What are these $40 bibs? I'm sincerely asking. Not trying to challenge.

There are a few lower priced "Value" brands I'm looking at and would gladly buy if I thought quality was there.

En example is La Passione. Someone on a ride yesterday had one of their jerseys and it looked nice. I'd already own one if they had a fourth zippered pocket. Their bibs checks all the boxes including Elastic Interface pads.

I'm skeptical as my Rapha and Assos bibs have lasted 2x as long as Performance Ultra SL bibs and the Rapha bibs actually cost less. I'm all ears though.


-Tim-

The Black Bibs are one, the other is I just shop carefully for the bottom-of-the-line Pearl Izumi-- either the Select Quest, Quest Splice, or Pursuit Attack (msrp of $70, $70, and $100, respectively; ) near end of season or clearance, they're all available for $50 or less-- I've gotten one pair for under $30. I have a pair of the PI Elite Pursuit (~$140 msrp) and I don't care for them as much as the cheaper ones. Also have a pair of Sugoi RS Pro bibs (~$170 msrp)-- I don't like them at all.

I keep trying different ones because PI stopped doing the "anatomic" chamois and went to what they call their "1:1" pad, and I don't like it as much. The start to irritate after 60-70 miles. So basically, not a problem for most days.

The La Passione stuff looks nice enough, but is still far beyond what I've ever paid for a jersey-- and my hanger rod is full of PI, Twin Six, DeMarchi, Castelli, Sugoi, etc.

For all you "anti-elitists," take comfort in knowing that Rapha is now owned by Walmart. :D

As you well know Ralpha is NOT owned by Walmart. So all elitists can rest easy that they won't be have to rub elbows with the great unwashed hoards to buy their "kit".

thats a jersey I would wear. 100%

I have not tried bibs but I have read this thread with interest. I read an explanation of "why bibs?" that actually makes sense. I'm not sure I'll ever try them, just because (in my opinion, just a personal fashion choice) they look funny. I've gone the other direction, wearing performance wicking compression boxers under a pair of zip-off fishing and hiking shorts. I don't see the need for chamois or padding. And my jerseys are in a box while I wear a performance wicking tshirt, bought at Walmart like most of my clothes. In winter, my base layer is more synthetic wicking garments. I think I'm a Fred. I always liked that name.

I could never justify paying those crazy prices for wool, even if it's better. But I do find it interesting how others make personal fashion choices.

Thanks.

La Passione has some stuff on clearance which looks nice.

Twin Six jerseys can be workhorses. I had one before I lost weight, couldn't kill it.


-Tim-

God bless you. That made me laugh out loud :)

I've been scouring the internet for 2 days trying to find a Ralpha jersey. I want it more than when I saw the Chester Cheetah Cheesy Riders jersey for the first time.

When you're wearing a top, bibs look indistinguishable from shorts. You're the only person who will know you're wearing bibs.

Though there was that one time...I had just gotten home from a ride, had stripped off my sweat-soaked jersey, and my neighbor came over to talk to me...We were on the porch chatting, me in my bibshorts and little cycling cap and nothing else. I looked like a member of Frankie Goes to Hollywood. A car slow rolled by, and the two dudes in it were staring so hard that I thought they would crash into my Ash tree.

It's still in the bag.

You're welcome:

https://www.bonanza.com/listings/Sim...SABEgI0PvD_BwE

Alert: Long and boring Rapha story ahead, skip over if looking to be entertained.

I have 3 identical bibs that I bought in 3 separate orders since I liked using them on my commute, cheapest I got them for was $15. I crashed once at low speed, bibs were a bit scuffed up but still perfectly usable.

I then started riding longer to prepare for a century, and my butt started hurting really badly. Tried chamois cream, didn't help because it wasn't chafing, but better support that I needed.

Out of curiosity, I switched to a pair of Pearl Izumi Elite shorts that I had stopped using when I got my bibs. Hurt even worse. So I bought a Rapha Classic bib at half off. The price was in line (i.e., also discounted) with other options I'd seen being recommended here on BF: Voler, Pactimo, Aerotech, Le Col, Assos. Like Voler, the Classic line had a great return policy, so I went for those over other options as my first Rapha purchase.

I only got to use the Rapha bibs twice before the day of my century, but I found the bibs definitely more comfortable than my other options. Near my 97th mile ridden on event day, I crashed at 25mph on a slick descent (I was trying to be careful, ended up being too careful and braked poorly). Looked my Rapha bibs over later to see if I could use their free crash repair. Not a speck on it after washing, even though there was definite dirt and grime where I'd skidded along the road after the accident, so I know I didn't magically miss road-to-bib contact. Oh yeah, and my butt was very happy.

Now I've ordered a $20 hot weather base layer and a $92 pair of lightweight bib shorts, waiting in anticipation of their delivery. Will see if quality is consistently high with more data points. The base layer is the cheapest one I've ever bought (excluding UnderArmour, which don't work for me under jerseys) discounted from Pearl Izumi and Pactimo. The bibs are again totally in line with prices for anything I've seen with Elastic Interface-level chamois. And both are monochrome, so no screaming fashion statements to be made. I guess as someone new to road cycling, I haven't been exposed to the point of annoyance by whatever branding Rapha is messaging to the world? I have seen some of their ads on YouTube before cycling vids that are dumb, but nothing dumber than all the other ads I see.

Postscript: I mentioned the Rapha sale to a very experienced coworker, so he looked for some kit he'd been interested in getting. Having never bought from Rapha before, but curious about it, he was actually surprised by how low some of the sale prices were. I'm guessing people are hung up on MSRP, but as someone who hardly ever buys anything at full price, I just completely ignore them when deciding on good value.