Rodale

Friday, August 26, 2011

Louis Garneau Mondo bib short review

Louis Garneau builds its Mondo Bib shorts with a highly compressive fit that felt just about right on longer road rides. While tight, the cut doesn't impede movement at all, instead feeling appropriately snug and supportive. The flatlocked stitching didn't dig into our skin, either, and the wide-band leg openings stayed in place despite having no grippers on the inner surfaces.

Even the mesh bib straps are well thought out with a high yoke on the upper back to help keep the straps in place plus a small pocket up top for a music player or radio. Breathability is very good, too, with paper-thin materials throughout that do an excellent job of pulling moisture off of your skin and never felt too bulky, even on super hot days in roasting sunlight. The multi-density, multi-thickness stretch chamois is also infused with mesh panels around the rear center and front sides. While we couldn't actually feel cooling air coming through down there, longer rides on non-cutout saddles left us feeling noticeably less stuffy nonetheless.

Durability has proven to be very high with no noticeable wear after several months of regular machine washing and wearing, aside from some minor peeling on the small 'Garneau' logo on the upper right thigh. Nighttime visibility is pretty good, too, with reflective bits on the back of each leg and an additional reflective logo just above the rear edge of the chamois.

Faults are few in number but unfortunately crop up in a couple of critical areas that keep the Mondo Bibs from being flawless. The chamois was comfortable but we found the placement to be too far back, thus wasting some valuable padding and leaving less cushioning than we ideally would have wanted further forward. Likewise, the laser-cut, wide-band leg openings were comfortable on the bike but riders with bigger quads will notice that they're not as elastic as the adjoining material.



Hat Tip To: BikeRadar.com Road Bikes & Gear

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