Bib shorts are an essential part of cycling kit, but with so many available at such differing prices it can be confusing for new cyclists. Now personally I think the biggest challenge comes from figuring out when your money stops paying for comfort and quality and starts paying for big name brands marketing budgets. So as I've worn a fair few pairs of bibs over the years from the cheapest budget options to some higher end offerings, I thought I'd rank my bib shorts to figure out where that diminishing point of returns is. So hopefully you can then go out and buy the best bibs for you.
for your needs without having to break the bank. I'm going to base my ratings on three different areas comfort, quality and cost and I've got four bib shorts to compare going from cheapest to most expensive. So first up is this ultra budget pair of bibs from AliExpress.
Now if you don't already know AliExpress is a huge online marketplace just like Amazon but based in China. Now in essence it allows you to buy a whole range of everyday items typically at a much lower cost than you can get them in your home country. As you're buying from manufacturers or brokers directly at source. Now the quality of the products available on AliExpress can vary wildly and it's sometimes difficult to figure out the cheap deals from the cheap crap. But some of the bibs can be so cheap that you could actually take a chance on a random pair and not actually lose out too much even if you do find they later fall apart which is exactly what I did when starting out.
However I'm hoping that this video will stop you having to perform the trial and error test that I did back in the day. Now One thing I have found though is that replicas of big name brands tend to be the worst quality. Back when I first started out and obviously when I didn't really know any better, I bought a Team Sky branded bib and jersey and not only did the material turn completely white when stretched, which is not good for a clothing product supposed to be worn tight, but also a massive hole appeared in the back side of them on one of the first rides, causing me to unknowingly flash a lot of motorists behind me. I'm sure they enjoyed it.
It's probably not that surprising though... that the type of company willing to breach copyright isn't going to take quality control that seriously. That said, not everything coming out of China is low quality, and you have to remember that most big-name brands have their products made in China.
So there are some fairly decent own-name brands on AliExpress. One brand I've had quite a few pairs of shorts from over the years is X-Tiger. Now, I've probably had about six pairs of these over the years, and I still regularly use them when I'm doing training sessions on the Turbo Trainer, so I can save my more expensive bibs.
for outdoor rides. Now before I go any further it's important to note that I am essentially, when going through the comfort portion of these ratings, I am essentially showing you the inside of my underwear. Now I fully appreciate that that's probably not what you want to be looking at on a YouTube video but I promise you that these have been fully washed and are perfectly clean. So now in terms of comfort these tend to have fairly thick padding for the chamois, which is this soft fabric part of the shorts here.
Now the chamois is specifically designed to be worn directly against the skin to stop the sort of chafing and rubbing you'd get from coarser fabrics that standard underwear is made from. But as well as being soft for the very sensitive part of the body this is pushed up against, it also has antimicrobial properties to deal with any bacteria that may develop from excessive sweat in the area. Now you might think that the more padding you have the better right?
Well not always unfortunately because if you have a properly fitting saddle which fits your sit bones properly which I won't go into now as that's a whole other topic. But if you do have a properly fitting saddle then all you really want is a bit of cushioning to soften any bumps in the road. The padding on these cheaper shorts also tends to be more dense and by that I mean it feels harder to compress. So while these tend to be fine for shorter rides of like an hour or less I found that any longer than that and you start to get a sore posterior. Now moving on to the leg grips that stop these riding up your thigh as you pedal.
and these are pretty good and fairly comparable to the higher end offering to be honest. As you can see they have a fairly wide grippy band at the bottom and they do stay put pretty well, so I've got no complaints with these whatsoever. Now as for quality, as I said before these Xtiger ones are actually not bad.
I've had these for around six years now and have no issues with fraying of the seams or any of the material starting to deteriorate. Now these cheaper bib shorts do tend to have this almost Gore-Tex like material for the straps though. And that can cause a little bit of discomfort on the chest, either side of your chest. Strangely though, I only tend to find that if I'm not wearing a jersey with them.
So if I'm just sat here in the pain cave sweating out on Zwift, they can start to rub slightly. But wearing them outside with a jersey on has always been pretty good. Now the last point I'll make that sort of fits into the quality category is sizing.
As most AliExpress clothing products do come up small due to Asian sizing standards. Now I've previously had to buy jerseys that are XXXL in size and whilst I'll admit I'm not the smallest bloke in the world, I generally fit a UK size large. So putting three X's in front of that did sting the first time.
So always make sure to check the particular seller's sizing chart to make sure you get the right size then. So with all that said, how much do these cost? Well I paid around £15 for these, but having recently looked on AliExpress again, it seems that you can pick up a pair for as cheap as £8, which is just insane and as I mentioned earlier, makes it much easier to try a pair out with the slight risk that you might not get on with them. One thing to note though is that unlike Amazon Prime, you won't be getting these next day from China, but actually the delivery times of around two weeks aren't too bad. So on to the next pair and these are from DHB and their Aeron range.
