Hey all, this is my first winter riding regularly, and it is starting to get cold. My girlfriend picked me up some great tights with wind shielded/roughed up inside front with a breathable back. They were very heavily discounted, but are not skin tight like most people I see.

So..I have done some research and it seems tight tights are good for not bunching, being more aerodynamic, and maybe helping to keep me warm. The bunching and aerodynamic parts don't mean much to me.

The main thing I am worried about is keeping warm enough to not get sick, staying cool enough to not sweat a ton, and wicking moisture away to keep me dry. Will looser tights hinder any of these things? Did I miss any other benefits of having skin tight tights? Thanks!!

I wear my WPB rain pants over fleece trousers . Rode the length of western Ireland
that way.
works fine all winter at home .. same weather cool and damp.

If anything looser tights will keep you warmer because there will be a pocket of warm air between you and the tights. And it is good to have tights loose over the knee.


Ride with them and see how you feel.

Potential contradictions here. Being cold doesn't make you sick, pathogens do. You want to be "warm" but also "not sweat a ton" ...? The trick is to be cold for the first 15 minutes, then you'll warm up as you ride and ideally you won't sweat. If you're warm when you leave the house you're screwed and will either be removing layers or sweaty as hell...or both.

If you don't work a sweat - you can wear anything in your closet - I do. Cotton is almost 100% of my cycling attire on a 30 mile daily commute. I hate synthetics -- they smell like horse crap after you ride in them, and they don't breathe - so you sweat more...and then they have to wick sweat.

Not to any perceptible amount for bike commuting, and barely a thought for a lot of racers.....this (aerodynamics of tights) is a pointless, stupid thing to worry about.

Not really, other than the Lord of the Flies effect of wearing strange clothing in a pack setting and getting more psychologically motivated to ride.

You could also look like batman.

Windfront/breathable back, sounds good. As for the rest, as long as they don't fall down, you're probably all right. Give 'em a test ride to be sure.

The bunching bit is more an issue of construction than size. If they have an articulated or contoured knee, they're less likely to bunch. And right now, you may not think you care about bunching, but by halfway through the winter, you can get pretty sick of it.

Thanks for the responses guys! The reason I am not too worried about bunching is because I usually don't ride much more than 15-20 mi (~25-30 km) at once, and the pants have the rubber stuff at the bottom and a nice drawstring at the top. I know from scuba that a wetsuit is tight for a reason in order to keep the warmth in, and I figured that bike tights were similar, but I suppose water and air are also very different.

TurbineBlade: When the body gets too cold, especially by being wet your immune system can most certainly be affected (depending on the person cold temperatures can add a significant amount of additional stress to the body). If you are a medical student like me who also suffers from stress and sleep deprivation while spending quite a bit of time in the clinic with sick people and living in the middle of a densely populated Germany.. then keeping your immune system at its highest possible functioning level is certainly important . I wasn't trying to be extremely technical with the people on this board seeing as how the majority could care less.

I was talking about finding the sweet spot, like you said being a little cold the first 15 mins then warming up and hopefully not sweating much. I guess it depends on the individual and is fairly trial and error. I would just like the have the fewest possible errors in order to save myself some money.

Re aerodynamics..I said I don't care about this lol. My main concern is staying healthy while getting my sport in, and if loose tights were to affect this negatively then I would buy tighter tights! However, seems like I have nothing to worry about with tights being a little loose. Time to go ride! =)

Don't assume that people on BF aren't intelligent or don't care about technical details -- a lot of people on here are extremely educated. I would venture a guess that the majority of bike commuters out there probably have a 4-year degree, often their M.S. or further as well.

You're certainly correct in that prolonged, decreased body temp can compromise the immune system. In your case your exposure to sick folks (communicable disease) seems common and I can't argue with your choice of dress out there .

I would venture another guess that being cold for 15 minutes probably won't cause you much harm, but who knows...so stick with what you find works for you.

I think I was tired and grouch last post -- my apologies .