decent shorts that won't make me look like a burk

beckenham

Being relatively new to this cycling lark I am slowly coming around to the fact that I need some decent shorts. I did the L2B with a padded pair of undershorts which seemed relatively okay but I won't a better pair as I up the mileage (I'm doing Oxford to Cambridge on 30 Sep). The problem is I quite often stop and have a pint when I'm out on a ride (I know it's not the best form of training but hey we've all got to get motivated some how and if the promise of a pint after 30 miles works then don't knock it).

When I walk into said pub I don't want to be ridiculed for looking like some type of weirdo. Is anyone aware of some lycra shorts that don't look too bad when your off the bike?

jibi

I wish
george

spasypaddy

how about something like these:
http://wiggle.co.uk/CategoryProducts.as ... &cat=Cycle

Johnny Ergo

Like Jibi says -Some chance .
You could always try taking a pair pf baggies, rolling them up nice and small and stick them in one of your back pockets.
Alternatively, walk in there with lycra's on, head held high (and hope for hole to swallow you up :oops: )

Good luck

PS - I didn't mean that you should wear your lycra's on your head in case you tell police it was my idea. :twisted:

Eurostar

Comfy long distance shorts which don't make you look like a fetishist are the holy grail.

You could always get merino wool ones - at least they don't have the pervy shininess of lycra. I'm tempted by Ibex ones http://tinyurl.com/2zvufa

I have an Ibex jersey - this one, in blue http://tinyurl.com/34a9tf and it's bloody brilliant. About a hundred times more suited to a pub than a lycra one. So comfy too - amazingly fine fabric, very lightweight. But I suspect it will wear out much faster than a synthetic thing.

The other thing you can do is take some ultra lightweight travel trousers or shorts and put them on over your cycling shorts when you get to the pub. Thin travel shorts pack up very small and could squeeze into a small tailpack or your jersey pocket.

George, while you're here I wanted to ask you about cycling shorts in South America. I read somewhere that if you wear anything skin tight in lycra/spandex everyone will point and laugh because it's so effeminate :roll: ! I confirmed this with a Uruguayan girl who works at Evans. So I thought that for touring in places like Mexico I might get some of these http://tinyurl.com/2pj7mr

What do you reckon? I would wear my bib shorts most of the time but put these over the top when I wanted to look macho!

beckenham

I might just go for the loudest outfit I can find and just brazen it out! I'm definantly not shaving my legs though :x

jibi

Eurostar

They laugh even if you wear any type of shorts, its not macho to wear shorts at all.The locals get really offended. So.....

If you look at the photos, most of the time I am cycling in tights in South America.




sorry to hijack the thread there.

back to the pub

I would also recommend light cargo shorts like Columbia or Rohan, or just have a lot of front

george

squired

If you search around you can find different brands of shorts in different textures and colours. Some of the shorts can actually look quite stylish if you are willing to spend a little cash.

If you look on the parker international website (www.parker-international.co.uk) there are some interesting designs. I have a pair of the Giordana Tenax Bibshorts in white, which I actually used for my commute in today, and would be happy for anyone to see me in.

jibi

squired wrote:

If you search around you can find different brands of shorts in different textures and colours. Some of the shorts can actually look quite stylish if you are willing to spend a little cash.

If you look on the parker international website (www.parker-international.co.uk) there are some interesting designs. I have a pair of the Giordana Tenax Bibshorts in white, which I actually used for my commute in today, and would be happy for anyone to see me in.

Photo???

george

Eurostar

beckenham wrote:

I might just go for the loudest outfit I can find and just brazen it out! I'm definantly not shaving my legs though :x

Careful, what if you end up looking remotely like this?



I found it on this fetish site (which is NOT work safe) http://members.andyelycra.co.uk/ while I was innocently googling for team kit. There are hundreds of pics there of pervs in a state of arousal getting off on what I used to think was perfectly normal cycling clothing!

Eurostar

jibi wrote:

If you look at the photos, most of the time I am cycling in tights in South America.

