Preferred brands of shorts/bibs

LJSquishy

I'm brand new to cycling and need to buy my first pair of shorts ASAP! I am intimidated by the hundreds of options. I have only taken my bike for a quick 2-mile ride around my neighborhood but my lady parts desperately need some cushioning there...it seems mostly needed at the front.

I am 5'4" and 130lbs and I have excess fat on my thighs/hips/butt. So far I've only tried on Pearl Izumi and I was shocked the mediums were insanely hard to pull up despite my measurements matching up with their size chart...so I guess I'm a large in those. What are the better brands, especially for 30mi rides? I was looking at DHB (my hips are around 39" and I wear a size 6 in jeans...will this brand not actually fit me??) and read some good things about Giro shorts. I just want to get a pair with excellent cushioning.

awavey

ok if you getting pain from the saddle on your lady parts after doing just 2 miles, then padded shorts arent really the solution to that, Id say theres a fundamental bike setup issue there, either the saddle is too high or pitched up not level,or the bars too low, or you might be having to reach to far forward to hold the handlebars, that means you are putting all your weight forward. when you should be sitting on the saddle so the weight goes through your sit bones which is your pelvis and then that rotates things out of the pressure zone .

so maybe because of your height, the bike just isnt setup properly for you yet.you dont need to pay for a bike fit (unless you want to), but there are GCN videos https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVu5Zrktm40 that cover setting up your bike to a good ballpark comfort level. though definitely go get a saddle sit bone measurement, its free in most bike shops and youll probably find a womens specific saddle more comfortable as your hips


that said once all thats sorted, then yes padded shorts/bibs are the way to go, my hips are 40", though Im size 16 and 5'10, but I actually find the DhB a really good fit and they size it in womens sizes, so the 16 really is a 16. I dont have much Pearl Izumi kit not for fit issues, but just their stuff has never appealed,though you will find alot of cycling shorts are compression fit, so feel like a size smaller than than youd think you want