Ibex Calais Bike Shorts
May 22, 2009
Bike shorts are an age-old dilemma. We all have our favorite pair, in which the padding is perfect, the spandex is not too tight, and the length is just how we like it. If you’re like me, you wear that pair all. the. time. and don’t think twice about pulling them out of the dirty laundry for the third day in a row. A little gross, I know, but you’re going to the mountains! Who cares what you smell like? So there you are, content in your minimalist, one-pair-of-bike-shorts ways, when you finally score a hot date with an even hotter bike partner. Will you wear your dirty bike shorts? If your answer is “yes,” I hope you’re not going on a date with me anytime soon.
But yes, we’ve all been there – short on bike shorts. If you bike as much as I do, this can be a significant problem, so I was really thrilled to try Ibex’s wool Calais bike shorts. They are a bit different than typical bike shorts. For one thing, they are not shiny spandex. I have to say that it’s an improvement. I mean, I like the “tight” thing; that’s one benefit women have over men – they can look not-ridiculous in spandex bike shorts – but it was odd getting used to the slightly more relaxed fit of the wool, and the lack of shine. It was also a little unusual getting used to the waistband with no drawstring, but it didn’t cause any discomfort or (worse!) embarrassment. As a matter of fact, these are super comfortable bike shorts, with exceptional padding and more give than I’d expect, especially given the absence of chafing. If you’ve packed on a bit of chunk over the winter, you don’t have to worry about stretching these so much they get a tad transparent as do spandex types – not that I know this from experience or anything. My one complaint – and this might be a significant one, if it really is a hot bike date you need these for, is that they are shorter than I prefer. They do show a bit of leg, and that brings everything back to the chunk issue. You can hide a lot with tight black pants, but not if the black pants only go 1/4 of the way down your leg. So I might save these for the end of the summer, which is also conveniently when I buy most of my clothes, which in turn goes a long way to explain why none of my pants fit right now….
