Hi there,
Looking around for a good pair of shorts, particulary the baggy ones asi I don't like to think I look good in spandex.

But, how do the baggy shorts with the padded insert inside them compare to wearing the more traditional skin hugging pudded shorts with a pair of normal shorts over the top.

Any suggestions?

Thanks

Forget all that appearance stuff. Go for the good stuff. Get a decent pair of lycra shorts. Or better yet, get bibs. That's what the pros wear (and any self respecting cyclist).

The baggy shorts with padded liner are typically referred to as mountain bike shorts. They will work fine,and since the inner and outer layers are designed to work together, they will possibly be more comfortable than wearing other shorts over lycra bike shorts. Of course you can try both, since you need more than one pair of shorts.

Good advice, go for what is a comfortable.

That being said, bibs are at the bottom of my comfort list...I can't stand suspenders!

Baggy shorts work just like regular shorts. The inner liner is just normal bike shorts, just attached to the outer baggy short.

Ron, Ron, Ron, what are we gonna do with you? Any 'self respecting' cyclist will wear whatever pleases them and not worry about looking like the pros. The pros got some damn nice bikes too...so if I wanna look like a sewious pro cycwilst I prolly need one of them, not to mention the team kit, matching helmet, shoes and, of course, good drugs. A skinny, shaved bod might help too.

To the OP: If you want baggies, you got two choices - the cycling specific baggies with the integrated lyrca inner pant and chamois, or a pair of padded undies or regular spadex cycling shorts worn under flat-seamed or gusseted cargo shorts. I usually just wear cargo shorts (or jeans/patrol pants in the winter), though for longer rides I'll wear padded undies or my one pair of spandex cycling shorts. Padded undies are cheaper than cycling shorts, but the cycling shorts can be worn by themselves...so are kinda dual purpose. I don't much like the cycling specific baggies with the inner-pant/chamois - they never seem to have enough pockets, are rarely found in anything but black, blue or gray anymore, are usually too damn baggy, and usually don't have the option to remove the inner pant - so if you opt for these, keep those things in mind when choosing a pair.

I have 1 pair with the integrated inner lycra with pad and a pair with a removable inner padded liner. I like the two piece better - probably a better pad. I ride mostly road and don't really concern myself with what other people might think - except for my wife and sons. I have some older lycra shorts and my thirteen year old asked me, "Do you like wearing those shorts?" with a smirk on his face, so it will probably be baggies exclusively for me when the weather warms up enough to not wear long pants.

I've hated every pair of baggies I tried on. What worked for me is combining Pearl Izumi liner shorts with Prana Mojo climbing shorts. The Mojo shorts are pretty lightweight and the PI liner shorts are just like regular bike shorts except the spandex part has lots of little ventilation holes. Stay away from Andiamo (sp?) padded underwear. That stuff is horrible and worse than just riding in normal clothes. You might also experiment with normal clothing. I've seem lots of ridiculous cyclists who think they can't ride 5 miles without putting on all the gear. I've found that I can ride on the road for up to about 30 miles in normal clothes, after that the seams on the underwear cause too much chafing. (I don't wear special biking shorts for riding my mountain bike because it is a single speed and I'm standing up 80% of the time).

I picked up two pairs of Fox baggies with the lycra liners. While better than the regular shorts I had been using, they really are not even close to the regular lycra shorts I have switched to. And, when I just switched from the cheap Canari to a pair of Pearl Izumi shorts, I could not believe how much better the Pearl's felt. Another thing, the Fox shorts ($150 worth) don't even fit anymore because of the 30 lbs I have dropped in the past 3 months riding, so take that into account also....

One problem I have found with baggies is them catching on the saddle. Even worse on the MTB where you move about a lot more. Nothing worse than deciding to put weight back on the saddle and find you are hung up and you find the nose of the saddle too soon- And the weight is in the wrong place so wheelspin and a fall.

I'm usually wearing lycra but I have a couple pairs of mountain biking shorts. Frankely if I pedal under 20 miles I don't notice any difference. Anything more than 20 miles and lycra is much more comfortable.

I ride with PI Launch shorts. They're your standard baggy short with integrated chamois short. I don't really find that there's much of a difference between these and the lycra shorts.

Personally, I prefer to have my liner (with chamois) and outer shorts as two separate pieces. I'll second the recommendation of the PI liners.

As noted, the outer shorts don't need to be anything special -- but if you are going to ride longer distances, make sure your outer shorts are made of fabric that will breathe and carry sweat away from your skin. I tried to do a longish ride in my PI liners and a pair of cargo shorts, and the cargo shorts were a wet, smelly, suffocating mess by the end of the ride.

chipcom has a point. I often use padded undies. That way, I can choose what baggy shorts to wear.

https://www.undyworldunderwear.com/im...ront-Large.jpg