Assos LL.habuTights_s7

Winter cycling is made much easier with high-quality clothing that provides excellent insulation and comfort, and the LL.habuTights_s7 from Swiss masters of cycle clothing Assos are a case in point. With a thermal fabric and double layer over the knees they'll keep your legs toasty warm meaning you're fresh out of excuses to cancel a ride because it's too cold.

Pros: Superb fit, comfort, insulation, reflective details
Cons: High price, the bulge!

The LL.habuTights_s7 are aimed primarily at winter cycling and I've found they offer just the right amount of warmth for typical British conditions, which at the time of writing has included a sustained period of sub-zero temperature that has certainly made riding the bike more testing than usual.

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Providing enough warmth to combat such temperature lows, the company's own RX Medium fabric is used on the front of the legs, with a double layer over the knee for good measure. The fabric has a waffle brushed inner, it's soft on the skin and provides noticeable warmth when setting out into the cold.

It really does deliver impressive insulation, noticeably more than regular Lycra tights. That skin-biting chill simply doesn't get through at all. There's no overheating on warmer days, however, or if you head to the hills for sustained high-intensity efforts, with enough breathability to prevent any overheating at all.

Read more:  The best winter cycling bib tights and trousers

This fabric has been given a DWR (durable water repellency) coating to ensure the tights can stand up to a bit of rain and puddle splashes, and on both fronts, they cope just fine. They won't be keeping you dry in a heavy downpour, but they held back the rain longer than regular tights.

To enhance the fit and reduce any potential for restricted pedalling motion, there's an RX Light insert on the back of the knees. The high stretch of both fabrics, combined with the clever panel shaping, means no restriction of movement around the knees or legs at all. Some winter tights resort to thick fabrics that keep out the cold but restrict freedom of movement and so feel horrible to pedal in. That's not the case with these tights – they're very comfortable indeed.

To provide extra protection for your lower torso Assos has used its Stratagon Ultra material. It's a windproof and waterproof fabric and is intended to keep the core area sheltered from bad weather. The waist is low and stretchy enough for easy mid-ride wee stops.

The bib straps are wide, flat and very stretchy, and fulfil their primary task of holding the tights up without exerting undue pressure across the top of the shoulders. The fit of the tights is so good they would probably stay up anyway, the straps just stop them slipping down around the waist.

At the other end of the tights are elasticated openings with silicone grippers on the inside. There's enough stretch that you can easily pull them over thick Merino socks. The ankle area is more comfortable than if it had a zip, and without it there's one less thing to go wrong; no bad thing on such pricey tights.

The straps come together at the back with a narrow mesh panel covered in graphics. There are small rubber hoops at the top of the straps that can be used to hook glasses on, and also serve as somewhere to tether headphone cables.

Intriguingly, there's a large pocket on one side of the tights. It's large enough to carry a music player or smartphone but could be used for anything – money in a waterproof wallet, perhaps, or some food. With jacket pockets carrying all my essentials for winter rides I found this pocket a little unnecessary, but if you are running out of pockets you might find it useful.

There are generously sized and angled reflective stripes across the back of each calf muscle and only stitched to the tights across the top so as not to hamper the fit or comfort in any way. Reflective details are an obviously good thing on tights for a time of year when sunlight is in short supply.

Now to the meat of the shorts, the padded insert. This is where Assos's expertise really comes to the fore; it produces probably the most advanced and most comfortable padded inserts currently available.

The one that lives in these tights is called the équipe_S7 and shares its design with other S7 pads road.cc has tested over the years. The distinctive purple dimpled memory foam has a waffle and perforated composition and is only attached to the tights at the front and back, leaving the mid-section free to 'float', a technology that Assos calls goldenGate. Yup, they've got a name for everything.

As silly as it perhaps sounds, it does result in superb comfort. The padded insert is luxuriously comfortable, feels great against the skin and cushions your undercarriage for the longest of rides. There's no feeling of undue bulk and higher intensity or warmer than expected rides don't ever result in a soggy nappy feeling; the foam stays completely dry. The semi-floating design isn't a game-changer but does result in a fit that feels marginally freer than padded inserts that are completely stitched to the tights, so it's not entirely marketing mumbo jumbo.

The only oddness I found with these tights is the extended front section of the padded insert, intended to provide more comfort when you're on the rivet. It produces quite the bulge, it's like you're wearing a cup. That's ideal if you're out to impress, but erm, it can make you feel a little self-conscious, which is the last thing you need when stepping out in cycle clothing is enough to do that in itself.

You can get these tights without the padded insert so you can wear them over another pair of padded shorts, but I've never personally been a fan of non-padded tights.

The high price means they won't be for everyone, and that's fine. But the price and that bulge are the only things I can criticise in these tights. In every respect, they are near perfect, with supreme fit, comfort, a luxuriously padded chamois and brilliant insulation for the typical cold winter UK rides.

Verdict

Superb comfort and winter insulation, but at a high price