I’d probably have been better off with lycra tights
A few months ago, when one of my pairs of nashbar +4s started to disintegrate (I’d been working last summer, and as a result my weight shot up; this additional weight made the +4s a bit to tight, and the fabric started to wear out as if there was no tomorrow) I decided that I’d try a pair of Rivendell “MUSA” +4s out because they weren’t much more expensive than the nashbar ones, they are made in the USA, and several of my bikey friends wear them and didn’t have any complaints about them aside from them being warm in the summer.
So I’ve been wearing them off and on. Mainly off, because they’ve got some problems.
Firstly, despite appearances, they don’t have a fly. There are seams and sewing on the fronts as if there should be one, but it’s a cruel lie. That’s annoying, but it’s pretty easy to work around in the traditional way.
Secondly, the fit is a bit odd. My waist fluctuates between 32" and 34" (depending on whether I’m working or not – computer programming is a pretty horrible job, and to survive it I self-medicate with junk food, with the expected horrible results to my health,) which should fit into the “medium” category, but I find that these +4s are loose around the waist, but tight around my upper legs. And this leads to the …
Third issue, which is that they don’t really have a cyclist cut. They’re cut fairly low around the hips, which means, for me, that when I’m in my usual hunched over the drops position that they want to ride down plumber-style. And they come with an elastic belt, so even if I tighten the belt up to the point where it’s becoming painful the stupid elastic will still stretch and let the +4s ride on down as soon as I get into the drops and attempt to move on down the road.
Fourthly, the pockets. These +4s don’t come with a cellphone pocket, which is moderately annoying (the trek doesn’t have a front rack yet, so I have to wear a bikey-style jersey with back pockets when I’m wearing these on grocery store trips), and the front pockets are astoundingly deep, to the point where my wallet and keys drop low enough on my legs to rub against my thighs when I’m cranking along at 18-20mph. It’s really annoying, particularly when I have to stop to empty my pockets into the big rando bag in mid-loop.
Lastly, the fabric, despite being nice and light and quick-drying, is fairly rough on the inside. On hot days, I like having the bottoms of my +4s flapping in the breeze to ventilate my legs, but when I do that with the MUSA +4s they cling to my hips and abrade away at my knees until I cinch the legs tight.
It would be unfair to simply list all of the disadvantages of these +4s but not list the advantages, though, so
- they are made in the United States, which keeps money circulating inside the Imperium instead of it going overseas before being dumped into the Scrooge McDuck-like moneybins of the parasitic class,
- they have reflective patches on them, which are not garish enough to be ridiculous but which appear to do a good job of alerting drivers of your presence.
But I’m not sure what the ideal body type for the Rivendell +4s is. It’s not me. I’m not sure what the ideal cycling position is for the Rivendell +4s is. It’s certainly not me; I have my handlebars about 6cm lower than my saddle these days, and I spend more than half my time in the drops, which makes the low cut seat of these +4s painfully obvious.
I don’t think I’ll be buying any more of these when/if this pair wears out; to make them properly usable I’ll need to cut the pockets down (so they won’t go all the way to mid-thigh), put a zippered fly in, rip out the useless elastic belt, and thread a non-elastic belt through the (no belt loops because that would be sensible) too-short waist.
And if I’m going to all of that trouble I’d be better off buying Swrve sprinter cut knickers, which are only 1.5× as expensive, last about 10,000 miles, and only suffer from flimsy pocket syndrome (which is, I suppose, to be expected; most long-distance cyclists don’t tend to wear pants with pockets, so aren’t likely to have to worry about their wallets and keys wearing holes in their pockets.) And the Swrve +4s come with belt loops, so I can wear a real belt instead of some sort of elastic belty substitute that almost, but not quite, works as a belt.
(And, in case you’re wondering, no, I’m not likely to wear lycra or woolen tights, because I like having my wallet, keys, and money at hand when I’m out on the line. Plus basically all cycling tights come with chamois, which is not a clothing style I’ve ever gotten used to.)
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I suspect that chamois are more important if you’re wearing synthetic baselayers instead of wool. I only wear wool (backed up with nylon and occasionally cotton,) so the sweat gets moved away from my body for free.
Summertime is theoretically more of a pain, but around here there are only a handful of days where the temperature gets over 35° and evaporative cooling starts to struggle to keep up.
I get contact dermatitis from wool; the thought of wool underthings is not one I may entertain in a calm and placid frame of mind.
MEC has a product they call Quarter Knickers that seems to do everything you’d want except for being all synthetic fabric. (Well, and possibly emanating hipsterness; there’s lock-loop pocket.)
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There’s a default ratio between the waist and the thigh diameters in men’s pants; I don’t match it, and have been buying stuff loose in the waist for years in consequence. I suspect that you don’t match it, either. Hardly anyone seems to make pants on any other ratio, either.
The idea that you do multi-100 km rides with no chamois gives me the twitching horrors to contemplate, I must say.
I use bike shorts, sometimes with tights over them (best sunblock I can get is opaque fabric), but I don’t keep critical stuff in my pockets at any time, it all goes in a waist pack. (So I have one thing to remember.) The waist pack goes in one of the bike bags, because wearing it is a sweat trap.