The BIB Long Distance Bib Short - An Overview
RedWhite started in April 2014, with the mission of creating a bibshort that helps you get through long AUDAX rides in comfort.
We had returned from a long tempo ride and our sit-bones were sore, and we couldn’t get back onto the bike the following day. We thought to ourselves, ” We could do bibshorts better.”
We started developing our first bibshort – The BIB (Men's) , by going back to basics. We focused first on designing an ultra-distance chamois and then built a bibshort around that chamois.
11 years later, we have taken that original bib short and refined it. We added a new gripper and a subtle rubber logo while keeping this updated bib short almost identical to the original. We've also added new 2" Shorter Inseam & 2" Longer Inseam sizing for the Men's bibshorts.
We're confident you will love this flagship bib short.
This article will walk you through the various components that were carefully selected, designed and combined to make a comfortable RedWhite bibshort :
- The Chamois
- Silicone Macro-Dot Grippers (New)
- Italian Fabrics
- Fit
- 2" Shorter Inseam Sizes for Stout Male Riders (short + heavy) & 2" Longer Inseam Sizes for Tall Male Riders (tall + lean)
The Chamois
The first thing you’d notice about any RedWhite bibshort’s chamois is how plush it is.
We achieved this plush feel by using Open-Cell foams of 3 different thickness and densities. Open-Cell foams are peppered with tiny air pockets that help our chamois absorb road vibrations, increasing comfort on longer rides.
To ensure the chamois remains plush and doesn’t compress over time, the part of the chamois that directly contacts your sit bones uses a thicker and denser layer of our Open-Cell foam compared to the rest of the chamois.
The perineum area is elongated and firmed up using a thin and dense foam layer to provide ample protection and comfort when an attacking rider goes into the drops and rolls forward onto the saddle. The foam layer is kept thin to reduce chafing at your perineum and to also allow the chamois to contour easily to saddles with cutouts.
All RedWhite’s chamois are heat moulded using a proprietary process called “Thermic Moulding”. This process gently applies heat that fuses every foam layer together while maintaining the air pockets that help our chamois absorb road vibrations. The fused foam layers also never come apart with use, resulting in a longer-lasting chamois.
We have longer technical articles that cover the manufacturing process and technology of the chamois in our bibshorts. Each is roughly a 10 minute read and well worth it :
New Silicone Macro-Dot Gripper
New for 2022 and beyond in all our latest bibshorts & tights is a Silicone Macro-Dot Gripper.
This is an upgrade from the old Silicone Microdot Gripper on RedWhite Bibshorts of old. One weakness of that old gripper was how delicate it is. Bibshorts tend to get abused. Customers sometimes throw their bibs into a hot wash or into a hot dryer by accident. Customers also tend to stretch out their grippers when wearing it. These habits cause premature over-stretching of the grippers, which result in them not being grippy any more.
Another weakness of the old Silicone Microdot Gripper (image above) was the lack of grip it had on leg warmers or leg coolers. This fabric was optimised for use on shaved skin and has poor grip on anything other than that. Customers often struggle to pair these with warmers or coolers.
In an ideal world, customers treat their bibshorts delicately and take care when pulling them on.
In an ideal world, customers also don't wear leg warmers or coolers underneath their bib-short grippers.
This is far from reality. After years of carefully observing customer behaviour, we've chosen a gripper that achieves the same grippiness and comfort of the old Silicone Microdot Gripper while being far more durable, long lasting and pairs better with leg warmers & coolers.
We're calling this a Silicone Macro-Dot Gripper.
It's made from a soft & luxe nylon fabric that's 60mm tall. 30mm height of the end is coated with 2mm diameter silicone dots. Each dot is spaced 4-5mm apart.
After thousands of kilometers of ride and laundry testing, we can confidently claim that these new grippers are a meaningful upgrade. They breathe well, offer supreme comfort, last a long time and (most importantly) are machine washable (cold wash).
The silicone dots don't peel off with use despite thousands of kilometers of use, ensuring that these last a full season of use under you.
Italian Fabrics
All RedWhite’s bibshorts use Italian fabrics from MITI.
Our main lycra fabric is a 220gsm matt black fabric with 20% Lycra POWER (an elastic fibre with compressive qualities), and 80% nylon.
This lycra helps us achieve a natural next-to-skin feel, and the result is a soft, supple and highly breathable bibshort.
The top mesh used for our bibshort straps is also one of the finest from MITI. It is incredibly stretchy, lightweight and soft. These 3 properties allowed us to design wide bibstraps that cover a lot of your torso, without causing overheating during warm days. The increased coverage by the mesh results in the bibshorts feeling almost like a comfortable 1-piece suit, rather than a pair of shorts held up by straps.
This mesh is also super-stretchy. The model above is 6 foot 3.5 inches (1.92m tall) and he is wearing a size L bibshort comfortably, demonstrating the stretchability of the mesh fabric used in the bib straps.
Fit
A well fitting bib short should disappear on you when you ride.
We discovered that most people have the following problems with their bibshort fit :
- Fitting the gut. Lets face it, not all of us have bodies like the pros. Most of us carry a slight belly which also expands as we take big breaths during a ride.
- The bib-straps fit great off the bike, but when tucked into an aero position, they sag and flop about.
To solve the gut problem, We added an oversized front panel of lycra below the navel. This panel avoids cutting horizontally below and into the belly and gives a generous amount of room for the belly to expand out. This results in increased breathing room as we tend to breathe with our diaphragm whilst exerting ourselves.
To solve the common fit issues with the straps, we patterned them to follow the curves of the lycra as opposed to horizontal add-ons seen in other shorts. The design intent was to create a mesh that hugs the body all around and remains like a skin-suit even when the user goes into the drops.
2" Shorter Inseam Sizes for Stout Male Riders (short + heavy) & 2" Longer Inseam Sizes for Tall Male Riders (tall + lean)
Our regular bibshorts do a good job of fitting most customers. However, we identified 2 groups of riders who struggle to find a good fit within the Regular sized bibs. These are riders who are Short & Heavy and Tall & Lean.
For example, a rider who is 180 lbs and 5 foot 6 inches tall with a 41 inch glute circumference will need a size XL bibshort for their girth. Unfortunately, the L (Regular) will be too long in the legs.
A second example is a rider who is 150 lbs and 6 foot 1" tall with a 35.5 inch glute circumference. Such a rider is too tall for a size S (Regular).
To solve this problem, we've created bibs that are 2" shorter in the legs & 2" longer in the legs. Everything else about them is identical. For example, a size XL (2" Shorter Inseam) in comparison to a size XL (Regular) will have the following characteristics :
- Identical strap length
- Identical hip, waist, thigh and leg widths
- Identical Pad
- Identical Gripper width
-
2" Shorter legs (only difference)
A size XL (2" Longer Inseam) in comparison to a size XL (Regular) will have the following characteristics :
- Identical strap length
- Identical hip, waist, thigh and leg widths
- Identical Pad
- Identical Gripper width
- 2" Longer legs (only difference)
Do note that our sizing chart is quite complex as a result of these new sizes. If you're struggling to pick a size, please use our Sizing Helpdesk service.