Clothing, and the wearing/eroding thereof...
 

Ok.. SO i run through my pants like a mothertrucker. The commuting and the work taken by jeans/carharts/dickies/canvas shorts just do NOT hold up to the daily brushing against my saddle. Needless to say I run through the ass in my jeans/pants about every 8 to 12 months, and i hate buying clothes (new/used/any.. i hate shopping. period.). Any other commuters/messengers/bikers had any luck with certain materials/brands? I would love to not have to buy clothes all the time..

and before i drop $100 on a pair of bike-specific/made-for-messenger pants/knicker thingies (ala http://www.hypnoticdesigns.com/knicker.html), do these type of ***** even last the same as a pair of carhart/jeans/dickies?

and i do usually wear spandex underneath. so there is an added layer. and i usually have about 3 pairs of pants that switch between - but even with the switching, i run through them in as little as 8 months (dickies) to lasting only about 12 months (carharts). i even patch the ass as i go, but alas - patches barely even hold a week before i have to patch a new hole.

anybody?

Clothing, and the wearing/eroding thereof...
 

Ok.. SO i run through my pants like a mothertrucker. The commuting and the work taken by jeans/carharts/dickies/canvas shorts just do NOT hold up to the daily brushing against my saddle. Needless to say I run through the ass in my jeans/pants about every 8 to 12 months, and i hate buying clothes (new/used/any.. i hate shopping. period.). Any other commuters/messengers/bikers had any luck with certain materials/brands? I would love to not have to buy clothes all the time..

and before i drop $100 on a pair of bike-specific/made-for-messenger pants/knicker thingies (ala http://www.hypnoticdesigns.com/knicker.html), do these type of ***** even last the same as a pair of carhart/jeans/dickies?

and i do usually wear spandex underneath. so there is an added layer. and i usually have about 3 pairs of pants that switch between - but even with the switching, i run through them in as little as 8 months (dickies) to lasting only about 12 months (carharts). i even patch the ass as i go, but alas - patches barely even hold a week before i have to patch a new hole.

anybody?

Different saddle? I've got almost a year on a pair of Carharts that was mostly on a Sella Itallia SLR, and there's almost no wear. I pretty much wear them every other week for a week at a time, with 1-2 hours of riding per day.

funny thing is that im riding on a selle italia slr, and i as well ride about a week on a pair of pants then switch out. i do anywhere from 1 to 5 hours of riding per day - though with that later number due to a longer ride where i switch to roadie clothes.

eh.

Derailing this thread here for a bit - any tips on getting the SLR to fit good? As in angle, tilt, seatpost height? I picked one up for dirt cheap recently and put it on the ride for a few days. It was comfy sometimes, but most of the time, I really felt it. Went back to the Flite but wanted to give it another go. No big loss since I paid very little for it.

Back on topic - I do notice that some of my jeans do wear a little faster around the crotch - however, cords and normal pants seem to last longer - which is contrary to the whole workwear ethic isn't it? Not quite sure why. I do change pants every day or every two days so I may not be wearing them out like you folks. On the other hand, I've yet to trash a pair of pants that way.

Oh, alternatives also include synthetic fabrics - some of my pants are climbing gear type or hiking pants, nylon, ripstop and whatnot.

I have a short commute, so I wear usually bike in jeans. I, too, have found there is about a 12 month lifespan before the crotch wears through. Jeans seem to be worse than docker-style pants, I suppose because jeans are a little stiffer, but my dockers still wear out. I'm not willing to wear cycling specific pants for a two mile commute, so I guess I will have to stick with replacing the pants every year.

So, no, I don't have any alternative ideas, only empathy.

yeah.. i'm kinda wondering about the nylon/synthetic series... i just hate that style (aethetically), so i've never tried it. looking towards someone with some experience in both departments. i'm looking for someone who already has experiemented and has foudn the answer... so that person is....?

and on the slr... well, i personally set the seat level (to my eye) and the tilt it up one click (i have a syncros seatpost) of the ridges on the seat post clamp. i personally have found this perfect for me.. oh and i push the seat all the way forward. but this is almost always a personal thing, so i think you need to just mess with the seat for yourself. most bikers do recommend a tiny upward tilt of the saddle, just fyi.

damn. well, i feel ya brotha... funny tho, in that, i never really get the crotch shred as opposed to the full on ass erosion.

an alternative problem *might* be my horrible flatuations that are known to take out small hamlets, and thus, maybe the ass of my pants.

under the weather's sit-n-spin pants look pretty good.

