Originally Posted by
Homeyba
Last I checked, this was the "
long distance" forum. Not the ride to the store or school forum.
When I was a kid, I rode all around town in jeans and underwear too. A 5-6hr ride is barely a century ride for a lot of people. The farther you go on the bike wearing underwear the greater your chances of having a problem. If you are going to be riding
long distances you are better off not wearing them.
+1 We've got a few short distance responses in here for some reason. But then it's not clear if the OP is a long distance rider either. Perhaps this should have been posted in General Cycling.
The longest distance I've ridden in underwear (usually a bathing suit as mentioned above) and regular shorts has been 80 km on a tour. My Brooks saddle made that possible, and with my Brooks saddle, I could have ridden longer than 80 km without any issues. I don't know if I could have done that with the other saddles I've tried in the past. But even with my Brooks saddle, I don't know that I would have felt comfortable much past about 120 km.
There are, however,
some long distance riders (i.e. brevets, randonnees, etc.) who prefer to ride in regular shorts, and presumably underwear. One particular east-coast US rider springs to mind. I believe he's an RBA now out that way. And there were riders in all sorts of different kit on the PBP. Rowan often does centuries etc., without padded shorts. He wears what are essentially unpadded cycling shorts with regular shorts over them ... but again, he's got a Brooks saddle.