General Cycling Discussion - New Shorts

I'm in the market for a new pair of cycling shorts. I'm looking for the best quality I can find in the $100 range, something for my longer (75+ mile) rides. Any suggestions?

Voler elite FS are nice when they're on sale (like now). I have 3 of them, plus 2 performance ultras and 1 performance elite. The volers are a better fit for me.
http://www.voler.com/products/1110266BLKXSM.aspx

Thanks. I just placed my order.

Hmmmm... I have liked Pearl Izumis for a long time now, but it was only recently that I discovered why, when I went to buy shorts of other brands.

It is well known that shorts of one brand favoured by an individual might well be hell to wear for another, and much has to do, in my estimation, with the size and cut of the chamois or padded insert.

Too wide and the pad will bunch up to become an annoying chafe point between the legs and groin and butt. Too narrow, and it won't provide the padding in the sitbone area, and may result in other chafe issues.

PIs are not a commonly stocked short in my area, nor are they easily available on the internet at reasonable prices.

So, I have been looking at other brands, and it became a bit of a lottery as to what was going to be similar to the PI cut. Fortunately, it looks like I have found another brand (a virtually unknown one in North America), at a great price and I will be buying up four of them as training shorts and for short long-distance rides (imperial centuries and 200 randonnees).

So, ECT, don't get too enthusiastic about your new shorts based on the recommendation of one other poster, whose bodyshape you don't have a clue about. I hope it works out for you, but be aware that there might be issues with Voler shorts simply because of the shape of your butt and groin region. You might have to experiment with other brands to find the shape that suits you.

After trying on as many different brands of shorts I could find a number of years ago, I discovered that the least expensive MEC brand worked best for me. Some of the more expensive brands were so horrible, I wanted to tear them off as quickly as possible. But obviously there must be some people who like the more expensive brands.

For me, however, these are the shorts that work, and next time I'm in Canada, I plan to pick up several pair:
http://www.mec.ca/Products/product_detail.jsp?PRODUCT%3C%3Eprd_id=845524442628992&FOLDER%3C%3Efolder_id=2534374302692593

Meanwhile, however, the next best shorts I've found are a particular type of Fox shorts I've found here in Australia.

For my butt, I need padding that is wide enough to cover my sitbones. I never thought I had really wide hips and sitbones until I started shopping for cycling shorts. For some reason, so many women's shorts have narrow padding in the back, and I either end up sitting on the seams, or the padding isn't wide enough to come anywhere close to my sitbones. Add to that the fact that some manufacturers seem to think that women ride with their abdomens resting on the the saddle or top tube -- they put so much padding in the front of the shorts. I don't need much padding toward the front of the shorts at all. I'm also not that keen on lumpy or thick padding. I like smooth, thin padding.

All these things are my personal preference ... and your preferences might be quite different.

I have a pair of DeMarchi contour bibs. :thumb:
http://www.realcyclist.com/demarchi-mens-shorts-bibs

The best ones that I've ever owned were Craft. They fit so well that it's good to check in a mirror to be sure you have them on before you leave the house.