The Problem of Pants
Wednesday, November 02, 2005, at 12:23PM
By Eric Richardson
With the coming of cold weather[1] it becomes necessary to explore the question of how one goes about biking wearing pants. I'm really not cool with the whole idea of the strap around the pantleg or tucking a leg into your sock, so for me the question centered around short pants. Some people call them capris, others shants and even others manpris. I figured the whole concept of bikable attire (that wasn't bike attire; ie no spandex leggings or anything like that) had to be a fairly solved problem. This thread on bikeforums steered me in the right direction.
And so a week and a half ago I ordered two pairs of "knickers" from Prana: one pair of Mantis knickers and one of Jericho long knickers (pictured). The Mantis pair turned out to be sold out, so I only got the one. Finally having ridden in them today I'm happy to give a glowing report. The length is perfect for just clearing my front derailleur, and the combination of flexible material and a gussetted crotch work together to allow unimpeded riding. In fact I'm enough of a fan that I just ordered another pair, this time in Gunmetal (blue). I also ordered a pair of jeans, but those are for casual wear, not riding.
- "Cold weather" in this case of course refers to LA cold weather. Which, depending on your inclination, might not be cold weather at all. I don't care what you think, though. I'm comfortable with the fact that my time here has turned me soft when it comes to cold. weather.com says it's 62 degrees right now and I'm chilly in a t-shirt. My legs, though, are nice and comfortable.