RH+ Shark Bibshorts

I've always struggled to get my head around winter bib shorts, but the RH+ Shark kind of make sense, layered up correctly with leg or knee warmers. It makes them more versatile than a pair of bib tights, but why oh why has RH+ chosen to run seams next to each side of the pad? Ouch. For me anyway – shorts can be a very personal thing, and you might be okay...

• Pros: Impressive water repellency, very well made
• Cons: Seam position, quite thick pad

The RH+ Shark range is designed to allow you to race and train hard no matter what the weather is throwing at you. All the products in the range have aerodynamics at the centre of their design brief, making them ideal for cyclo-cross races or those long, steady base miles that make up a racer's diet during the winter months.

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The main fabric of the shorts is Polartec's Pro Shield, a softshell-based material developed to provide warmth, breathability and resistance to water. Everything you need in a winter clothing product then.

Like any good aerodynamically designed bit of kit, the Sharks don't really feel like they fit right until you are on the bike, but then everything sits where it should.

The material is quite restrictive and doesn't quite give you the full range of movement you'd experience with a lighter weight pair of summer shorts, but once you are really pushing the pace the whole fit makes a lot more sense.

Your muscles are held with a fair bit of compression, plus you are always warm, which certainly helps. Windchill on cold thighs is never an issue.

Water is kept at bay too, unless it is absolutely hammering down, with light rain and drizzle just beading off as you ride. Getting wet legs has never really been a problem for me when riding – if it's raining it's normally pretty mild, but if you're out in the snow or hail I can see where a fabric like this can make sense, especially if you have to stop.

> Survival tips for cycling in the rain

Bib-wise the Sharks use a mesh fabric which does aid the breathability under winter layers, and the straps are nice and wide too to avoid any irritation.

Keeping the legs in place are silicone grippers, which do stop any movement as you ride. I have quite large thighs though, and although I matched all of the other sizing criteria for these mediums I found the leg bands quite tight. If you're a sprinter you might need to nudge up a size.

As we all know, the key to any good pair of shorts is the pad, and the Sharks have a very good one, the Elastic Interface Liege. Elastic Interface supplies pads to a lot of the big brands on the market and certainly knows what it's doing.

Liège-Bastogne-Liège, if you don't know, is one of the cobbled Classics, a one-day race that takes in the punishing pavé (cobbles) of the countryside that give both riders and machines a proper pummelling. It's a fitting name for this pad, which is designed for both on and off-road use, and comfort across the varying levels of foam density reflect that.

It's worth bearing in mind that the pad is quite thick, and I often felt like I needed to drop my saddle height a few millimetres to compensate.

Everything is working out fine then, yeah?

So why, why RH+, did you have to change the material of the shorts about halfway along the pad, leaving a huge seam?

The rest of the seams are flat, ideal for comfort, but running alongside either side of the pad is a raised one, and boy do they irritate. It wasn't so much when you were riding, but after taking them off I found they'd really chafed around the bottom of the buttocks after just a one-hour ride. I tried various bikes with different saddles and always got the same outcome. I could ride for longer in them – the seams were noticeable but I wasn't in enough discomfort to stop – but as soon as I got off the bike and removed the shorts it was enough to make my eyes water. Not all undercarriages are the same, though; you might get on better with them than me.

As regards value, the Sharks are £155, a price not unheard of for a top quality pair of bib shorts, and if it wasn't for the discomfort from those seams I would say that these offer okay value for money. They keep the wind out and, to a degree, the water, plus they do have that comfortable if bulky pad going on.

If you aren't too worried about the whole layering option, the bib tights might make for a better option – they're £175 compared to the shorts/leg warmer combo of £234.

Those seams just make them a no no for me, though, full stop.

Verdict

Great fabric used to create shorts that can be used for most of the year, but ruined for me by rubbing seams