Tights over or under riding shorts?

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In article ,
David L. Johnson wrote:
On Mon, 02 Feb 2004 18:19:35 +0000, Per Elmsäter wrote:

Are you sure you haven't just seen people with legwarmers. I've never seen
anybody with tights under the shorts but a pair of legwarmers may look like
that.

Modern tights are the best excuse to throw away those annoying legwarmers.
They never have, and never will, stay up where they belong. We used to
safety-pin them to the shorts to get them to stay put. RPITA. Tights are
so much better. I have a selection of weights to work for any range of
temperature when I can't wear shorts alone.


_ You should try modern leg warmers. My Hind knee warmers stay up
just fine. I even use them skiing to keep my cranky old knees
warm and loose.

_ Booker C. Bense


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David L. Johnson wrote:

On Mon, 02 Feb 2004 18:19:35 +0000, Per Elmsäter wrote:

Are you sure you haven't just seen people with legwarmers. I've
never seen anybody with tights under the shorts but a pair of
legwarmers may look like that.

Modern tights are the best excuse to throw away those annoying
legwarmers. They never have, and never will, stay up where they
belong. We used to safety-pin them to the shorts to get them to stay
put. RPITA. Tights are so much better. I have a selection of
weights to work for any range of temperature when I can't wear shorts
alone.

I don't understand tights without chamois to begin with, unless you want to be
able to strip down to shorts. But why? Most cycling garments have a wide
enough comfort range so that's not necessary. My most used garment is probably
my knickers -- which are perfect from about 50-70F, and fine for short periods
colder (or warmer) than that.

Some places have huge temperature swings within a few hours, but that's not the
norm. Usually it's more like 20 degrees (F), well within the comfort range of
most garments.

So I don't see what the big deal is with all this layering and re-layering. I
do understand leg warmers for one reason -- they cost like $20, and will do the
trick if you can't afford another $75 pair of knickers or tights.

I will only buy tights with chamois. Unfortunately they're hard to find, and if
you're new to the sport you might not know they exist -- especially if your LBS
is mute about anything they don't happen to have in stock.

Matt O.

Matt O'Toole wrote:

I don't understand tights without chamois to begin with, unless you want to be
able to strip down to shorts. But why? Most cycling garments have a wide
enough comfort range so that's not necessary. My most used garment is probably
my knickers -- which are perfect from about 50-70F, and fine for short periods
colder (or warmer) than that.

I've had many occasions where I was in doubt about whether to wear shorts
or tights based on the temperature. Padded shorts plus unpadded tights
solves the problem.

I have only one pair of padded tights and I find the fit isn't as
comfortable as with shorts. So even when I know it's too cold for shorts
alone, I usually wear shorts and the unpadded tights. YMMV.

Art Harris

"Matt O'Toole" wrote

I don't understand tights without chamois to begin with, unless you want to
be
able to strip down to shorts. But why?

I never remove tights while riding, but I really don't understand tights with
pads. It's hard enough to find a pair of shorts that have a pad & fit that I
like, I don't want to go through all that just for tights. I have 3-4 pairs of
tights in different weights and lengths (some are knicker length).

Peter Cole wrote:

"Matt O'Toole" wrote

I don't understand tights without chamois to begin with, unless you
want to be able to strip down to shorts. But why?

I never remove tights while riding, but I really don't understand
tights with pads. It's hard enough to find a pair of shorts that have
a pad & fit that I like, I don't want to go through all that just for
tights. I have 3-4 pairs of tights in different weights and lengths
(some are knicker length).

I do too, but they all have pads. I'm a pretty standard size and proportion, so
most fit me fine. I do understand the fit issues, though. However, if you have
shorts that fit, the corresponding tights from the same company usually fit too.
And bibs usually solve most other fit problems, but then you're really kicking
the price up.

Matt O.

"Matt O'Toole" wrote in message
...

I don't understand tights without chamois to begin with, unless you want
to be
able to strip down to shorts.

So you can wear them x-c skiing, too. Of course, the last time I wore my
thermal tights x-c skiing, I did a low-speed but still flailingly
spectacular wipe-out that caused them to rip up the center seam. I probably
could have worn them for several more years cycling before that would have
happened.


