Last week we asked you to tell us your favourite bib shorts. We've counted the votes and the results are in. Here's the top ten.
Note: we don't claim any great scientific accuracy for this, especially as write-in polls are awkward things to count. But it's pleasing to see many of our favourites are there, and we're looking forward to getting our hands on a set from a very successful newcomer to see if they're really that good.
10) Endura FS260
10 votes
Stofish says: "Expensive but not stupidly so, comfort is as good as any other and to my experience harder wearing."
8) Sportful Bodyfit Pro
13 votes
GustyBH says: "Classy look & real all day comfort."
8) DHB Aeron Pro
13 votes
dches1 says: "The most my budget stretch to is DHB Aeron Pro. I think for their price they're excellent, no cause to complain! Lovely and comfortable over all distances (for me, anyway)."
7) Lusso ProGel
14 votes
Curly says: I'm a big fan of the Lusso Pro Gel, the only one where the pad hasn't gone flat after 5 years and hasn't started to fall to bits like other makes. I have had Castelli and similar and their Lycra doesn't hold together like the Lusso ones and its great to buy a brand make in Britain
5) Rapha Pro Team
15 votes
paulrattew says: "For me it is the Rapha Pro Team bib shorts. They are supremely comfortable for riding super hard or for long days in the saddle. The chamois is lovely - slightly different from the one in the Rapha Classic shorts and an improvement. The lycra is really supportive, the grippers deep and comfortable. Plus they look great. If you damage them crashing Rapha will do their best to repair them. They are horrifically expensive, but this is the one area where I don't want to skimp."
5) Castelli Free Aero Race
15 votes
Castelli fans are men and women of few words, it seems, but the X2 pad is what people like about these shorts.
4) Castelli Velocissimo Due
18 votes
markfireblade says: "No question even at normal retail prices."
3) Howies Men's
24 votes
Al__S says: "Mainly seamless construction; lovely "classic" matt black finish; no bright colours; subtle; comfortable; good value. What's not to like?"
2) Rapha Classic
28 votes
VeloVert says: "Classy as hell, with the matt finish being a little less showy than the Pro Team shorts. Pad is epic; I did five hours on Sunday having never done more than two before and the one part of me that didn't hurt was my backside. Expensive, but you truly do get what you pay for."
1) RedWhite The Bibs
41 votes
rosscompton says: "I recently got a set of 'The Bibs' from Red White. They're far better than everything else I have. A great pad that is perfect for a long ride and really comfortable grippers. Can't recommend them enough!"
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Road.cc buyer's guides are maintained and updated by John Stevenson. Email John with comments, corrections or queries.
Our official grumpy Northerner, John has been riding bikes for over 30 years since discovering as an uncoordinated teen that a sport could be fun if it didn't require you to catch a ball or get in the way of a hulking prop forward.
Road touring was followed by mountain biking and a career racing in the mud that was as brief as it was unsuccessful.
Somewhere along the line came the discovery that he could string a few words together, followed by the even more remarkable discovery that people were mug enough to pay for this rather than expecting him to do an honest day's work. He's pretty certain he's worked for even more bike publications than Mat Brett.
The inevitable 30-something MAMIL transition saw him shift to skinny tyres and these days he lives in Cambridge where the lack of hills is more than made up for by the headwinds.
43 comments
41 votes?
Hmmmmm, can't help but think that somebody might have voted for themselves here.
Eh? Never heard of em! That's so fixed!
I only voted for them 40 times. There's something funny going on...
RedWho ? 30 years riding and not heard of them either.
I have heard of them, all though i didn't vote for them.
i do recall them mentioning to their fans/users/etc about the competition, it seems that perhaps their followers like them after all!?
Shame Galibier.cc didn't get a mention, as good as anything here, probably better, and a smidgeon over £50 they are a STEAL.
...and I agree, this stinks. FIX!