I've got about 14,000k on the prototype of these Sit N Spins which are the same pair in the picture. I've put another 11,000k on the first production pair. They are made for wearing over the cycling shorts as you do. Supplex is extremely abrasion resistant. They don't stretch the way Hypnotics do, but they are made specifically for durability and functionality. That they look good was a by product and cause the designer really knows her stuff. The 2005 model will be even better with what we've learned from testing over the past 2 years. btw I've met the hypnotic guy at a race, he's a cool frood, we traded shirts n'such.

The only thing I haven't tested these pants against is a saddle with kevlar on the rear edges. I've seen what that can do to normal pants and cycling shorts alone. I think our pants would do fine against it, but that particular saddle design makes good sense for saddle longevity and good sense for people that make pants and want to sell some to the same people every few months. Never had one of those saddles yet but I may get one soon just to see.

Anyway the prototype no longer looks new but they still look good, the only wear thats shown was on the edge of a rear pocket, all the stitching in the crotch & ass is as solid as the day it was sewn. The production pair I wear still looks new.

We've sold many pair to messengers around the world, except for bike shop guys they're the only ones that wear them up to this point as we've only hung them up in 2 retail stores. We're still too small to go big production on them but we kinda like it that way.

:) yah beat me

that shows how subjective that is. I would have said the opposite because thats how I setup my slr.

http://www.bikeforums.net/attachment...chmentid=11554

with pants I find that military ones dont last at all. cords seam to be fine.

hey sam! thanks for the personal exposure of your friends (maybe even yours) company pants.. i've the utw pants before.. just to explain, i only mentioned the hypnotic designs as an example just because it came up first on goofle for messenger pants.... there are many other designs out there as well, however, the utw are definitely some of the better looking ones - especially sinc eyou can get them in "varying colors" - whcih 'd lovve a doodoo brown pair.. so i might just have to email her/him up!

here's to buying from the small guy!
reload bags, gerik cycling caps, etc etc.

(ahem... let me plug my friend... custom cycling caps however you want it - gerikmade.circlethata.org - use his email gerikforston@yahoo.com cuz the site still isn't up but.. here's a picture of the hat he made me:
http://fixie.circlethata.org/images/race/drag.01.jpg )

k. so that isn't the most killer picture. but it's an awesome hat. he's big in japan.

no really.


oh and sohi. killer bike.

oh and sam again, man if you want - i have a bunch of kevlar "reinforced seats" hanging out in our house if you want me to just send you one for testing purposes? or maybe i'll try to make a deal with utw if i do a scientific study of their pants.. hmm... you should put in a good word for me for when i put out my offer to them, tell them that i'm really actually worried about this whole pants thing.

On the saddle thing... It anatomics. Dudes like it flat or with the horn pitched just slightly up. Chicks the opposite. So stop, you're both right!

Hey Sam just so you know I'm still up for that stealth bomber bag!

Here's an idea
Buy fatigues off eBay or a local Mil Surplus. I paid $11 for two pairs. Mucho pockets too. I also scored a set of Italian Army mountaineering wool knickers for $14.
$11 or $14 and you want to buy some synthetic $100+ pair of 'messenger' knickers? Most messenger knickers I see are cut off khakis or fatigues. Guess my fashion sense is crap.

i usually get cargo pants from army surplus and cut em or roll em. half the price and twice the ass material. it's like someone designed them just for us...

Surplus smurfplus...I only wear designer fatigues.

i didn't know smurfette could sew.

i think y'all are missin' the point which is that I'M TIRED OF BUYING PANTS THAT KEEP SHREDDING ON ME, ie. fatigues/cargos/jeans/my skin/etc.... so i was just throwing out this idea as to if someone has had some luck with some decent clothes. i'm sick of patching my ass up every other week. and i'm sick of ****ing shopping for clothes - online, surplus, vintage, antique, second hand, farmer supply store, or the ****ing gap.

fair enough - I will give a trade secret, but if ANYONE else on this forum reads this post, I will kill something cute.

Cut off bottom 3-4" portion on legs of fatigues or whatever pants you want to ride in. Have a dry cleaners sew sections of the liberated leg fabric into the crotch area for reinforcing. Pay $1.45 and leave, with a stronger, more durable crotch.

It puts the proofide in the ****ing basket!!!

LOL - rare form MKRG. You back yet?

It's amazing what 20 miles, a campfire and cheap beer can do for your soul. I should be down by the school watching an Agent Orange show tonight, but I wimped out on that.