Pedla SuperFit Bib Shorts Stormy

The Pedla SuperFit Bib Shorts have a great compressive race fit, an excellent pad and good breathability. They are equally well suited to race efforts or long summer days on the bike. They're pretty pricey and the legs are a touch shorter than average, but if that suits you, these are right up there with those in our best cycling bib shorts buyer's guide.

> Buy now: Pedla SuperFit Bib Shorts for £90.50 from Pedla

If, like me, you're new to the Pedla brand... well, it's an Australian company that focuses on performance and sustainability.

Its SuperFit shorts are designed for warm days and their Italian fabric is both light and breathable. Pedla suggests temperatures from about 15°C upwards for these, though with my my testing largely done in autumn I only had the opportunity to test these when it was around 10-20℃, by necessity often paired with knee warmers.

Pad

The pad is from chamois specialist Elastic Interface, and is rated comfortable for rides over seven hours long – which I'm guessing covers most situations for the great majority of us. The pad is quite thick around the sit bones but thinner elsewhere. My longest rides weren't quite up to seven hours but I found them comfortable throughout and would be confident wearing these on day-long rides.

I also wore them for shorter but more intensive rides on the turbo and they were as comfortable as you could hope to find for hard riding in a static position.

Fit and sizing

I'm in the middle of Pedla's size guide for medium and I found our medium-size test shorts true to size, so I'd recommend sticking with your normal size.

While the shorts come in seven sizes from 2XS to 2XL, the upper end of the size guide isn't the most generous, so if you are on the larger side then you may struggle to find a good fit. The flip side is that if you're a 50kg climber, the lower end of the size guide looks more accommodating than most!

The legs come to a good few centimetres above the knee. I'm 178cm tall and I found them fine, but if you're a tall but lean medium you might find them a tad short. They are a touch longer than the Assos Millie GT C2 shorts that I know some of my taller club mates do find a little short.

The grippers are very effective, so much so that they can get caught on your leg hairs when you put them on.

Their race fit provides effective compressive support to your legs, which I found very welcome during some hard Zwift racing sessions.

The mesh straps are breathable, comfortable and nice and wide on your shoulders. They are joined to a mesh upper back area that helps spread the load and to keep you cool.

The front of the shorts comes up a reasonable way to offer you some abdominal support, though there's still enough stretch in the material for a comfort break.

I have to say that the quality of the shorts is excellent – all the stitching looks perfect and the shorts look as good as new even after plenty of hours on the bike and a fair few times going through the wash.

You have a choice of four different colours: in addition to the 'stormy' I tested, which I think looks good, they also come in black, navy and olive. Each has reflective dots on the right leg, and reflective details and logo on the backside and left leg.

One extra that Pedla offers is a 40% discount on a crash replacement pair if you're unlucky enough to crash in the 12 months after you buy these.

Value

At £181 these are towards the upper end of what you might expect to pay for a pair of bib shorts, but there's still plenty of competition around this price.

Vecchiojo gave the £180 Kostume Men's bib shorts a very rare maximum mark, praising them for their exceptional comfort and luxurious lycra.

The Assos Equipe R Bib Shorts S9 received an excellent review from Tom and come in a fraction cheaper at £175.

You can spend more, though. The Velocio Men's Luxe Bib Shorts may have made Iwein feel like a cycling god – but they will cost you a wallet-worrying £213.

If you're on a tighter budget but still want quality shorts, the Castelli Entrata Bib Shorts received a positive review from Bryn and are priced at a more bank account-friendly £99.

Overall

I really liked Pedla's SuperFit bib shorts that I think are up there with the very best you can buy. They have a compressive race fit, they have an excellent pad and I found them extremely comfortable on both long, hard road rides and sessions on the turbo. They are fairly expensive but if you buy these you won't be disappointed.

Verdict

Excellent race fit shorts with a comfortable pad and great breathability