Q36.5 Dottore Clima Bib Shorts Black

The Q36.5 Dottore Clima Bib Shorts are light, cool and gently compressive, and have an impressive sense of quality. They’re neatly panelled with all kinds of exciting textures to remind you where your money’s gone, but you’ll need quite an aggressive riding position to get the best of the pad, and the tendency of the legs to rise can lead to chafing.

> Buy now: Q36.5 Dottore Clima Bib Shorts for £290 from Q36.5

The Clima range from Q36.5 is referencing climate rather than climbing, as it’s aimed at the hottest of rides. Certainly these are thin and breathe very well; there’s an almost papery quality to the fabric, yet it still has a good strong stretch and feels tough. It dries quickly if heavy rain overwhelms the DWR coating and doesn’t get sweaty, while the low cut keeps it from heating your core.

Short, well-ventilated mesh-y panels front and back mean there’s still no worry of showing bare skin between these shorts and your jersey, but otherwise they leave maximum skin uncovered for cooling.

Reflective badges that shimmer through various colours as they move are a nice touch, too.

Visible lines of silver thread ring your thighs above the cuff, and Q36.5 says this “helps reduce muscle fatigue” as it “protects against electro-magnetic smog”. Having tested these, I challenge anyone to discern if that’s true or not, or to figure out exactly what the “body temperature stability guarantee” of +18°C means either. Still, the result is a nice even squeeze around your thighs, and the thread looks fancy while you’re staring at your knees wondering about electro-magnetic smog.

Raised rings of thread create grip inside the raw-cut hems, but seem less efficient than the usual lines of silicone; these shorts slowly edged their way up as I rode, eventually leaving enough material bunched at the crotch to start chafing.

The slightly-too-broad-for-me nose of the Unique pad (seemingly made by Elastic Interface) didn’t help there either. Naturally, the pad shape may well suit other individuals very well, but it felt slightly odd to me.

That pad is noticeably thick towards the front centre, and positioned quite far forwards to work well with aggressive, head-down riding positions where your hips are rolled forwards. If you’re more upright on the tops – especially if you ride with your hips rolled back and your lower back curved – you’ll be edging closer to the thin rear edge of the pad than is ideal.

Pad shapes and thicknesses are obviously a very individual preference, but I personally didn’t find this comfortable for the more relaxed position of a gravel bike; the padding sits much better in the drops of a road bike. These seem shaped for serious efforts only, and while that’s perhaps not surprising given their provenance, it’s not explicitly stated either.

The tubular straps are very comfortable, despite being tighter than necessary thanks to my long torso – as bib shorts almost aways are. There seems to be no recognition of different body shapes in the world of cycling, even with companies such as this one positioning themselves as ‘research laboratories’ into ‘unrestrained experimentation and innovation’. It baffles me that I can buy a scuba-specific wetsuit in tall or short versions of each size – which involves changing multiple panels – but not buy a pair of shorts with 2cm of extra elastic in the straps. I for one would seriously prefer a ‘tall’ version of these over electro-magnetic smog-resistant silver threads on my thighs.

Yes, Q36.5 (and others) offers custom leg lengths on some models, but (like the others) it says nothing about straps.

I’m not sure about its size guide, either. For weight I’m a medium; for chest, waist and height I’m a large (the size I tested). In reality I’d probably try sizing up were I buying, despite XL on paper being way off for everything except height. I’d surely lose some of the compression doing that, though, and the leg ends could be less secure still, but at this price, I would not want to leave anything to chance.

These come neatly packaged in a cardboard box, so at least there are no evil plastic bags to contend with. Why should we be destroying the planet for the sake of mere convenience? That’s what AI is for, after all.

Value

A tenner short of £300 is a lot to spend on shorts – these days you can get fish and chips for at least two people for that. And while the obvious build quality and attention to detail feel appropriate for the premium, you can get some very good options for considerably less.

For a compressive fit you could try the £99 Sportful Pulse Heritage Bib Shorts, which reviewer Ben only really faulted on thin straps. Alternatively, for great cooling there’s the Le Col Pro Lightweight Bib Shorts at £180. The women’s version scored 8/10 from Emily, and while one of the negatives was the high price, against the Q36.5s they look cheap.

The Q36.5s aren’t alone at this kind of cost, of course, so don’t go thinking they’re outliers. The Rapha Men’s Pro Team Powerweave Bib Shorts, for instance, are £300. Thankfully they’re excellent, as you can see in the review, by George.

Check out more options in our guide to the best cycling bib shorts.

Overall

As good as these look and feel – the quality and detail go at least some way to justifying what you’ve just spent – you’ll need to spend the majority of your time head-down in the drops to get the best of the padding, and the legs can ride up and cause issues once they bunch up. The rest is very comfortable and the tubular straps don’t dig in even if they’re too tight, which is impressive, but at this very premium price I think you can expect something near perfection. Unfortunately, I don’t think the Dottore Clima bibs quite deliver it.

> Buy now: Q36.5 Dottore Clima Bib Shorts for £290 from Q36.5

Verdict

Very well made, but padding that only suits racers and legs that won’t stay put limit their appeal – as does the price

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