peiffer83

+1 Bought two, work great for the price.

Kotts

I've had good luck with the shorts from www.aevero.com

GrotonPaul

You may want to stop devouring pie.

iDevourPie

Thanks everybody. I adjusted the seat a little bit, made sure I was wearing the shorts right, and double-checked my posture. It's all good now.

SineathE

I can't seem to find a pair of shorts that have good padding for the perineum area. That's the only area I need padding. Reluctant to spend lots of money since I don't know whether a $300 pair would have sufficient padding in the perineum either.

shelbyfv

Thanks for the update. Nothing to do but keep trying.

Aubergine 

You might be better served by looking for a saddle that has a perineum cutout, rather than trying to pad the area. I like the Terry saddles (link https://www.terrybicycles.com/saddles/womens-saddles) and have several on my bikes

SpedFast

Yep, time for a saddle with a cut out. Padding the perineum area only creates more pressure there. Good luck

Steel Charlie

Best shorts I've ever had were Kuchariks... Plain old wool, real chamois, NO pad. Simply wonderful.

Bald Paul

Sadly, Kucharik is out of business now (retired and closed the store.) I still have a pair of his shorts, and a pair of bibs with the hidden flap, useful for emergency roadside relief.

To the OP - you may also want to consider using something like Chamois Butter or Assos cream.

philbob57

Boure (boure.com) uses a thin pad for their lowest priced shorts. They size by hip size. I like the pair I have, but they're too rich for my blood budget now. Voler makes good stuff, but they're now in Boure's price range.

I got a pair of P-I Attack shorts last year on closeout. I'm not favorably impressed by the quality, but they're comfortable. I just don't know how long they'll last - no flat stitching, for example.

IDK ... the Boure shorts seem to look and feel as good as new, and I put them into service at the end of 2016. I 've used them once or twice a week during SUmmers and warm days in Spring and Fall 2017-2023 - 7 years for$80 ... not bad. Boure used to put their pad into shorts you send them.

The thing with thickpads and the perineum, is that the pads compress and put pressure on the perineum, which is usually exactly the opposite of what is needed.

noimagination

It's not necessarily the "quality" of the shorts, it could be that the pad just doesn't fit with your particular anatomy.

I rode Performance brand bibs for years, then I got a gift certificate to a bike shop and decided to buy some "nice" bibs - they were about double the cost of the Performance brand bibs. Unfortunately, the "nice" bibs rubbed me raw - I was literally bleeding after a 3 hr ride. That particular brand/model just didn't work with my body, though it worked great for many others. (I tried to make them work, because they cost so much, but they were never comfortable for me.)

You might need to experiment to see if another brand/model works for you. Unfortunately, nothing stays the same and shorts/bibs tend to change nearly every year nowadays, so if you find shorts that work for you, take my advice and buy several, if you can.

genejockey 

Once you find some shorts/bibs you like, buy several pair so you can always have a clean pair when you ride, especially if you use chamois cream. I have 6 pairs, so I can ride an entire week (with one or two rest days) and then wash them all at once. It may seem like an extravagance, but they also last a long time if only worn for an hour or two (or 4) a week!

Fredo76

+1 on seat with cutout for perineum/crotch pain. Suggest Selle SMP TRK, the biggest advancement in cycling since the derailleur.

rv_biker

I've always found this to be the problem with most of the shorts out there. It always seemed dumb to me that we build saddles with cutouts to relive pressure on the perinium, then we put thick pads in that area in shorts and bring the pressure right back. The shorts designers and the saddle designers need to get on the same page.

shelbyfv

The resurrectionist has not returned.

Trakhak

Very early on in my racing career, I had my saddle too high. Perineum discomfort was constant, but I assumed that it was just part of bike racing, until a guy riding next to me told me I needed to drop my saddle. Brought it down about a centimeter, or maybe more, and that took care of the problem.

Bike fitters often report that the proportion of riders that they see with saddles too high is roughly 50%. (Riders who find that they have to tilt their saddle noses down for comfort usually have their saddles too high.) Might not be the case with you, but it's worth experimenting with dropping the saddle.

Trakhak

I rode wool bike shorts starting in 1963 until our bike shop received our first shipment of Giordana Lycra shorts around 1980. I was happy with the wool and leather when that was all there was. I still have one pair in a drawer, with the chamois worn thin.

The real chamois was fine, and the artificial chamois was and is fine, too. I prefer the way Lycra shorts feel, but I was OK with wool for over 15 years.

Counterpoint (quoting myself from a previous thread):

Grant Petersen once conducted an interview with Maynard Hershon, a longtime writer, particularly about bicycles and motorcycles, and one of Grant's mentors, in which he asked what Hershon considered the most important innovation in the world of bicycles in recent decades. Hershon immediately replied, "Lycra shorts."

Grant said, "You must not have tried a pair of Kucharik wool shorts. They're wonderful."

Some backing-and-forthing ensued, ending with:

Grant: "You really need to try the Kucharik shorts. I'll send you a pair."

Maynard: "I love you, Grant. Please don't send me any wool shorts."

SoSmellyAir

Good call on having multiple pairs of bibs, but better to wash bibs sooner rather than later after a ride; I generally do it right after or by the next day.

terrymorse 

If you remove your bibs and immediately hang them to dry, you can delay washing them for a few days and still avoid the "stank".

Bacteria need liquid water to live and grow. If you take away their water, they are powerless.

genejockey 

Bingo. I always hang up my bibs and jersey to dry after a ride. I only toss them in a basket the next day.

SpedFast

I rinse my kit in the shower before I jump in, then spin it when I get out which removes most of the water, and then hang them in the shower to finish drying. By doing that I only have to sterilize and give them a complete laundering every 3-5 days. That's my system and it's worked for me for quite a few years. When I worked S&R and we were in the woods for days on end, we used talcum powder, but that's got nothing to do with biking. Where I'm going with this is, the only time I've ever had an itch or other down there was when I weeed in a poison ivy patch. I digress.