Hi,

I've been meaning to want to buy my first set of "real" cycling shorts, however I am confused on the different types I found. So far I have seen 3 types:

There are the regular cycling shorts with padding: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002KT3XQC/

Then I found these liner shorts which are also padded, but apparently are a bit thinner material: https://www.amazon.com/Canari-Cyclewe...dp/B001NWK7AM/

Finally, I found these "tri" shorts, that seem to be padded but not as thick: https://www.amazon.com/Pearl-Izumi-El...dp/B004ELBQKE/

What's the main difference/which one do I choose? Thanks.

"What's the main difference?" Uh, you just described them!

It's all a matter of personal preference and how tough your ass has become. Do you mountain bike or do stick to road biking? What distances are you tackling?

I am mainly a MTB but may be using these for road as well. I am usually a hard rider that likes to ride several hours at a time.

Sorry, I was just mostly confused about the price differences between the different types of shorts.

1. Avoid gel. *IF* a mfgr was clueful enough to put it only under the sitbones, it would be great. But the shorts I've seen with it always extend it the full length of the chamois, which causes it to bulge up against your soft bits, causing chafing. I use Andiamo liner shorts with unpadded tights, and they are *excellent*.

2. Avoid PI tri shorts. I tried a pair and found the fools made the chamois so narrow in the middle, that it allowed the thighs to chafe against the saddle, since there was no chamois there.


My current favorite shorts: https://www.aerotechdesigns.com/mens-...ike-short.html