Wear on Bike Shorts

I recently got into cycling and I am riding between 50 and 75 miles a week (it’s a start). I bought a men’s bike and it has been very comfortable. Is normal that wear and tear should occur on the inner thigh of my bike shorts? I use Performance and Pearl Izumi, so I don’t think it is the quality of the shorts. I notice that my thighs do rub against my saddle nose with every rotation. I thought it was my seat height, and maybe that I was rocking back and forth, but lowering the seat didn’t help the rubbing and it the new height made me uncomfortable. Do I need a new saddle with a shorter nose or should I just bite the bullet when it comes to my shorts getting messed up?

Do you use a seat bag? It's typically the velcro seatpost strap that rubs shorts. You can put a small piece of black duct tape over the closure, or cut it so that the closure is in the center of the seatpost (be sure to seal the ends in a flame if you do cut it).

What saddle do you use? Sometimes they do have seams that can rub. Or, if you're using a tensioned leather saddle, maybe some of the metal parts are rubbing. There are workarounds depending on what part exactly is rubbing. I wouldn't go for a shorter nose just because of rub if your saddle fits you otherwise.

You can also pay attention to whether you're weighting both sides of your forefoot equally when you pedal. If you're pedaling knock-kneed, that might be because of imbalances in your feet.


PS - 50-75 mpw is plenty respectable!!! Welcome to TE.

I have a friend who calls this "lycra leprosy." I've had it happen more with some shorts than with others. I think it's possible that even a quality fabric can start to wear from abrasion.

I've never had to get rid of any shorts because of this problem. Typically I can still wear them until chamois starts to wear out, and sometimes then I can still use them for short rides. If they're otherwise comfortable they can also be worn under tights in the winter.

I definitely had this problem with a seatbag I used to have; it was hard to find another one that fit the small geometry of my bike(s). It took years for me to solve this.

I had/have issues with some of them. I figured it was because I was "too" fat from thighs and they were rubbing on seat. But why on some and not others? Hummm

Probably the type of fabric on shorts? Some a more or less slippery than others too.

I know my top tube bag rubbed against my longer (3/4) pants and that damaged the knee area. It was the velcro that rubbed and the fact it was not perfectly centered.

Crankin, what bag did you use to solve this problem?? I wore holes in two pairs of (cheap) bibs from my saddle bag. I don't think there was a velcro closure rubbing me - I believe it was the actual bag, although I no longer remember. For a while I carried my spare kit in a ziplock bag in my jersey but that's annoying, and currently I'm using a top tube bag which I hate because it moves around a bit and looks so freaking dorky!

It was a Cannonde bag. I fixed the problem with covering up the Velcro or something where I made the bag not so apt to move around; I did not get a new bag, though. It was awhile ago and I can't remember. I have a different bag on my Silque, which looks like it is precariously low to the tire, but it doesn't move around at all like the other one did.