Now, DHB is a brand in the UK owned by activewear website Wiggle, and they largely produce mid-range products for mass market. Now diving straight into the comfort looking at the padding, it's immediately clear that these are much thinner than the cheap AliExpress pair, and much less dense. Now again, I won't go into this too much, but with the padding that's easier to compress, you'll find that your sit bones in your backside rest much easier on the ridges of your saddle, while still absorbing the bumps.
And I found these to be comfortable for long rides well over 30 miles. with no issues at all. Now the leg grippers on these only go around the front part of your leg and have this soft lycra piece at the back but I've found that to be more of a benefit than a hindrance and they've clearly been specifically designed this way to offer more comfort. Now as you can see this part of the hem is grippy and around the back you have this other part being soft lycra.
It's a good mix of function and comfort and these do still grip really well. Now the quality of these is also pretty good as you might expect from a large well-established online retailer. That said, these ones do still come with this Gore-Tex type material for the straps. My review was going to be based on the fact that after a few washes, as you can see here, these have started to bunch up a bit which has caused me no ends of chafing on my chest and my back over the years.
However, having recently checked the Wiggle website, it seems that they've now moved over to making the straps from a much softer elastane material. the sort that you find on the more expensive bib shorts which I'll come on to in a minute. So it seems as though DHB have realised that there was an issue with this and have worked to rectify it in subsequent updates which is good to see. Now price wise I paid 50 quid for these as they were on offer but they generally sell for 80 quid so quite a bit more expensive than the AliExpress ones but they are a decent jump up in terms of comfort. Now next up is a fairly new brand called Soak.
who are based out of China but selling worldwide through their own website, Soak.cc. Now Soak reached out to me a few months ago and offered me a pair of bibs from their new cargo shorts range to try out and review. Now I just want to point out that although Soak haven't paid me for any part of this video, they did send these to me for free but I did make it clear that any review I did would be completely honest and only after wearing them for a decent period of time.
So these cargo shorts are chiefly aimed at gravel riding. which was great timing for me as they arrived just a few days after I completed my gravel bike conversion. So I've had a chance to actually wear them quite a bit over the last few months, and I have to say I've been pretty happy with them for both gravel and road rides. Now they're called cargo shorts because of these mesh pockets in the side of the legs, which I assume is down to gravel riding style being to wear a less road-specific jersey that doesn't necessarily have rear pockets in the back of it. Whatever the reasons though, I actually found the pockets pretty handy.
for carrying my phone or some gels or energy chews or just a jumbo packet of Haribo tankfast sticks. It just made things much easier to grab than reaching around behind my back which I really liked. Now in terms of comfort they do have a thicker padding in them however unlike the cheap Ali Express pair it's much softer and much less dense and I've put that down to these particular shorts being chiefly aimed at gravel riding where you might want that little bit of extra cushioning.
As I say though, I have actually worn these on a few road rides as well and they work just as well there. And finally one major positive for me is this material they've used for the straps. Now this is much softer than the material used for both the cheap bibs and the older DHB Aeron's and this looks to be the same fabric now used for the new Aeron's listed on the Wiggle website.
This is super comfortable as it stretches really well and feels really soft against the skin. Top marks to soak there for not skimping on the straps and using the cheap itchy stuff. These bibs have an all-round leg grip style, unlike the DHBs, but they don't suffer at all with the dreaded thigh creep.
And as I say, they've been really, really good. Going on to quality, and I don't have too much to grumble about with these shorts. That said, it's only fair to point out again that I've only been wearing these for a few short months compared to years for the other shorts. So you'd hope that wear and tear would be minimal at this stage anyway. However, I did say that I'd be giving a full and frank review of these.
And so I do need to point out a small thing, which is that the O on the branding on the back of these shorts did fall off after just the first ride. Now, I did contact Soak about this and they said that they would take it up with their manufacturer. So future iterations wouldn't suffer this issue. And I've no reason not to take them on their word at this.
and ultimately it's only a small thing but something I felt I needed to point out. One more important thing to say is that Soak seemed to suffer slightly with the same Asian sizing issue as the AliExpress bibs. Now when Soak first got in touch and asked what size I would like to be sent I requested a large because as I say that's what I usually wear.
But when they arrived they were just a little bit too tight around the fight. Fine everywhere else but the legs were definitely an issue. I could put that down to just being ripped though.
Alright. Seriously. They did then send me an extra large pair though which fit much better.
Now cost-wise Soak sells these on their website for £65.99 US dollars. Now the website only prices things in dollars which isn't ideal for a UK buyer But not insurmountable as they still work out around 50 pounds, which is much cheaper than the standard price of the DHB Aeron's But with slightly more comfort in my view. Now if you've got this far in the video and you're finding this information useful Then please consider hitting that subscribe button if you haven't already. This channel is dedicated to all things cycling So if you found the video interesting chances are you'll enjoy some of my other content too.
