'll order a pair (in 'graphite', not that horrid beige) and give them a try; I don't expect them to be as nice or as hardwearing as Rapha's or Vulpine's, but then they're one third of the price...
A pair received & tried on; sadly to be returned. The cut gives no taper at the waist, and the active movement waistband lacks adjustment. Will dig deeper & try swrve/vulpine/Rapha next time.
For the money these are worth a try (M&S online will send any size for store collection, and as we know you can always return). Lack the tougher seat of Raphas (and alround a bit of quality to be honest), but the ankle poppers are simple and useful.
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