What's the best VALUE in a bib short?

[dannymd]

I like my champions

[LouDeeter]

Used are the best value if you don't mind wearing something that was worn like underwear. Exteondo and Giordana EXO are two of my favorite, with Sportful right behind them. All are compression fitting in the size I'm wearing. And, I got all on this forum, used. I've got Hincapie, Assos, Boure, Nalini, and a few others as well.

[mastaliu]

Lots of good info here, thank you. My good experiences:

Rapha Pro: Great Chamois, super comfortable, and customer service is superb if anything is not working out.
Rapha Core: Sold performer with little frills, good quality, but rather short!
Endo Customs: various brands use this LA manufacturer. These are super nice with a great pad and materials, and different than the usual crowd
Sportful LTD: these are fantastic and can be found on sale.
PedalEd: superior quality to anything I've seen, sizing is hard to get right.
TheBlackBibs: Cannot be beat for low price/ good quality

[Hawker]

Originally Posted by Spaghetti Legs

Kind of moot now I suppose, but Performance Ultra - some versions are (were) great. I have one set about 12 years old that I still use and are in my "long ride" rotation. For a couple of years they were a thin, waffle like material that was definitely "get what you pay for" range but the last set I bought were much better - wore them today.

I'm sure the Asian factory that made these is cranking them out for some other store brand. the problem I've found with finding a good value bib is that most brands change the bib drastically just about every year, so you can't just go back and buy the same model again. I have a set of Sportful bibs that fit perfectly and I love. I bought another set a couple of years later, same size, same model but completely different. I returned them and got one size bigger and they're still too small.

Agree. I used to buy the high end Performance bibs (Ultra?) and still have two pair. They were a good value and comfortable. Alas, no longer.

[jkbrwn]

Originally Posted by mastaliu

Lots of good info here, thank you. My good experiences:

Rapha Pro: Great Chamois, super comfortable, and customer service is superb if anything is not working out.
Rapha Core: Sold performer with little frills, good quality, but rather short!
Endo Customs: various brands use this LA manufacturer. These are super nice

Agree with these sentiments. May I also add a shout out to Rapha Classics. Ofte forgotten but from experience, more comfortable for those really long days. The chamois doesn't come quite as high up on the front of the shorts, so it's not for rides where you're in the drops the whole time, that's for sure, but they're a bit more forgiving and stretchy than Pro Team's. Definitely not as compressive.

Core's have a rep of going see-thru pretty fast. I've experienced this several times and many bibs get returned due to this.

I have a love-hate relationship with the Endo bibs I have. On the plus side, the day after I got them, I noticed a small pin-hole in a panel on my thigh that was probably missed in QC. Where Rapha would just put a patch over it, Endo removed the entire panel (probably the biggest panel on the bibs) and replaced it. This was great, but I find the fit quite strange. I have big thighs and had to get an XL (I wear a Medium Rapha Classic...) Unfortunately that means they're quite long. Normally that would be fine, but the gripper is pretty crappy and they tend to ride up my thigh a lot, which makes the chamois not sit where it's suppose to and thus, they're not very comfortable. Maybe they will just work better for people who are less rotund than me Nice to buy something made a mile down the road from me though.

[Andreas]

Originally Posted by merckx

Andreas, this recommendation was spot-on. Nearly a year later my wife binned my onion-skin Assos bibs, and I received the Boure pro bibs. The pad is perfect, and is sans the over-engineered BS that other bicycle clothing manufacturers are chasing. Thank you for the rec. Stay well!

Good to hear and happy you like them.
Best pad IMHO

[Marvinlungwitz]

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[Tz779]

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