And don't forget to also like this video and leave a comment down below. So yeah, thanks very much. So the final pair of bib shorts I have here are my Morvello Nth Series shorts. Now it's fair to say I do like Morvello's kit generally and you'll often see me wearing their kit in my vlogs.
Their designs tend to be a little more colourful and vibrant which is very much my personality but even though these bib shorts are standard black colour these were my favourite shorts for a long time. First off, the comfort is unmatched. The chamois is only fairly thin, but I've worn these on the 100-mile Ride London route, the 120-mile Dunnish Dynamo ride last month, and 217 miles on London to Paris last year.
And let me tell you, my most precious undercarriage was unscathed on all three of those rides. Now, the shoulder straps are also made from this very soft elastane material. which just adds to their comfort. Likewise for the leg grippers, they have this wide soft leg grip and they blend in nicely with the rest of the shorts with a bit of branding on them as well, but they don't lack in their effectiveness at all. On to quality though and there are a few things to talk about.
Again to be fair to these shorts, I have worn these for over two years now and they are probably my most worn bib shorts so that has to be considered. However, I recall that pretty much within the first few rides of wearing these, This Morvelo logo on the side started to lift slightly at the corners and ever since then as you can see it has started to crack slightly which did annoy me given how much I paid for these. Moving on to the straps, although they haven't lost any of their comfort, some of the elastane strands have started to pop out and fray and stick out. Now they do still have the right amount of give in them, not too tight that they annoy the top super shoulders but not too loose that the bibs start slipping down but again It is something to note. And finally, this annoying little scuff right on the front.
Now this happened almost straight after buying them, and it seems to be a result of the bottom of my jersey zip rubbing up against it. Now, you'd imagine that that would be a fairly common issue, but none of my other shorts seem to have anything similar, despite me wearing exactly the same jerseys with them as I do with these. And so my only conclusion from that is that the fabric mix they use for these shorts... is slightly less forgiving in the scuff department. Again, not too big a deal but just slightly annoying for how much I paid for them.
And talking of which, this is the big one in terms of price, as these cost me 125 quid. Now I realise that you can spend upwards of double that on a high-end pair of bibs from the likes of Lacolle or Rafa, but as I mentioned earlier, I think that's where you start to get to the point of paying more for the name than benefiting from anything further in terms of comfort and quality. Certainly there'll be a difference between a £10 pair and a £120 pair of bibs, but between a £120 pair and a £250 pair, I'm just not so sure. And there are a few other things to consider when deciding which bibs to buy though, chief of which is crash replacement. Now unfortunately it's a simple fact of cycling that at some point you might come off your bike, and if you do there's every chance you'll damage your kit.
Now whilst you'll get no support whatsoever from any of the sellers on AliExpress, and even DHB don't offer any sort of replacement service, Morvelo do cover products bought within the last 18 months that have been damaged due to a crash. So they will replace any no longer wearable items. Similarly, and actually quite nice to see from a Chinese manufacturer, Soak offer a 30% discount on new items after a crash has ruined your kit. Now I've not seen any other direct from China manufacturer offering anything like that.
So I think that's a really nice touch by Soak. In conclusion then, which bibs would I recommend? But to be honest, it really all depends on where you are in your cycling progression. The budget pair of AliExpress bibs are great if you're just starting out and not doing a huge amount of miles.
Also, if you don't yet know if cycling is the sport for you, then you don't really want to be spending out loads of money on kit you may only wear briefly. So the AliExpress ones get you used to wearing bibs without having to splash the cash too much. Of the other three though? Well until receiving the Soak shorts a few months ago, I would have recommended the Morvelo pair over the DHBs. because although they are a little more expensive for real comfort on the bike and especially longer rides, these feel great.
However, despite the minor branding fail, I've really been impressed with the Soak shorts. They offer all the saddle and shoulder comfort of the more expensive Morvello shorts, but with the added practicality of side pockets and they are much much cheaper than both DHB and Morvello. So it's quite interesting that now these mid-range Soak shorts are just as comfortable as my high-end ones. I don't really see any need in paying nearly two and a half times more for essentially the same level of comfort and quality. Although I do like to have matching kit, so I may just save the Soak ones for my gravel riding and stay with my Morvelo kit for road rides.
Overall then, if you're moving on from a budget bib short and looking for something to really help you stay comfortable on the saddle for longer... then I would definitely try these Soak shorts out. With all that being said though I know brand loyalty can be a massive thing for some cyclists and some would willingly die on a hill defending their favourite bit of kit. So if you have a particular name that you love to wear let me know in the comments below.
Otherwise though I hope you found this informative and if you have made it this far thank you very much for watching and I'll see you in the next one. Take care.