Pick the Right Shorts for Mountain Biking

Transcript for: Pick the Right Shorts for Mountain Biking

"Hi! I'm Aaron Phillips for Expert Village. Okay, the next piece of equipment or clothing, rather are your shorts. A lot of mountain bikers kind of just choose the kind of "Lycra look" of road cycling and go for a baggier short like this. But these aren't just your typical kind of run-around town, baggy shorts. They feature a liner that is Lycra that kind of compresses the muscles in the quadriceps. But more importantly, provides you with padding. That padding is situated precisely where you need it to keep your sit bones from getting really sore. Typical shorts will have numerous pockets for just putting whatever gear you need to into them. Some of them are a little bit more streamlined; length varies; just do what works for you. As long as you're wearing something with a pad that kind of keeps things under control. Socks! Cycling socks are like everything else in cycling, there are cycling-specific socks. Usually they are "Coolmax" or another kind of non-cotton material, a polyester material that allows moisture to wick away from the skin and keeps you more comfortable. Generally speaking, they are very tight and they are ankle socks, so they don't interfere with your pedaling motion. The next thing is what goes on your feet: shoes. Your feet, in cycling, are really important because this is the motor. I mean, the leg is the motor, but this is the attachment point. So you want a shoe that has a pretty stiff sole. This sole is made of plastic, some even higher-end shoes have soles made of carbon-fiber that allow you to transfer every last bit of power right to the petals. It's going through your legs and right into the pedals. So, these shoes are fairly tight-fitting. Initially, they'll feel very, very tight; they tend to break in a little bit. You do want to buy a cycling shoe that fits your foot snuggly, that feels a little bit tighter quite a bit tighter than your typical street shoe. You don't want a lot of play in there; you want it tight. The strapping; you want to make sure the strapping is nice and tight. A lot of cycling shoes have a strapping and a ratchet system. This one has the ratchet that allows you to tighten those shoes right to where you need them to be. And, it depends, if you are a beginning mountain-biker, you may not choose to use clipless pedals, but clipless pedals allow you a lot of control over the bike and where it's going by giving you a cleat on the bottom of the shoe which you can then simply click in to the pedal allowing you to transfer all the force from your legs into that drive train."