Originally Posted by seypat

First of all, let's talk about padded shorts vs padded saddles. Really, whatever works for you is fine and dandy. Life is too short to worry about it.

We have to consider the quality of the rider here. I am about as low as it gets as far as climbing ability. Really scraping the bottom of the barrel. Heck, I might have to go up a cog just to get over a speed bump in the parking lot. Where others see a mole hill, I see a mountain.

The chain dropping and poor reactions are from other riders. I see it every year at the same place on the same ride. It could be rider/route inexperience there. Nice fun rolling descent, then a 90 degree right to an immediate out of the saddle to start up the hill. After that turn, you are barely moving. People look up and start going through the gears. If they haven't got to the gear they need it about 5 or 10 yards, it is too late. They try to stand and grind it out, but momentum is gone and they fall over.(after a few front wheel waggles) 2 years in a row my rear axle slipped in the dropout at the start of that grind. I finally wised up and always make it extra tight before we start going down the hill before that turn.

Originally Posted by rpenmanparker

That's dumb.

Originally Posted by rpenmanparker

Are you talking about horizontal dropouts?

Originally Posted by rpenmanparker

And yet back in the day we had neither much padding in the shorts or the saddle and glory be, we thought we were comfortable. How silly of us.

Originally Posted by seypat

Yes to old steel and horizontal dropouts. No to downtube shifters. I much prefer bar ends to downtube shifters. I have big guads and beefy forearms. There is not enough room there to shift a DT. I have to stop pedaling, splay the legs out and try to get an arm in there. That's when it gets squirrely.

Originally Posted by seypat

Yes to old steel and horizontal dropouts. No to downtube shifters. I much prefer bar ends to downtube shifters. I have big guads and beefy forearms. There is not enough room there to shift a DT. I have to stop pedaling, splay the legs out and try to get an arm in there. That's when it gets squirrely.

Originally Posted by Costco hot dogs

Lemme get this right, "I'm too ripped to use downtube shifters"?

Originally Posted by NYMXer

I imagine you could go back far enough on many things, but at the end of the day, you have to appreciate it when something good comes along, like padded cycling shorts. Ah, it's about the little things in life, haha
It's only silly when people refuse to give something consideration and suffer because of it. Not all mousetraps are better, but many are!

Originally Posted by southpier

years ago I made the mistake of buying some "mountain biking" shorts with a built-in padded liner (remember old swimsuits???). anyway, I wore the shorts a grand total of about 200 yards, turned around, came right back home and into the trash they went. it was like (I imagine!) wearing a diaper with a full load.

Originally Posted by southpier

years ago I made the mistake of buying some "mountain biking" shorts with a built-in padded liner (remember old swimsuits???). anyway, I wore the shorts a grand total of about 200 yards, turned around, came right back home and into the trash they went. it was like (I imagine!) wearing a diaper with a full load.

Originally Posted by seypat

Well, I had this long, detailed(boring) reply written out. Hit the wrong button and lost it all. Probably a good thing.

Summary: Compared my body size/build/makeup to Mark Cavendish + 45-50lbs. Even at the weight/fitness I played basketball in college 30 years ago, too bulky/heavy/wrong type of muscles to be a decent endurance athlete. Yada yada. It causes cramping problems on distance events throughout the body including the muscles controlling the STI levers and that's why I use friction. Blah, Blah, Blah.

It also included a great story about females applying body numbers at dus/tris copping a feel on my arms/legs and getting caught by my wife. I included that so you wouldn't think I was blowing smoke about being "ripped" or big gauds. That was lost also. It's a good story, and it gets better every time I tell it! It's a lot better than talking about padding in shorts/saddles and STI/friction.

Originally Posted by Costco hot dogs

what are guads?

Originally Posted by datlas

41-speak for quadriceps muscles in legs.

Before you ask, 41 is this forum.

Originally Posted by Costco hot dogs

sarcasm, i was using it.

Originally Posted by datlas

I missed it. Not the first time.

Originally Posted by Costco hot dogs

sarcasm is much like padding in cycling bibs. Sometimes it's only applied lightly, and often some question whether it's in the right place.

Originally Posted by Racing Dan

Did you even stop to think before replying or was it just the the expected knee jerk reactions? Im guessing the latter.

I really dont care for your snarky replys. Moving on ...

Originally Posted by Racing Dan

Its like work pants with padded knees. Sitting on you knees on a hard floor is immediately uncomfortable because pressure is concentrated to a small spot, but Sliding 1/2 an inch hard foam under you knees instantly releaves the pain. To my mind this i no different than sitting directly on a hard surface with your sit bones. I get that if a saddle i very thick and soft you may "sink in" and move the pressure to the perineum, but Im guessing that is the reason many saddles now come with cutouts to prevent this from happening.

Having more padding in the saddle and none in the pants seem, to me, like the best solution to get rid of heat and wick away sweat that otherwise softens the skin. Just like any other sports garment I can think of.