Originally Posted by
bbbean
Both, but mainly to keep your butt dry. FWIW, modern "chamois" is greatly superior to the actual chamois we used to use when I first started riding back in the 70s. I recently found an old pair of bike shorts from the early 80s and wore them on the trainer for an hour. While they were still more comfortable than wearing normal street shorts with underwear, the differences between them and my modern bibs were VERY noticeable.
To clarify for the youngsters......"chamois" used to be chamois leather but as the leather got replaced by synthetic materials in bike shorts the chamois name stuck, which of course is a perversion of language but what can you do?
Chamois leather - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(Don't need no padded shorts to ride recumbent bikes.)
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Bacchetta Giro A20, RANS V-Rex, RANS Screamer