where would you have your padding?
1. Shorts stay in the same position on your bum.
2. Your bum does not say in the same position on your saddle.
You need the padding to reflect the needs of your bum. More in tome places than others rather than an even covering.
Hence due to 1. it is more sensible to put the padding on your bum.
I've heard that before, but I've never been able to visualize how that works, atleast with the cycling shorts and saddle that I own. On the shorts I own, the chamois is more or less the same shape as the saddle, but larger. No matter where I sit on my saddle, it seems that for for every contact point, there is chamois/padding in between myself and the saddle.
So in the end, i don't see what the difference would be if whatever padding was in the shorts was added onto the saddle.
I understand/agree with having a "slick" layer of shorts, so that you don't get chafing against your skin, but that doens't seem to require a chamois.
It isn't "padding", it's a chamois (whether it is literally made of chamois or not) and its purpose is to absorb sweat that collects where there isn't airflow to evaporate it.
It serves to keep your skin relatively dry so that it doesn't chafe and develop nasty things growing in it. That is why it is in the shorts, rather than on the seat.
Ok, that makes some sense. I can see how keeping dry could help with general infection type stuff, but I'm not sure i get how that would help stop chafing.
Part of the reason I'm being so critical of bike shorts is that I've recently (past couple of years) gone through a giant hassle of finding cycling shoes that don't make my feet hurt like crazy. All the conventional/bike shop wisdom didn't really help (besides make my pockets lighter), so I'm purposefully trying to challenge what I don't totally understand. Also, I rode without cycling shorts for years, until someone bought me a pair. It's just an impression, but I don't remember riding with basketball shorts to be any more uncomfortable than the cycling shorts i'm riding with now.