Shorts

Riding many miles over the streets of Brooklyn , Queens and the Bronx this past Sunday was pretty hard on my butt despite wearing Pearl Izumi P.R.O shorts. It wasn't just vibration but also the burning of perspiration rolling down from my lower back. I have three pairs of road shorts: one off-brand from Bike Nashbar was my first pair of shorts and was certainly a big difference over riding in regular clothes. As I started doing higher mileage and harder rides, I bought a pair of Pearl Izumi Slice Ultrasensor shorts and indeed they were considerably better than the Nashbar house brand.

While there are substantive differences one can see between the P.R.O and the Slice shorts, such as the grippers on the legs, I haven't felt significant difference in comfort of the P.R.O. over the Slice.

I also own two sets of insulated winter bib tights with built-in chamois: the Pearl Izumi Slice thermafleece and the Cannondale LE Carbon all-weather bib tights. The Pearl Izumi bib tights are theoritecially the same chamois as the shorts but it seems bigger and thicker to me. It is my very subjective opionion that both pairs of bib tights are more comfortable with better padding than the road shorts. The trouble is that in winter temperatures I don't go out and ride 80-100 miles a day though I do get some rough roads.

With the winter bib tights in mind along with the description of bib shorts as for "high mileage" cyclists, I ordered two pairs from Performance Bike recently: the Pearl Izumi Slice UltraSensor Bib Short and, because it was out of stock and to try the house brand which got good reviews, Performance Ultra II bib short. I'll post my initial impression after I've received them and had a chance to give them a try.