The Przewalski Bib Shorts and the Ride That Sold Me

The ride that changed my mind about shorts was not a good one. Fall, about two and a half years ago, an 80 mile loop north of Prescott. I finished it with a flat I could not patch cleanly on the shoulder, a wrong turn outside Chino Valley that added six miles I did not need, and a backside that told me about every one of those miles. I sat on the porch afterward with a glass of water and decided my kit was the problem. Not my legs. Not the bike.

So the first week of March after that, I replaced the whole mess at once. Five things, all bought and paid for out of my own pocket. A saddle, a folding multi tool, a garage floor pump, a GPS computer, and two pairs of Przewalski bib shorts in size Large. Nobody sent me a sample and nobody asked me to write this. I have ridden those bibs about two years now, somewhere near 8,000 miles, and one pair is always either on me or hanging on the line.

Before that I wore plain padded shorts with a waistband. Cheap ones. I figured a waistband was just how shorts worked, the way I figured a lot of things worked before I retired and had time to think about them. On a fifty mile day the band rolls and digs, the pad shifts under you, and you spend the last ten miles standing on the pedals more than you planned to. I had a spot come up that took a few days to settle down. If something like that does not clear up on its own, see your doctor. Mine did. That is the reason I went looking, and the reason the Przewalski name ended up in my order history.

The bibs take the waistband out of the argument entirely. They pull on over the shoulders, the shorts are a mid rise with a regular fit, and there is nothing there to roll and nothing to hike back up at a stop sign. The first long ride I took in them was 62 miles with real climbing in it, and the only thing I noticed was the pad and the road. That is the highest compliment I can pay a piece of clothing.

The Przewalski pad is a 3D padded chamois. I am not going to hand you a thickness figure or a foam spec, because I did not cut one open in my shop and I am not going to guess at what I cannot see. What I can tell you is that after two years and two pairs in rotation the padding has not gone flat, has not gone lumpy, and has not bunched at the seams. There is a utility pocket on the pair, which I use for a house key and nothing else, and that is the whole feature list as far as I am concerned.

I read a pile of listings before I bought, and here is what a listing cannot tell you. It cannot tell you whether the straps will cut into your shoulders at mile fifty, or whether the pad will survive a Prescott summer in a hot garage, or whether the seams at the straps will hold when you pull them on for the two hundredth time. Two years is the only honest way to find those things out, so that is what I am handing you.

Sixty two miles with real climbing in it and the only thing on my mind was the pad and the road. Nothing was moving. That was the whole test.

Care is not complicated. Cold wash, hang them to dry, keep them out of the dryer. I run them with the rest of my riding clothes in a mesh bag and they come out the same shape they went in. Two years of that and the seams at the straps have held, which is more than I can say for a cheap pair of shorts I wore out inside a single season back when I did not know better.

The flaws are real and I will not hide them. On a short ride, say under twenty miles around town, the pad feels like more than the job needs. It is a lot of padding for an hour. And bibs make a bathroom stop slower. You are pulling straps down over your shoulders in a gas station stall instead of unclipping a waistband and getting on with it. That is the trade I made, and I would make it again.

They are also a budget pair and I will say so plainly, because pretending otherwise does nobody any good. My riding partner Ed, who is 70 and retired from the mail, wears Pearl Izumi Quest bibs and is happy with them. I have looked at Ed's, and I have never owned a pair, so I am not going to sit here and compare the two from the saddle. What I know is what is on my own line every week, and that is Przewalski.

Who they suit is riders doing fifty to seventy mile days who want the waistband gone and are not looking to spend racing money on a piece of clothing that gets washed twice a week. What I would not do is buy one pair. Two pairs in rotation means one is always clean, and the second pair is the reason I got to two years without a failure. Buy your normal size, too. Do not size up to be safe. A regular fit that is too big slides, and sliding is worse than snug.

What I'd Tell You If We Were Sitting at My Kitchen Table

I would tell you to give the pad three or four rides before you make up your mind, because it feels like a lot at first and then it stops feeling like anything. I would tell you the Przewalski bibs take about a week to get used to if you are my age and stiff in the lower back, and that this is normal and not a fit problem. I would tell you to wash them cold and hang them, every time, no exceptions, because heat is what kills elastic. I would tell you that no pair of shorts will fix a saddle that is wrong for you or a bike that does not fit. If your hands or your left knee are complaining at mile forty, that is a fit conversation, not a shorts conversation, and you should have it before you spend another dime on clothing. And I would tell you that after 8,000 miles, the thing I think about least on a long day is what I am sitting on. That is exactly what I wanted when I bought them, and that is the whole review.