Bib Shorts

wtjs wrote:

feeling sorry for the family he spending all this time with if he does a hard session on the trainer and then just goes about his day

This seems to be a common delusion, presumably carefully fostered by the deodorant and laundry products industries- most of the smell is on the clothes. Indoor training = sweat pouring out like rain, which is a wash in itself. Personally, I wouldn’t be online telling strangers how to accomplish ‘personal hygiene’

Genetics can also affect whether sweat is smelly or not, so it’s quite possible to be drenched with sweat and yet not have an offensive odour.

wtjs wrote:

No time lost afterwards as (I hope) you’ll be showering anyway

Oh dear! Unwonted interference in personal preferences

feeling sorry for the family he spending all this time with if he does a hard session on the trainer and then just goes about his day.

rich96 wrote:

rich96 wrote:

This may be a longshot, but due to family committments i am struggling to fit in sessions during the day on my turbo. I was wondering if I could remove the hurdle of having to “get dressed” for training and use a slightly padded saddle and no padded shorts. Anyone have experience or tips?

No more than 2 minutes to put bibshorts and cycling shoes on for the trainer. No time lost afterwards as (I hope) you’ll be showering anyway.

My tip would be don’t risk

My tip would be don’t risk significant discomfort that will possibly end up keeping you off the bike for the sake of saving thirty seconds changing clothes! For cycling for any significant distance/effort nothing can compete with proper padded cycling shorts, definitely worth the inconvenience of changing.

Cycling bottoms are designed
Cycling bottoms are designed on the expectation of riding with no underwear. The thinking is about avoiding rubbing and underwear can get rucked up depending on style.

Having said that, it may take a while to settle on a pad design that suits which will vary from person to person because we are all different shapes. For example, I’ve had to abandon using one set of longs because the seam for the bib happens to coincide with where my todger likes to live, and 80 miles of rasping on a seam just doesn’t do it for me!

If you are new to riding with a pad, the other issue is saddle design and fit. People tend to look for a soft saddle when riding without pads, but when riding in padded bottoms, excessive softness of the saddle combined with a pad both increases the chance of too much friction and also can cause pressure in the wrong places (ahem!) for all genders as you tend to bear weight through the cheeks which on a soft seat allows the saddle and pad to deform at the sides putting pressure in the centre as both pad and saddle compress at the edges leaving the couple of thick layers of foam able to push up in the middle. Cutouts are highly popular these days and are very effective for avoiding the most undesirable effects on your procreative fittings.

I had a lady customer who found riding most uncomfortable. She was riding with a soft saddle, two(!) padded covers and cycling shorts. Got rid of the two covers and things massively improved.

They are designed to be worn

They are designed to be worn next to the skin, although it’s not a hard-and-fast rule. In winter I often wear underwear for a bit of extra warmth and don’t have any problems (provided you use proper sports underwear and not standard cotton underwear).