On first glance these plain black bibshorts from Gore are nothing more than that, plain black bibshorts. But these particular shorts have something a little extra under the hood - Windstopper. Everything bar the braces is lined with a Windstopper membrane, keeping the breeze out and heat in.
We never did quite make our minds up about them. On one hand they did keep the chill wind from our nether regions and, as importantly, large quad muscle group, allowing us to keep working efficiently. That did work well.
On the other hand they were quite sweaty despite the excellent breathability of Windstopper, and the fabric wasn't nearly as stretchy and compliant as a good lycra short, meaning the fit was a quite restrictive.
Also, we noticed that in temperatures low enough to need the Windstopper properties we always wore knee warmers underneath for a bit of added warmth in these important joints, so there was rarely an occasion we used them purely as shorts. On every occasion we would have preferred at least a three quarter, so wouldn't it be better to spec them as such? Not particularly a Windstopper knee, just a heavyweight lycra.
Of course being Gore they were extremely well put together and the 'Advanced Road' chammy provided excellent support in all the right places for multi-hour rides in comfort.
