Hi, I was wondering if anyone had an opinion on women’s biking shorts. Type, length, etc. I am going on a moderately paced 5 day trip in southern Spain in a few months and need to get some shorts. Any help is appreciated!
First of all, I suggest that whatever shorts you use, you do some rides in them beforehand. Preferably, you’d ride the same distance you’ll ride in a day on a Saturday in your shorts, then ride that same distance again on a Sunday. Not only does that test out the shorts, it tests out your saddle as well (if you’re going to bring your own bike, or at least your own saddle)
I like these Shebeest shorts:
http://www.teamestrogen.com/prodSB_3002.html
I brought two pairs of the Shebeest shorts on my recent two month bike trip. I wore them every riding day.
In Spain, you might want to wear something over your lycra shorts. You could wear these fun Shredly shorts on top:
http://www.shredly.com/the-mtb-short/
If they’re good enough for Cardinal Fang…
My favorite bike shorts are shebeests, but I’m not a big biker. I’m short so I don’t want super long shorts,
Good biking shorts are worth their weight in gold.
Biking in Spain sounds fun, how much biking does it involve?
Touring shorts. In my experience, fine for ~100 miles a day (probably immoderate by most standards, but my neighbor just did Paris-Brest-Paris, so for him … moderate).
Look a lot like regular mid-length shorts, but a lot more comfortable in a cafe or on the street or whatever. Generally have pockets. Search for them at REI or some similar provider.
I have some shebeast biking pants that come just below the knee, and are very comfortable. I wore them today and my husband wanted to know why I was wearing regular pants biking.
I also have a pair of gore shorts, but they were even more expensive (I think $100 for the pair). I don’t like the tight ones. I get the liner, with regular looking shorts over.
I do suggest you go someplace where you can try them on, or that has a very good return policy.
It’s unanimous! Shebeest! I have their Century shorts (https://www.westernbikeworks.com/product/shebeest-womens-century-elite-short) which I bought my first pair of from Team Estrogen (excellent customer service, very helpful people when discussing how things fit) but which doesn’t seem to have them in stock right now (which is why I give the Western Bikeworks link–they also have good customer service but are not quite as knowledgeable about women’s fit issues). I also wear the Shebeest capris, which have less padding but more coverage, for shorter rides.
I will note that cycling shorts in general run pretty small. Check your measurements against the measurements in the size charts. For example, I wear a small in Lucy pants and an XL in Shebeest cycling shorts (I have large thighs and rear).
I do not (speaking for myself) like skorts for cycling–I catch the skirt on the saddle when I get off the bike. I also dislike touring shorts, also because of the extra fabric, which in my experience just gets in the way. My solution when traveling is a very thin lightweight skirt that goes in the daybag that lives on the back of my bike. (It’s small enough I could fit in in a cycling jersey pocket, but I don’t.) I can slip the skirt on anytime I feel the need.
I’ve never had any trouble with a cycling skirt when I’m riding on the road. It’s only off-road when I have trouble with extra fabric catching on the saddle, even extra fabric from baggier pants or shorts. But YMMV. So, again, OP, it’s better to try out your proposed cycling clothing while you’re still at home, so that if you find you’re uncomfortable you can switch to another solution and you’re not stuck in a foreign country with butt issues.
PS: A&D Ointment, the kind that you’d use for a baby’s diaper rash, also works for saddle issues.
Thanks so much everyone! I am hoping to go into the suburbs to find an REI this weekend and try on a Shebeest. @deb922, we are biking from Sevilla to Granada but only (only!!) doing about 30 mi a day as they transport you out of the cities. It is five days of biking and it is a company called Cycling Country. I’ll report back in November.
Thirty miles a day, for five days mostly in a row, is some serious riding. Could be hot, could be windy, probably will be sunny and there won’t be much shade. And Spain is not flat.
I know, I am rather nervous…
As long as you get some training in, you’ll do great! Someone I know is doing this right now but in Italy. The way she was explaining it, it’s 15 miles in the morning and 15 miles in the afternoon. She said that they stop around every 7 miles. Just break it down like that. I know I can bike 7 miles and then I can bike 7 more and we rest and have lunch. Repeat after lunch.
It’s amazing what you can do when you break it down like that. And if you are beat, you only have to do the morning session. I am a slow biker and do a mile in around 5 minutes. 7 miles is 35 minutes of biking. Just have to break it down into manageable sections.
The worst part is that your butt gets sore lol! And if there is a big hill, no shame in walking the bike up.