Bloody hell George, you weren't kidding!



Did everyone assume you were gay? Was it a deliberate ploy to get the ladies to let their guard down, or try to 'convert' you?

jswba

re: Rabobank poseur.

AAAAARRGGHH! MAKE IT STOP!!!!!

beckenham

Go to
http://www.parker-international.co.uk/P ... 560dcb722c

and look at the bloke in yellow. If you enlarge the picture (and I would counsel against this) you can see his tackle.

That's what I'm going to buy, a yellow lycra bib. That and nothing else would look just fine. I'll probably leave the bike at home as well!

Eurostar

jswba wrote:

re: Rabobank poseur.

AAAAARRGGHH! MAKE IT STOP!!!!!

Sorry...here's a normal photo to make you feel better

jswba

I feel sick....

beckenham

I wish I'd never asked the question in the first place!

Eurostar

How does one "innocently" find a fetish site anyway? Not only that you've kept the link and down loaded a load of photos :shock:

Eurostar

I promise you, all I did was Google for skinsuit. Try it now - google.co.uk, enter skinsuit and Assos skinsuit on the fetish site comes up at the bottom of page 2. I suddenly realised how we are perceived by the general public! I think we tend to forget that after 20 years of wearing this stuff. So I put some of the pics at photobucket to post here and at another cycling forum.

I'm not sure I can ever leave the house in my Assos kit ever again. :oops:

beckenham

That's it blame Goggle. Didn't Chris Langham try that argument as well?

Eurostar

More info here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spandex_fetishism. It makes you think.

Not sure that your Chris Langham 'joke' is in very good taste.

MattBlackBigBoysBMX

Eurostar wrote:

More info here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spandex_fetishism. It makes you think.

Not sure that your Chris Langham 'joke' is in very good taste.

No, but it's still funny.

There is no way in hell I would walk into a pub wearing lycra. We have some real carrot-crunching yokel types around my way that don't like things diff'rent.
I wear the lightest, thinnest baggy shorts over the top of lycra. Got a load from Topman for a fiver each.

jibi

finding pics of Tom Boonen

I found this nice site.

http://murl.se/26972

Looks like BillyBob like its :shock:

google is my friend

george

Elfin

Does nobody else find that some baggy shorts get caught on their bottle cage?

beckenham

I bit the bullet and brought a pair of lycra shorts yesterday (from a good bike shop just down the road from London Bridge Station, can't remember the name of it but it wasn't the Evans shop which is in the same area). I tried them on when I got home, the kids laughed their heads off (their now grounded for the week) and the dog growled at me ( taped his jaws together, that'll teach him!). On the plus side the wife said I looked "quite sexy" :oops:

Cesii

Quite like those baggy shorts.
But those lycras are something else! I think if you stick to black or a dark colour you should be okay.

Rykard

IF Lyrca is a 'problem' wear a pair of cheap shorts over the top.....

ut_och_cykla

Some of those cyclists and lycra wearers are clearly not very errr normal are they?
Didn't realise Boonen was a gay icon too. Can't think of anything else to say really ... bit stunned!

MattBlackBigBoysBMX

Elfin wrote:

Does nobody else find that some baggy shorts get caught on their bottle cage?

Haven't used a bottle in years; Camelbak all the way.

peejay78

er... i stumbled across this whilst looking for a gerolsteiner team list....

http://www.gaycycling.de/

not for the faint hearted.

ut_och_cykla

errrr just had to come back and check out replies! Why are they german and why do they wear cycle shorts with toilet rolls down the front

No on second thoughts don't answer that!

And how when teh link says 'gay..something' did you manage to STUMBLE across it
Back to work at once!!

Mark Alexander

some of those pics by eurostar should be bannned. that rabbobank guy must be taking something........ opps that's in the pro section. :twisted:


that shot is scary.

shorts with innrs are a great idea though, paird nicely with a KOtM jersey

Neil1

i'm getting worried I might start walking instead of buying a bike. I thought people here where well kind of normal :?