You are twenty minutes in, folded onto the drops, breathing properly for the first time — and the waistband is pressing into your stomach. So you sit up. Not because you need to, but because the shorts have made the decision for you.

These do not have a waistband.

Here's how it works

Bib shorts are carried from the shoulders. Two straps and a mesh panel hold the garment up, which means there is nothing around your middle to press in when you fold forward, and nothing to work its way down as you ride. That is the whole argument, and it is the reason almost everyone who moves to bibs stays with them.

It has a second effect people don't expect. Because the braces are doing the holding, the leg grippers only have to sit still — they are not also keeping the shorts up. So they can be wide and soft rather than tight and narrow. These are about six centimetres deep with a silicone backing and a clean raw-cut edge, and they hold without leaving a ring around your thigh.

The pad

A moulded chamois, stitched in rather than glued. It is shaped, not a flat sheet: thickest under the sit bones, where your weight actually goes, then tapering away to thin flat edges so there is no ridge to sit on. The seams around it are flatlock, so nothing raised ends up between you and the saddle, and the moulding damps the buzz that comes up through a rough road surface. On a long ride the difference shows up late — not in the first hour, but in the third.

Getting home in the dark

There is a reflective strip on the outer face of each leg, at pedal height. That position is deliberate: a driver's eye catches movement before it catches a shape, and your legs are the part of you that is moving. It does nothing in daylight and it changes nothing about how the kit looks, which is rather the point compared with pulling a tabard over everything.

The kit it replaces

• Waistband shorts — the band digs in exactly when you are working hardest.
• A size up, to stop the digging — which then slides down instead.
• Men's bibs in a small — a different cut, in the wrong places.
• A hi-vis tabard over the top — worn twice, then left on the hook.

What's in them

• Bib construction — mesh upper and shoulder straps, so nothing sits around your waist.
• Moulded chamois pad — stitched in, shaped, and it stays where it is put.
• Wide silicone leg grippers — hold the leg without the dig of a narrow band.
• Raw-cut edge — no bulky hem seam under a jersey.
• A reflective strip on each leg — movement at pedal height, where it gets noticed.
• Flatlock seams — nothing raised between you and the saddle.
• Mesh bib upper — doesn't add a hot layer over your middle in summer.
• Four colours — Black, Navy, Charcoal and Light Grey.
• Six sizes, XXS to XL.

Made in a crosshatch-textured polyester and elastane knit. Suitable for road riding, the commute, club runs and long Sunday distance.

A word on sizing: these are cut from an Asian block, so the size names have been converted for you and the full mapping is in the details below. If you are between sizes, take the larger one.

No waistband. Nothing to hitch up. Ride, and forget them.