Pear Izumi Select Tri Shorts

My annual training schedule brings a change in focus at Spring Break, which is just a few weeks away. In preparation for that, I went to get some Hammer Recoverite at the local sports shop. They were out of the big containers, but I started looking around saw some Pearl Izumi tri shorts...they looked nice, and at $55 before at 20% tri club discount, I figured I'd get them. I was looking online and most of the shorts at the low end of the price spectrum come in at about $45.  Buy local, get the discount, prices are the same........good deal!

I want to use these shorts mainly for bike riding and maybe a few bricks (if any...I'm not into running around in spandex, I prefer running shorts!). I have two pair of DeSoto four-pocket tri shorts that I absolutely love, so I don't wear them for training because they are fairly expensive. My current and only pair of training-only tri shorts are some Carrera's I got off Sierra Trading Post, and they are ok; I just want another pair so I don't have to worry about laundry schedules.  I don't do anything over 40 miles or two hours, so tri shorts generally fit the bill as far as padding goes.

I bought the "Select" series, and I want to make sure everyone understands the difference here. The Select series is the lower end of three series, with "Elite" and "Pro" being the higher end lines.  I don't know exactly what the differences are at this point, but the "Select" series is just fine for my limited purposes of basic 20-40 mile bike rides.

Anyway....these shorts certainly do the job they are meant to do. They are comfortable and provide some good compression on the quads. I am 6'1" and 185 pounds, and the large fits nicely. These shorts go up pretty high on the abs and back. I'm not a fan of that, so I just roll them down. In some cases, I've read that having that extra support on the abs can help improve your riding, so that's a nice option to have if I ever want it.

In the three hours I've spent on the bike with them (a one hour ride and a two hour ride), I didn't notice any chafing from bad seam placement.  That's important! 

The chamois is a minimal tri pad, and I haven't tried running in it, but it feels like a regular tri pad that shouldn't be an issue. I won't be wearing these in the pool, and I wouldn't it, either, as chlorine can really eat away at any fabrics. This fabric dries pretty quickly when soaked in sweat, and that's really nice, too.

Overall, a nice pair of shorts for $45!