by Stan Purdum
As I pulled a pair of bike shorts out of my drawer yesterday while getting dressed to ride, I noticed that the pad had folded over within the outside layer of the chamois, so that there was a double thickness under the left sit-bone side and no thickness at all under the right sit-bone side. By shaking the shorts a couple times, I was able to get the pad to unfold and return to its proper position, and it stayed that way while wearing the shorts for my ride. But from experience with other shorts, I knew this was a sign that this pair was in its final days.
I’ve owned — and worn out — many pairs of bike shorts over the years. I had some where the chamois wore out before the spandex and vice versa. I own some now where the two halves of the chamois are separate pads, each encased within its own outer layer. In the pair I wore yesterday, however, the pad is a single unit. I’m guessing that the pad had originally been glued to the spandex with the outer-covering layer of the chamois then sewn over it.
I had an earlier pair constructed similarly, and they were fine for a long time, but eventually the glue failed. The shake-method kept them going through a few more wearings and washings, but in time, the pad curled up inside the covering layer and no amount of shaking could untangle it. Wearing them in that state would be like sitting in the saddle with a tennis ball under one’s perineal area — painful even to contemplate!
Most bike shorts aren’t cheap, as you know, and the failure of that earlier pair, along with some from other bike clothiers that eventually wore out in different ways, caused me to wonder how long bike shorts should last and whether some brands last longer than others.
As a step toward finding out, I started keeping track of when I purchased each new pair so I could see how long they served before I needed to replace them. I typically own seven or eight pairs at a time, usually an assortment of brands. Most would probably be considered “middle of the line” models from the various manufacturers, and none of them are bibs. I don a clean pair for each ride, and I often ride three or four times a week. After each ride, I hang up the shorts to allow them to air dry. I wash all the shorts together in the gentle cycle of our washing machine using regular detergent, and then hang them up to drip dry. I don’t wash them again until I’ve worn the whole lot.
By that schedule, it means each pair gets worn and washed about 26 times per year. The pair with the now folding pad is the oldest of my present batch of shorts, and they are from Canari. I currently have a couple of newer pairs also from Canari, as well as some from Pearl Izumi, Specialized and Sponeed, with the newest of those purchased earlier this year, and I have the start date from them all recorded, so I’ll eventually have some idea if some outlive others.
I purchased those now-failing shorts in March 2015, and they will probably be serviceable (using the shake technique) for a few more rides. So the useful life of that pair appears to be over five years, which given all flexing and stretching they have to do when I wear them on the bike, and the constant friction on them from the saddle, seems like a reasonable lifespan.
But maybe not, if one pair from my previous batch is any measure. Back then, I wasn’t keeping track of when I purchased each pair, but the brand name on them was Trek, which means they are from before the time when Trek started using the Bontrager label on its apparel line. (Trek purchased Bontrager in 1995; I don’t know when they renamed their shorts.) My best guess is that I bought those shorts in 2008. In any case, that’s the pair I had on in 2013 when I crashed and broke my collarbone. The crash sent me sliding on my hip across the pavement, and that caused the crotch seam of the shorts to part — though the chamois stayed in place and protected my dignity — and a hole about the size of quarter opened up on the left rear panel of the pants.
It took surgery, complete with two metal plates and several screws, to repair my collarbone but only a needle and thread to fix the shorts. I stitched up the crotch seam and sewed a patch cut from an old stretch sock into the hole on the rear panel. And I got two more years out of those shorts.
Have been on too many rides where someone in front of me was wearing shorts that were past their prime. No holes or obvious damage, but they were more like semi see-through shorts than full coverage shorts. The wearer was of course oblivious to this rolling “show”. It’s entirely possible for shorts to be worn out yet not show signs of damage. Completely agree with your laundering technique, I suspect the see-through shorts might have spent time in a dryer.
Having just purchased two pairs of shorts due to the aging of several older pairs of a variety of brands, this article is timely. For me,anyway, I found that aging consists of
– holes in the shorts
– fraying of the chamois causing chafing
– resilience loss in the pads leading to soreness
– deterioration of the leg grippers making it hard to keep my sunskins, which I always wear unless wearing tights
I did not realize how much a worn out pair affects my rides until donning the new ones. So for me, at least, getting the last mile out of an old pair is not the best strategy.
My biggest problem with older shorts is that they seem to shrink, especially over the winter.
My oldest (and only- all others are bibs) are about 18 years old and still usable.
Have you worn them regularly throughout that 18 years?
My dryer has a delicate cycle, if I put the cycle on more dry and the shorts come out damp but not soaking wet, so they usually will air dry in about 24 hours, otherwise it could take at least 48 hours to dry for the padding to dry. I get about 3 years out of my shorts, but I don’t have 8 pairs, I only have 3, so I rotate through them more often then the writer does, and I also ride about 3 to 5 times a week. I haven’t found the dryer to do any damage to the shorts unless I over dry them, which I haven’t done that in many years.
I don’t like bibs either.
I have more than 20 pairs of shorts so they hang around for many years. Failure is nearly always simply wearing out the fabric rather than padding failure. I just wash cold and tumble dry, same as with all our other laundry. When my shorts get to revealing to wear in public, I’ll use them for riding the rollers as long as the pad isOK.
My shorts “failures” have been of the elastic at waist and thighs. The fabric and chamois’s seem to wear like iron. My riding is mostly long-distance (cross-country 6 times) and I use both washer and dryer routinely.
My biggest problems with finding good bike shorts was the move to “compression shorts.” (“It’s like having your shorts give you a light massage the whole time you’re riding.” Yeah, right.)
I had a brand of shorts that I loved. Fit me perfectly. Bought 2 more pairs. Same wonderful fit. 5 years later I decided to buy 2 more. They nearly killed me. Wouldn’t fit. (Turned out this model short was now in the “compression shorts” category.) Called the company, they said you may need to go up a size. Still too tight. Went up another size, so from a Medium to XL. The XL’s were still killing my legs. So I compared them to my older Medium shorts. Same brand, same model, but the new “Compression” XL’s were 2″ SMALLER in the waist line than my old Mediums. And the XL leg openings were an inch smaller than the Mediums.
In “short”, I’m not usually a retro-grouch, but I’m becoming one with bike shorts.
(I’m fearing the day when they switch my current favorite shorts not only to compression but also specifically tailored for disk brakes.)
Time for you to start writing a bitch-fest column of your own. Fast Freddie’s Monthy. I’d read that on the regular. 😂
I have a couple of ways I extend the lives of my bib shorts. I bought 3 pairs of inexpensive bike chamois liners (like boxer briefs with padding for cycling) and I wear a pair under the bib shorts that have a compressed pad or are becoming a bit too see-through. Also, I wear bib shorts under MTB shorts for mountain biking – doesn’t matter how see-through they are as they are covered up. Bib shorts are expensive and it seems a waste to stop using them if they are too revealing or the pad is a bit compressed.
Last year, after getting an e-bike, my wife started riding with me. I’m holding out on getting one of those for me. She was quick to point out that some of my favorite bibs were past their prime. They held their shape looked fine when I hung them to dry. The padding was in great condition too. But stretched over my butt, the spandex showed my “plumbers crack”. Was sort of disappointed, some of them were kit from my competitive days. Now use them exclusively while on Zwift.