The best part is that you are going to be burning a bunch a calories. My favorite part of biking 
I am usually a timid biker. This week the weather was beautiful, it might be the last hot summer weather of the year. So I rode my bike twice, the second day the wind was really gusting. Usually I would wimp out and not go. But I went out anyway, I stopped more than I usually do and was glad the worst of the wind was on the way out. I thought the wind was going to be on my back going home but actually it was a cross wind. :/. But it wasn’t as hard as I thought and I really felt great when I was done. 20 miles, NBD. Gorgeous day, the sun was out and I had dessert and a glass of wine. 
The most important thing about biking shorts is that YOU find them comfortable. Although I don’t own this skort, I know someone who does and loves it:
http://www.terrybicycles.com/Apparel/skorts/Metro-Skort_2
Onward, I’m also sending you a PM.
While @deb922 has good advice about how to think about riding 30 miles by thinking of it in pieces, I’ll point out that it’s not quite that simple.
I’ve done a lot of riding over the last few years, including 9 days/418 miles of the Oregon Coast last summer (Shebeest Century Shorts and Badger diaper rash ointment were my friends). Last weekend I did a ride I thought would be easy–I’ve been riding 45 miles at a time, no problem–but it was not. I rode the Crater Lake Rim Drive on their closed-to-cars day; 30 miles of rolling hills, up and down and up and down, 3400 feet of elevation gain. Again, I thought it would be easy. I was WRONG. The lowest altitude of the road is 6400 feet and the highest was 7700 and there was one hill that went from 6400 to 7700 feet over five miles. Walking up that hill would have taken me hours–as it was, it took me more than an hour to ride up it, and I rested for half an hour at the top before going down the other side, back to 6700 feet, up another hill to 7400 feet, and then down to the shuttle waiting to take me back to the hotel.
I trained for the ride. I was fine with the distance. I recovered well after the ride, even going hiking the next day without any problem. BUT my lack of knowledge about the actual ride almost stopped me from completing it. I should have been eating more (and earlier in the ride) and resting more frequently while I was riding.
Dmd is right. If a ride is flat and there’s no wind, then one can divide it up into equal length sections and be pretty sure they’ll be about equally easy. But if the ride isn’t flat (1) it’s much harder and (2) the uphills are the hard parts and the parts where you’ll be spending most of your time.
I’ve done that Crater Lake ride, riding up from the campground, around the lake and back down. It’s a tough one.
Hills are much harder than flats. Southern Spain has hills.
I agree with what the “real” bikers are saying and I have nothing on them. I am not a great biker by any stretch.
But when I’ve looked at many of these bike tours company’s, it looks to me that they are made for the more casual biker. I looked at the website of the company onward is using and it sounded to me that the touring company was trying to make the bike tour for all abilities.
Onward sounded nervous and didn’t own bike shorts so I was thinking she wasn’t a hard core biker. I was trying to help with the nervousness with trying to break the trip into manageable secments.
I know someone on one of these tours right now. I do not know how it is going but she is not in peak physical shape and was biking once a week for 22 miles to prepare for their trip. So I am pretty sure they aren’t up to the trip dmd77 described.
I went to the website and found the tour that was described: “Easy Going - Daily average of 30km. Flat countryside. The riding is on quiet country roads and a Via Verde route - traffic free, converted railway tracks with a hard packed surface. Some gradients. Perfect for beginners or those wanting to relax. There will be van transfers to the riding areas.”
30 km and flat should indeed be pretty straightforward. I’m not sure how “some gradients” squares with “flat” but I’ll take their word for it. Also, I’ll note that 30 km is about 19 miles.
I really appreciate everyone’s input and will let you know how I fare. The trip starts towards the end of October so I will try and post an update in early November. Thanks again!
Hoo ha ride glide…just sayin’
The tour I found on the website of Cycling Country, Enchanted Andalusia, sounded fantastic. It has 30-40 mile days with hills. Happily, the company will sag riders for sections they don’t want to ride. And that’s a wonderful part of Spain.
OP here. We just got back home last night and I have to say, it was a fantastic trip. We saw Seville, Cordoba and Grenada and many small towns in between. The weather was in the 60’s and we had one day of rain in the morning. The biking company, Cycling Country, was fantastic. They customized the trip for us even as we went. The morning it was pouring, they transported us to the lunch site and after lunch, when the sun came out, we began riding. The bikes were great and later, when we hit big hills, you could ride in the van. They are very reasonably priced. I think it cost us about $1800 each for bikes, dinners and lodging for 6 nights.
I did much better than I thought I would. The only time I took a ride was after a 12 percent grade. I walked the bike up that one! I didn’t want the trip to end, that’s how much I enjoyed it. Thanks for all your help and by the way, no sore butt! Bad news is that I gained 3 pounds from all the good food…
Thanks @“cincy gal” for your help! It was useful!