Lusso Peloton Pro Bib Shorts

The Peloton Pro Bib Shorts sit at the top of Lusso's range and use comfortable and sleek fabrics to give a great fit and a quality feel. Lusso says they're designed to be perfect for long-distance riding (rides of eight hours or more, apparently), and general comfort levels are indeed very good.

Mike tested the Carbon bibs from Lusso earlier this summer and praised them for a combination of "value, understated style and long-distance performance". Lusso is based in Manchester and makes all of its products there too. The Peloton Pro bibs are made using CoolTech Plus fabric, although I can't tell you whether that's the plain black or rather natty pinstripe panels on the sides. In any case, and as you would hope at this price, the fabrics all feel soft and really comfortable against the skin.

> Find your nearest dealer here

> Buy these online here

The bib straps use a Cool Mesh fabric to provide plenty of ventilation over your shoulders. To the rear is a radio pocket which – for us mere mortals – also doubles as a handy place to stash an emergency gel or inner tube. I got on well with the straps, which are wide and elastic enough to sit lightly on the shoulders. As ever, the mark of success here is that I simply didn't find myself thinking about them at all during a ride. Aesthetically there's something about the way they join the shorts at the front, rather close together, that doesn't look quite right to my eye, but as no one's going to see that it's hardly a big deal.

The legs are of a decent length – I'm tall and not a fan of the mid-thigh bib short – and stay in place as though applied with contact adhesive. With some bibs I find myself fiddling with gripper strips or shifting the pad around mid-ride, but these remain exactly where they were at the start of a ride, doing the job as well as any I've ever tried. The gripper strips themselves are wide and pretty comfortable, even if this style (with woven-in logos) is becoming less popular among some manufacturers.

Lusso has chosen a pad from TMF, one of the two dominant Italian players in the market, used by a number of other brands. It's not the same as the one used in the Carbon bibs mentioned above, and it's not one I've used on other shorts before. The shape is quite complex, using four different types of foam in thicknesses up to 14mm. The top layer, which sits against your skin, is fairly flat, with the variations in thickness more apparent from the outside. It is well positioned and sits where you'd want it, with the high density stuff below your sit bones. There are perforations to allow movement of moist air away from the skin.

So what of the claims of "8+ hours" of comfort? I used the Peloton Pros on some long rides, getting close to that duration, and my experience was good for at least five hours, after which I found I started to get some soreness around the sit bones. Five hours ain't bad, mind, and I think my bum might be fussier than most when it comes to bib shorts. It's a subjective area, and in reality, five hours is enough to cover the majority of riding I do.

> Check out our guide to the best cycling bib shorts

Priced at £95, these Lusso bibs are up against some fairly serious competition from the likes of Alé, Chapeau and numerous other options, including some of the big brand offerings. While they are certainly comfortable, I don't know that they'd be my first choice if I had that sort of money to spend.

A couple of minor things to wrap up. First, a positive – there are sewn-in reflective tabs down the outside of each leg, perfectly positioned to aid night-time visibility from both the rear and the sides. Less positively, it took precisely one wash (40 degrees, gentle cycle, non-bio detergent) for those "L" decals on each thigh to start peeling. After around five washes, the reflective logo on the rear is cracked and half gone. It's a minor thing, of course, and not one that affects their overall performance one bit, but if it was my £95 then I'd be disappointed with that.

Verdict

Well-made and comfortable bib shorts; good but perhaps not the very best at this price point