BT Forum

Bike shorts will normally hold way too much water after your swim . You will be much better served by using tri shorts, they have a little bit of padding for the bike, but are designed to go from the swim to the bike and then run.

I considered that. But my concern was that the tri shorts have so little padding, I may be regretting it after the first 25 minutes on the bike.

Guess I should just HTFU?!?!!? LOL

I worried about the same thing, but then I did a sprint in just spandex. Not bad! I have tri shorts now and they are even better.

You'd be surprised how nice that small amount of padding can be. 

That's why they make the tri shorts.  Especially for an Oly since you are not on the bike that long.  The tri shorts dry faster but usually have less padding. 

I use them even without the wetsuit and have never had an issue with them being too wet.  Then again, I might just not have noticed as I am struggling along. 

enjoy,
Duane

Not to say they don't exist somewhere, but I've never heard of an oly-distance race with changing tents. 

Since public nudity isn't allowed, plan to wear the same pair of shorts for s/b/r.  Tri shorts definitely work best, but some folks are OK with bike shorts.  You are welcome to try those in training, but I think you'll find tri shorts to be much more comfortable.

Cheers, Chris

Yes, wear the tri shorts.  You aren't on the bike all that long, and the shorts are made to dry quickly.  It'll be fine, in race mode (at least at the shorter distances) you won't even be paying attention to your shorts!

Also, practice riding some in your tri shorts ... you'll find they're comfy and you get used to them. Defnitely don't just use them race day!

Also, there are several types--De Soto and Oomph! make them--specifically for distance that have "paddier" padding. You might look into those. They aren't cheap though.

Start riding in tri shorts. I don't own bike shorts and do century rides in tri shorts regularly.

They are literally made to swim in then go biking in. Well, then go running in as well

I've worn tri shorts under a wetsuit for a couple Oly's now and they've worked great.  In general, I actually prefer tri shorts over bike shorts for ANY kind of ride.  I feel like I'm wearing Depends with the bike shorts...

I agree with the above posts noting that tri shorts work just fine.

however- if you really want to wear your cycling shorts- that's not a huge problem.  Swim with a bathing suit on under your wetsuit, then just pull on your cycling shorts at T1 over your speedo.  It'll take less than 10 seconds- time well spent if it makes a difference in your comfort level during the race.

nothing under the wetsuit....

that is how i roll...

I swam my first tri in a pair of swimtrunks with a pair of underarmour on under it.

When I got out of the water off came the trunks and I slipped on a pair of biking shorts.

The trick was that I rolled the legs of the bike shorts up into little loose rolls so I could step right through them.  I held the rolls in place with two bits of string tied in a half hitch.  So stepping through with wet legs was easy because they were all rolled up.  One yank on the half hitch and a yank on the shorts leg to pull them down.

Super easy.