Yesterday while walking back to my car from class my levis got soaked by a cold wet snow. So I immeadiately went to the outdoor retailer discount store and got a good pair of snowboarding pants for 70 bucks. They were way too long but fit good everywhere else. I hemmed the bottom, cut out the snow cuff and tapered the lower leg from the knee down.

They are a non insulated kind of pants with a very water resistant and breathable shell material and lightweight polyester lining.

I wore them today with only denim shorts underneath as a test to see if they would be cool enough indoors. They worked really well. Both warm outside and cool enough inside to wear witout taking them off.

I then hit on the idea that this would be a good commuting combination for short and medium length rides if the shorts were synthetic. Then I hit upon the idea of using some Wrangler wrancher 100% polyester jeans and making either knee length shorts or messenger over the knee shorts out of them.

I can't find any of the polyester jeans locally so I'm going to order them on the internet. They can be had for 26 USD a pair so making shorts out of them doesn't seem to stressful.

The nice thing about this setup is that you can take off the shell pants if you get too hot and have some nice casual shorts to wear indoors. Plus because the shorts are real pants with pockets and things you can carry your keys and wallet, etc. Without having to transfer this stuff to other pockets.

For longer rides bike shorts underneath should work better.