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BUYER'S GUIDE

Best cycling bib shorts: The road.cc People's Choice verdict is in!

Whose shorts reign supreme? The answers may surprise you!

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!"

About road.cc Buyer's Guides

The aim of road.cc buyer's guides is to give you the most, authoritative, objective and up-to-date buying advice. We continuously update and republish our guides, checking prices, availability and looking for the best deals.

Our guides include links to websites where you can buy the featured products. Like most sites we make a small amount of money if you buy something after clicking on one of those links. We want you to be happy with what you buy, so we only include a product if we think it's one of the best of its kind.

As far as possible that means recommending equipment that we have actually reviewed, but we also include products that are popular, highly-regarded benchmarks in their categories.

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You can also find further guides on our sister sites off.road.cc and ebiketips.

road.cc buyer's guides are maintained by the road.cc tech team. Email us with comments, corrections or queries.

John has been writing about bikes and cycling for over 30 years since discovering that people were mug enough to pay him for it rather than expecting him to do an honest day's work.

He was heavily involved in the mountain bike boom of the late 1980s as a racer, team manager and race promoter, and that led to writing for Mountain Biking UK magazine shortly after its inception. He got the gig by phoning up the editor and telling him the magazine was rubbish and he could do better. Rather than telling him to get lost, MBUK editor Tym Manley called John’s bluff and the rest is history.

Since then he has worked on MTB Pro magazine and was editor of Maximum Mountain Bike and Australian Mountain Bike magazines, before switching to the web in 2000 to work for CyclingNews.com. Along with road.cc founder Tony Farrelly, John was on the launch team for BikeRadar.com and subsequently became editor in chief of Future Publishing’s group of cycling magazines and websites, including Cycling Plus, MBUK, What Mountain Bike and Procycling.

John has also written for Cyclist magazine, edited the BikeMagic website and was founding editor of TotalWomensCycling.com before handing over to someone far more representative of the site's main audience.

He joined road.cc in 2013. He lives in Cambridge where the lack of hills is more than made up for by the headwinds.

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42 comments

Avatar
Oshsan | 9 years ago
0 likes

If you haven't heard of RedWhite you need to get about more  3

http://www.sportive.com/redwhite-bib-shorts/518046/review-long-distance-...

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Freddy56 | 9 years ago
0 likes

Assos for racing and Galibier's team shorts for endurance training.

Think the polls should be black and white, not red and ......

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Paulhino | 9 years ago
0 likes

Assos.

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part_robot | 9 years ago
0 likes

Whilst I don't have a Cervelo, I do absolutely love my Rapha Classics. There's nothing to touch them in terms of quality and fit at any price in my experience. They exude a kind of lushness normally only reserved for... well... how can I put this... fancy lingerie. Which is good because you really want nothing but the smoothest and softest materials when it comes to linishing your undercarriage and nipples for 5 hours  21

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notfastenough replied to part_robot | 9 years ago
0 likes
part_robot wrote:

Whilst I don't have a Cervelo, I do absolutely love my Rapha Classics. There's nothing to touch them in terms of quality and fit at any price in my experience. They exude a kind of lushness normally only reserved for... well... how can I put this... fancy lingerie. Which is good because you really want nothing but the smoothest and softest materials when it comes to linishing your undercarriage and nipples for 5 hours  21

Admittedly I am assuming you're a fella at this point, so...

...how often do you wear fancy lingerie?!

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Iamnot Wiggins | 9 years ago
0 likes

I've never heard of RedWhite either. However, their website is nice! Might give these a go in all fairness.

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bendertherobot | 9 years ago
0 likes

Bit confused. I count 3 votes for the Rapha classic on site. I assume the rest were on Facebook or something?

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Al__S | 9 years ago
0 likes

There you go, prices, both at the site linked and full RRP. And additional charges. Everywhere does free shipping options.

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Al__S | 9 years ago
0 likes

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

Avatar
fukawitribe replied to Al__S | 9 years ago
0 likes
Al__S wrote:

1: RedWhite The Bibs $150 - £95.39 plus 20% VAT plus £8 Royal Mail handling fee - £122.47

RedWhite is £ 90 @ alwaysriding, not sure if there's any postage to pay but that's a list price not a discounted one. Always is the designated outlet for the UK.

http://www.alwaysriding.co.uk/brands/redwhite.html

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notfastenough replied to Al__S | 9 years ago
0 likes
Al__S wrote:

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

If you add a value weighting, that brings Howie's out some way clear of everyone else.

Avatar
jug_23 replied to notfastenough | 9 years ago
0 likes
notfastenough wrote:
Al__S wrote:

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

If you add a value weighting, that brings Howie's out some way clear of everyone else.

Exactly why I proposed them in the first place! I've got 3 pairs of their shorts (one a 3/4 length) and was fortunate enough to pay less than £30 each for 2 of them... Agree that clearly Howies are the moral victor.

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mrchrispy | 9 years ago
0 likes

The RedWhites are suspended after eating imported steak so its rapha 1st and howies 2nd. seems about right.

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bikebot | 9 years ago
0 likes

I hope RedWhite have at least sent in a pair for an impartial review.

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fukawitribe | 9 years ago
0 likes

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.

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peted76 replied to fukawitribe | 9 years ago
0 likes
fukawitribe wrote:

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.

I'm not having that! I've already set up the Popular Peoples Front Against Denigrating Bibshorts, and that's our policy! Get out of it you!

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fukawitribe replied to peted76 | 9 years ago
0 likes
peted76 wrote:
fukawitribe wrote:

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.

I'm not having that! I've already set up the Popular Peoples Front Against Denigrating Bibshorts, and that's our policy! Get out of it you!

Splitter !

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ososxe | 9 years ago
0 likes

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

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Al__S | 9 years ago
0 likes

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...

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RobD | 9 years ago
0 likes

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.

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grasen | 9 years ago
0 likes

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.

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hsiaolc | 9 years ago
0 likes

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.

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Kadinkski | 9 years ago
0 likes

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.

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Look555 | 9 years ago
0 likes

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....

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Carson | 9 years ago
0 likes

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.

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alansmurphy | 9 years ago
0 likes

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...

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wellcoordinated | 9 years ago
0 likes

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.

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Crimea03 | 9 years ago
0 likes

Bank busting Assos not on the list, shame!

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steviemarco replied to Crimea03 | 9 years ago
0 likes
Crimea03 wrote:

Bank busting Assos not on the list, shame!

Rapha are pretty cheap are they? NOT

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srchar | 9 years ago
0 likes

Wot no Assos?

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