Which trousers would you recommend for commuting?
 

Hi,

I ride a fixed gear to school and live in Germany where it rains very often, especially now in the winter times. Frequently I come home with a pair of soaked pants. For which reason I thought I need some that are water resistant and don't look like the toughest outdoor trousers. Did someone made good experience with a particular pair, that he would suggest me?

If the distance isn't great you might want to consider a rain cape instead and just wear regular pants. @BobbyG uses it

I have a couple of pairs of rain pants that fit over the jeans that I wear regularly. If I'm walking, I'll generally just keep them on, but if planning on sitting, or entering a house, I'll strip them off and have clean dry (mostly dry, sometimes sweaty) pants underneath.

I have a couple of different pairs and have used either generic sports rain pants, or cycling specific.

Cycling rain gear usually has reflectors on the legs and velco on the cuffs.

Try some athletic pants or pants made for outdoor activities made from fast drying synthetic fabric. There are many different types and styles available out there. You should visit a sporting goods store or an outdoor store and look around.

I have LL Bean rain pants that I wear over my pants. The work great -- the only ones that have kept me completely dry. They are good for sub freezing weather, too. Importantly, they are quick to put on and take off.

I presume the rain cape requires fenders. I ride fenderless most of the time, but that means dealing with more spray.

Showers Pass Transit Pants

Frogg Toggs work well.

I will add with the rain cape and fenders my bike shorts stay reasonbly dry, as do my legs, but I think a longer cape would be needed to keep long pants really dry, plus rolling up the pant legs. Also, in heavy, windy rain I do get wetter, passing vehicles sometimes splash, and crossing water rushing along a curb seems to explode upard from the front tire, as when using a sidewalk cutout during or after a heavy rain.

I ride in athletic wear and change into office attire at work, so that's not an issue for me.

Perhaps a cape and rain pants if one were to try to ride in office clothes.

I grew up running rivers in the West in rafts and canoes, not uncommonly in the rain. We always brought and wore what we called ponchos. They worked pretty darned well. My concern about having one on a bike would be getting the bottom part of the cape/poncho caught is a spoke or something. Can that ever happen?

What type of rain cape? I just picked up this one: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1 along with some boot style shoe covers: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

But it looks to be later in the week before I get to test them out.

That looks like a nice rain cape.
I had made my first one out of an old rain poncho, and then bought this one for a scooter, which was a little short, but I was more interested in staying cool. My next rain cape will be a proper one like what you posted.

I'm upgrading from a coleman rain poncho that couldn't quite reach the handle bars.

Kampf, since you are in Germany, you should consider the Military Surplus, tan-khaki German military trousers that are
made of a polyester and cotton, permanent-press blend. They were very nice pants. I purchased plenty of pairs of
these during the 1990's and early 2000's from Sportsmans Guide in Minnesota. Sportsmans Guide was once a great
supplier of worldwide military surplus and hunting gear/supplies. Sportsmans Guide was getting new, never issued trousers
and used trousers in good condition. They were much better than I ever expected that they would be. They were nice
enough to wear anywhere. The only cheap thing about them was that the inner pocket material was made from a nylon-like,
material very much like the material used to make golf umbrellas. You also only had one rear pocket instead of the traditional
two. Other than that, the quality and workmanship was very good and the zipper quality was first rate. They are a tan
color, and more euro-cut, like today's trousers and the menswear trousers of '78-'85 before menswear trousers became more baggy and loose
fitting from the late eighties through about 2010 or so. The color was a tan color that was lighter than the Gomer Pyle era
US military khaki trousers of the sixties and early seventies.
I just saw the Sportsmans Guide site and they still sell the same German military (tan-khaki) trousers and the German Air Force
trousers which are blue. They only have these in USED versions. The current Sportsmans Guide is no longer the price and quality
leader in military surplus. Their founder, Gary Olen, sold the company, they went public, ownership and management has changed a
few times that their customer service today is not nearly as good, for example, you cannot count on getting the size that you specify or the
condition that they say, as they just ship it and let the customer return it at their own expense..........well, nobody really ships back surplus
in which the cost to ship it back is about the item's cost..........they just donate the ill-fitting, undesirable items to Goodwill,or Salvation Army.
SG once had the best customer service in the industry and best sizing and quality, now it is far from that, so you have to be careful and expect
that the size that you might receive and/or condition might not be in the range that you might expect. Others in the industry are doing much better
today with pricing and quality on those military surplus clothing items, but SG still provides many great items at very competitive prices. They also
have plenty of items that others do not carry in inventory.
My guess is that if the USA based military surplus sellers are buying huge lots of surplus German military issue trousers, then you should be
able to find them within Germany also. As I mentioned earlier, those are excellent and those warm-weather, poly-cotton trousers are machine
washable and tumble dry and they resist wrinkles. As you might guess, military surplus trousers generally will ONLY be found in sizes applicable
for physically fit, athletic young men. So, some typical outta-shape 35 year old American couch potato with a size 48 waist and a huge beer gut will be outta luck
with any of the military surplus trousers from anywhere in the world.

Definitely not fighting trousers, they're not waterproof. At least, I don't think so. :D

Love the use of the word "trousers".! Not used nearly enough these days.

I don't have any brands to recommend but I do know what works well. Wool is the best material in dealing with the wet. It's not about keeping the water from getting through, since anything waterproof will also be sweat-inducing. Wool is the quickest-drying natural material that I know of. It also doesn't really need to be washed. I never wash my wool stuff, other than resolving food-accidents, which I manage by wiping with a wet sponge. My ideal trousers for bicycling would start with being made of worsted wool and have a gusset in the crotch to minimize structural failure.

You have sophisticated knowledge. Where do you get your trousers? For a few years, I was wearing wool dress trousers on the bike, but without the gusseted crotch, they wore out fast. Also, a little bit of nylon mixed in with wool adds a whole lot of durability without compromising wool's good qualities.

Those military trousers posted above tempted me, but I'm glad I didn't get them.

I second wool
 

My favorite material is also wool. If you don't want to go full tights, washable wool pants are great. Woolrich had these for in the vicinity of $70 up until last year, and I have several pairs that I love. Bean carries washable wool slacks still, if you search hard enough, but theirs are really heavy and too warm for here in rainy Portland. Wish Woolrich would reissue theirs, which were a nifty herringbone available in grey, slate blue, and loden and quite respectable looking but wore like iron because of the bit of synthetic in the blend.

Now that was different. Thanks for the smile!


-Kedosto

Kedosto if you like tea, check out Cup of Brown Joy on YT. Or Mr. B Gentleman Rhymer, if you're into hiphop at all, or even if you're not. Despite the Professor's opinion, he's pretty good.