--
Warm Regards,

Claire Petersky
Please replace earthlink for mouse-potato and .net for .com

Home of the meditative cyclist:
http://home.earthlink.net/~cpetersky/Welcome.htm

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"To forgive is to set the prisoner free and then discover the prisoner
was you."

In article ,
"Matt O'Toole" wrote:

David L. Johnson wrote:

On Mon, 02 Feb 2004 18:19:35 +0000, Per Elmsäter wrote:

Modern tights are the best excuse to throw away those annoying
legwarmers. They never have, and never will, stay up where they
belong. We used to safety-pin them to the shorts to get them to stay
put. RPITA. Tights are so much better. I have a selection of
weights to work for any range of temperature when I can't wear shorts
alone.

My Trek leg warmers, when used with my ordinary cycling shorts, don't
fall down. You need to make sure there's enough overlap to keep
everything in place, but it's not hard.

Some places have huge temperature swings within a few hours, but that's not
the
norm. Usually it's more like 20 degrees (F), well within the comfort range
of
most garments.

So I don't see what the big deal is with all this layering and re-layering.
I
do understand leg warmers for one reason -- they cost like $20, and will do
the
trick if you can't afford another $75 pair of knickers or tights.

The other nice thing about leg warmers is that they don't get very dirty
during normal use (unless you're a nut and go play in the mud with your
mountain bike, like me). Because of that, one pair of leg warmers and
multiple pairs of shorts is as good as multiple pairs of shorts and
tights.

My entire lower-body bike wardrobe consists of a pair of cycling shorts,
a pair of mountain bike shorts (baggy synthetic shorts with zip-up
pockets and a liner), leg warmers, and Activa Stormfront fleece tights
with rain-shell fronts and no chamois. The tights are incredibly warm:
they are probably too warm above 10C (but I run cold-blooded, often
wearing a jersey, arm warmers, and a neck tube when I know it will be
dry and above 5 C)

I wear the tights over the cycling shorts, or sometimes on my short
commute with a pair of boxer-briefs instead.

The plan for this year is to buy a set of bib shorts for racing and some
really warm booties. I'm tired of cold feet.

--
Ryan Cousineau, http://www.sfu.ca/~rcousine
President, Fabrizio Mazzoleni Fan Club

On Tue, 03 Feb 2004 19:06:10 GMT, "Matt O'Toole" wrote:

I don't understand tights without chamois to begin with, unless you want to be
able to strip down to shorts. But why? Most cycling garments have a wide
enough comfort range so that's not necessary. My most used garment is probably
my knickers -- which are perfect from about 50-70F, and fine for short periods
colder (or warmer) than that.

I do I have 5 pairs of shorts but I only need one pair of tights over them. if
they had chamois i would need 5 pair.

--
Knight-Toolworks & Custom Planes
Custom made wooden planes at reasonable prices
See http://www.knight-toolworks.com For prices and ordering instructions.

"David L. Johnson" wrote in message .. .
On Mon, 02 Feb 2004 10:56:25 -0700, GS wrote:

The vast majority of riders that I see when it's cold wear their tights
underneath their riding shorts.

Yeah? No one I ride with does. Most tights don't have a chamois, but
shorts do. Put the chamois against your skin, and the tights on the
outside.

I can't think of any good reason to put the tights on under
the shorts, except for those who wear shorts for a team and with to
display their colors.

Used to be, old wool tights had poor elastic and were badly cut, and would
fall down unless held up by your shorts. Really. But most of those
tights should be full of moth-holes by now.

Well I wear mine under my shorts. Of course they aren't really
tights. They are polypropylene long johns, and would look like undies
if I wore em over my shorts. But what the hey!
Keep Stylin'
Bernie

Claire Petersky wrote:

I don't understand tights without chamois to begin with, unless you want
to be
able to strip down to shorts.

So you can wear them x-c skiing, too.

Ah, another good point that I forgot to mention. I wear my unpadded tights
for jogging.

Art Harris