Originally Posted by azwhelan
I ordered a pair of shorts from Nashbar that I had read some good reviews on (Louis Garneau Ergotex) and got them on sale so I was feeling pretty good. I get them in the mail and realize the Chamois is different then the pair on LG's website. It appears that Nashbar sells these shorts with a downgraded chamois and sells them at the same price as the "regular" pair and calls them an exclusive. I think that's a pretty crappy.
I just returned a pair of the Ergotex MMC shorts because after 3 months of recreational riding (<100 mi/wk) the 8mm of padding in the chamois had compressed to about 2mm. Basically the chamois had disintegrated into nothing more than a sheet of microfiber cloth sewn to spandex. I realized this after noticing how badly my a$$ was hurting after my last 50 mile ride. I called LG, talked to them, and they said that large customers can spec out different pads for different short models, and that the MMC chamois is one of their lower end pads. Why Nashbar chose to marry a good short with a uber-cheapo pad I'll never understand, but they have.
I WOULD recommend the "real" Ergotex short, however. The material and cut of the spandex is awesome, at least on my body. These were, by far, my favorite short.. at least until the pad went to hell on them. Only time I'd wear something else is when these were still damp from washing. I'm definately going to replace the crappy MMC version with the genuine item as soon as I get my credit from Nashbar.