Sumattory Hermida bib shorts

If you've not heard of Sumattory before, that's probably because the Spanish brand is a recent arrival on the cycle clothing stage. The Hermida Signature Series is named after 2010 world champion mountain biker Jose Antonio Hermida, although there's not a massive difference between a lot of cross-country MTB clothing and road wear.

The chamois in these bib shorts comes from Cytech, who supply many big name brands: Assos, De Marchi, Rapha... Cytech make a whole load of different chamois designs - dozens, in fact - from basic right through to the top end. This is a good 'un.

There are large areas of deep (12mm), high-density padding underneath your ischium bones - the ones that sit on the wide part of the saddle - and you get equally deep although less dense padding through the perineal area. Wide channels between the padding and down the centre reduce the bulk and allow the air to flow, and the soft fabrics next to your skin move sweat away efficiently.

Some people might want a larger area of padding through the centre section and up front, I guess, but I found the pad really comfortable and didn't give it a second thought once I was out on the road, which has to be a good sign. It's the padding at the back that's particularly good. If you get any trouble there, it might be worth giving these shorts a go.

The shorts themselves are high quality throughout. They're an elastane/nylon mix, as usual, in a medium weight, and the stitching looks set to last. The panels certainly aren't going to part company with one another when you yank them on in a hurry.

The orange sections at the end of each leg are a slightly thinner fabric but they're doubled over. On the inner face you get silicone to stop them riding up but rather than the usual band, it's lettering. It's a bit of spiel about yer man Hermida and his involvement with Sumattory. Different. It hasn't got much of a plot but it works just fine; the shorts legs stayed where they were supposed to throughout testing. I'm not so sure about the orange colouring. It's certainly vivid but it looks a bit lollipop lady to me.

The bib section works well. It's not quite as lightweight as some but it lets your upper body breathe okay and the straps are plenty wide enough so they don't dig in.

The only problem I had with these shorts was the sizing. I went for large which is usually fine, but they were too small, especially in leg length. If you want to compare these with shorts you already own, the inseam here measures 22cm. Most other large sized shorts in the road.cc dressing up box have an inseam of 25 or 26cm so, if you want good quad coverage, you might want to go up a size.

EDIT: we're told that the production shorts will have a 5cm longer inseam and be half a size bigger than our sample, for a more realistic fit. They're still euro sizing though, so bear that in mind.

Verdict

An excellent seat pad in some well-made, high-end shorts - although the price is steep