It's all about the Bibs

 So first, I don't heavily identify as a Mamil.   But underneath?  Sigh.

 

So in riding once you make that jump to longer/regular rides eventually most sane people make the conversion from say Sport Underwear to some sort of padded bottoms.  In the 00's?  I had shorts with a washable padded liner.  For my short commute to work, it wasn't necessary (2.5 miles) but longer rides in the generally warm bay area?  Yah, especially on the MTB trails.

Later in the DMV region in the late 00's as I upped my riding especially in the early 10's I finally went from shorts to bibs and my posterior was rarely exposed (Yes I come from a LONG and illustrious line of folks who should be plumbers or cable repair/install based on how well pants cover the crack...sigh).   

So over the say 2010 to 2016 era as I was riding more and riding as part of a team for CX I bought bibs and some full kits for race days.  But after years, this year I decided to finally ditch 3 of my oldest bib sets.  They were doing more for friction than preventing friction/padding.  So i got recommendations on FB.  Lots of good ones.

 So I bought:

The Black Bibs w/Pockets - Good Pad, Nice to have pockets.  Wonky seams on the back especially for those pockets, a tad small in the legs for my spuds.   But overall nice material, and a pad I could see fine for up to 4 hours, no problems.

Primal Bibs with Omni Pad - I think a potentially better pad than the Black Bibs (and others).  Nice material.  Leg grippers that aren't too tight for me in the XL size.  No pockets.  Boo.  I think these will be my 6 hour set of bibs or so for longer days.

NeoPro - A decent pad.  But not a fan of the suspender material.  And in these ones I really might need an XXL if I ever ordered another set unless my legs magically shrink. Tight leg grippers but the one thing i do like is how the leg grips are setup/work versus the gel/silicon bands being exposed in all the others.  I probably need a longer ride in them to really get a feel for it, maybe today after work.

I'm probably going to order 1 more pair of the black bibs next month and I've already ordered another pair of Primal but with the next level of pad (helix).  But of course they sent that set Fedex and they hate my building as no doorbells and no one to sign.  

Final Gripes

• Powermeter battery seems....loose and so every few days - no more power meter on Fred.  Pull it, adjust....Back in Action.  Maybe a piece of tape to help hold battery in?
• Bars - I over rotated when I fixed them last week, they need a few degrees rotation down to a more flat position rather than the 2-4 gentle up level of current.  
• Saddle - Still need to get a better fitting saddle then eventual do a full bike fit.   
• Fendoors - I still need to figure out Fenders for Fred also.  With later April now being forecast for more rainy I need to get serious.   
• Chain Tracking System - Methodology to track the use of my Waxed Chains on Fred and Betty.   

 

Waxing 

Oy, on the subject of waxing....your chains.... I'm now on all 3 bikes having waxed chains.  Fred now has 2 chains in full hot wax dip rotation and Betty is on her 1st waxed and maybe willl have a 2nd chain in rotation.   It's SO much cleaner that not getting chain gunk on legs/pants/etc is still amazing.   But I'm really curious on how it will impact life of chains.  As a big guy I'm hard on them.  On MTB my last chain went for about 600 miles before being too stretched to not start causing wear.   And not sure on Fred either, I need to put the current chain on check soon actually.  It's got about 300-350, though only 100-120 are waxed.   

 Off to grab some Pizza for lunch then crank some writing for the remainder of the afternoon.