La Passione Summer Bib Shorts Classic

The Summer Bib Shorts from Italian brand La Passione appear relatively simple at first glance – with a relatively low panel count and a chamois that initially looks like nothing particularly fancy. However, they really surprised me – offering hours of comfort and a great fit. With La P's direct sales policy, they are pretty keenly priced too.

If you're prone to searching for bike-related things on the internet, and as you're reading this then I'm going to take a guess and say that you are, then there's a pretty good chance you'll have seen adverts for La Passione on places like Facebook – that's how I first became aware of it. Its products aren't available in stores and this allows it to offer quality Italian-made apparel at keen prices. There's some crap advertised on Facebook, let's be honest, so I wasn't sure what to expect when I got these bibs and the matching Summer Jersey (review to follow).

> Buy these online here

These are a medium, and I tend to be either a medium or a large in bib shorts. When I first put them on, they felt like quite a snug fit around my thighs, but with a good length. I'm 6ft 2in and I prefer bib shorts to come down close to my knee, and these did just that. The elastic grippers were perhaps slightly tighter than I'd want, but in use I didn't find any issue with comfort.

As you can see in the pictures, the grippers do give a bit of a sausage-leg effect – that's not me in the pictures, but it was similar when I wore them. There are small silicone dots inside the leg openings, but I suspect it's the tightness as much as the silicone that keeps them locked in position. In recent years, bib shorts are tending to use wider bands of lighter stretch fabrics, which spreads the compression better than here.

The general construction is of very good quality, using Italian fabrics and a chamois from market leader Elastic Interface (aka Cytech). Stitching is neat and flatlocked around the legs. The pad is pretty different from others that I've tried from Cytech – the first impression is that it is quite big, extending further out around the saddle than most. It seems of relatively simple design too, with constant thickness across and just a central cutout.

Looking at or even squeezing a chamois knowingly between finger and thumb is no real guide to how they'll fare out on a ride, and this was strikingly the case here. I really got on well with this chamois, finding it flawlessly comfortable for all-day rides. For me, at any rate, I'd say this is as comfortable as those in bib shorts I have that cost twice the price of these. You can see the chamois on La Passione's website.

The bibs are well designed too – wide enough to spread nicely across the shoulders and with enough stretch to fit a range of body shapes. At the rear is a 'radio pocket' for all you wannabe pros out there. I've been rude about these in the past, as anyone pro enough to be given a team radio will also be given team bibs, but my view has softened a little now and I've been known to bung a spare inner tube in there from time to time.

Other details are neat and well designed – I like the little Italian flag tag at the rear, and I'm always happy to see well-positioned reflectives, especially if – as here – they are sewn in and so won't peel off a few months down the line.

La Passione's initial modus operandi is to offer a relatively small number of distinct garments in quite a wide range of colours and graphic designs. These bibs are available in plain black or dark blue as well as with other colour highlights, including some very 2016 camouflage colours. Our blue test bibs match the white and navy check jersey that I'm also testing. The blue is fairly dark, such that onlookers don't get confronted with a great deal more detail than they would in black, which is a blessing.

> Read our guide to the best summer cycling shorts

At £81 these have no shortage of competition – this is the upper end of the dhb range and around the lower end of the Castelli range, for example. Being made in Italy isn't itself a guarantee that something will be good, but La Passione has obviously chosen its fabric suppliers, pads and factory carefully, and these are cracking bibs.

Verdict

Based around a great pad, these are well made and super-comfy – highly recommended