Were the votes counted in Tower Hamlets?
been going just over a year and they suddenly have a bigger fan base than Rapha, Castelli and Endura....of course they are the favourite in the UK
Credit where credit is due, they obviously galvanised either their mates or their fans (all 41 of them) and obviuosly, nobody else could be arsed to do so. Good luck to them, fix or no fix, it's nice to see the little guys win the day for once.
Wot no Assos?
Bank busting Assos not on the list, shame!
This is a dumb article. The sample size means the results are statistically insignificant. As for wotsit getting 41 votes and no Assos!
dumb dumb dumb.
They're all at it. Get over it.
EDIT: My original comment was flippant, but really this whole article sums up the utter corruption in cycling. Even an innocent question about which are your favourite nylon knickers for riding a bike gets perverted by some no-mark chancers who dope the vote.
And we expect the blokes who race each other AFTER a 200Km bike ride to stay clean? Fuck this shit!
Maybe I'm thick, but if people had liked an alternative enough surely they would simply vote for them rather than wait and be a miserable keyboard warrior...
Would love to try some of the Rapha gear but I don't have a Pinarello so....
Just joking I'd give it a try only I can't afford at the minute. Very impressed with any of the Sportful gear I have so might try the body fit pro shorts soon.
If you visit RedWhite's web site they collect your email within the first 30 seconds. Its not difficult to imagine that they asked their existing customers to vote on the poll. Quite simple, and if 41 of their customers took their time to vote well good on them. Its called marketing, its just more personal and a little more effective than sponsorship and building brand....
Road.cc should have done it properly and used proper polling software. I didn't bother voting because the whole thing looked amatuerish but if a new company has mobilised it's customers and won, good on them.
I have shorts from so many brand but they red company. This poll is totally fixed. Impossible when most of us hear them for the first time.
I must say the PEdAL ED bibs I have are perfect. Very tight and stretchy. They feel very strange but when I ride I forget all about them. Thats why I think they are perfect. If what I am wearing is unnoticeable then I can enjoy the ride to the full.
Clearly a lot of people don't think highly enough of their bib shorts to bother voting, fair play to Red White, at the end of the day, logically the winners of any vote are the ones who people bother to vote for, if they managed to 'campaign' and drum up support then well done to them, all the other brands had the same opportunities.
Manufacturers mobilising their fans in a poll (and I use the term loosely) is all part of the game, and we knew it would probably happen.
But you can't mobilise fans if you haven't got any, and RedWhite tells me they were alerted to the poll by a customer in the first place. More power to them for having pleased their customers enough that it was possible to successfully ask them to take part in the poll.
Didn't see any "gaming" by Howies and my nomination/vote was pure I assure you. It does seem suspicious that an unknown brand won...
Sportful asked on their twitter to vote also: https://twitter.com/sportful/status/613352135699337216
and
https://twitter.com/sportful/status/611575189378351104
but it seems their twitter fan base is not as responsive as RedWhite's
How perverse - a bunch of moaning minnies who couldn't be bothered to say what bibs they like in, lets face it a fairly relaxed 'poll', suddenly find the energy to react to the result with streams of whiny petulance and tin-foil delusions.
Do take a deep breath and think about where this stands in the great scheme of things, please, or get active and set up the Peoples Popular Front Against Denigrating My Bibshorts ... or whatever.
Just calm down, it's really not important.
Rapha are pretty cheap are they? NOT
I hope RedWhite have at least sent in a pair for an impartial review.
The RedWhites are suspended after eating imported steak so its rapha 1st and howies 2nd. seems about right.
10: Endura FS260 £66.49 (full price £69.99)
8: Sportful Bodyfit Pro £93.00 (full price £125)
8: dhb Aeron Pro £57.19 (full price £64.99)
7: Lusso ProGel £49.99 (full price £70)
5: Rapha Pro Team £150
5: Castelli Free Aero Race £113.98 (full price £140)
4: Castelli Velocissimo Due £71.22 (full price £100)
3: Howies Men's £59.99
2: Rapha Classic £160
1: RedWhite The Bibs $150 - £95.39 plus 20% VAT plus £8 Royal Mail handling fee - £122.47
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