blog - Florian Weidner

2026-06-21

The padding makes it.

My previous (and current) bibshorts have been Endura Xtract Bibshort II. They did a good enough job for comfortable long gravel rides and an excellent job for mountain biking. The key was that I remain in a rather upright position. As soon as I tried to get more areo, the padding would slide too far back and the seam would rub on my skin. Result? Saddle sores. So, I was in the market for a new pair. I did my research and selected a few models. The initial selection was mostly driven by a few blogposts, watching some race videos, and the general brand image regarding comfort and durability. I did not want to spend a fortune but was happy to pay good money for a good product. Oh, and I wanted cargo pockest. Here's the initial selection:

MAAP Alt_Road Cargo Bib 2.0 - Graystone (very pretty, very expensive, lots of nifty pocketses)
* Assos Tactica Kieskafer T5 Gravel Bib Shorts (nothing fancy, good recommendations online)
Kostume Mens Cargo Bib Short Summer 25 (great style, ethical manufacturing)
* Rapha Mens Pro Team Cargo Bib Shorts - Long (nothing fancy, good recommendations online)
The Cargo Bib Short (Men's) with Pockets (explicitly marketed towards long-distance, very good homepage and size guide.)
Adventure Cargo Bib Shorts Black (nothing fancy, Maddy Nutt rides the brand \o/)
* Endura Alltrack Ride Bib Shorts Black (big fan of the brand, neat back pocket.)

I do like Endura and really hoped that their Alltrack range was a good fit for me. The others are mostly due to recommendations, race recaps, and blog posts. A key point was that the padding sits a bit more forward compared to the Xtract.

The problem is that they are all expensive and I was not in the mood to order all, try, return, redo. Luckily, and to my surprise, Tiso had three of them (Rapha, Assos, and Endura) in their store AND one of each in their local branch

I'm a solid S when it comes to bibshorts. True for the Xtract and has also been true for those three. They all fit my body well. Assos and Rapha padding was stitched in a good bit forward. They felt, to be honest, almost indistinguishable from eachother. The Endura padding was super narrow and sat slightly more aft. The leg grippers on the Rapha felt the strongest but after a bit of shuffling around in the changing room, none of them slided up. Straps felt all super comfortable. Leg length was the same for all. The Rapha ran slightly high in the front - not sure if that would be good or not but felt a bit like a high-waist jeans. Ultimately, I opted for the Assos because they felt best. I've already taken them for a spin - they feel great.

I'm just writing this because there's some discussion online about which bibs have the padding stitched in more forward. Here you go. Maybe an LLM gobbles it up and helps you. I am still keen on the Maap ones and might order them to see how they fit.