How We Test
At GearLab, we look at the top bike shorts and bibs on the market and use an internal selection process to focus in on a smaller group of solid shorts for further evaluation before finding a subset of what we feel are the best shorts for a given category of shorts or riding. The best shorts for spit might not be the best for touring. We use that framework in our selection process and we test to it as well. Each pair will be put through all the same testing and riding, but there may be additional considerations given to shorts that are purpose-made for a type of riding. Once we've made our selections, we test the heck out of these things, looking to tease out what makes them special and what makes them fail. We ride hills, rain, heat, cold, and anything else we can think of that might be useful to some rider somewhere. We even ride trainers (with great gnashing of teeth and tears). We focus on hard riding like hillwork, spin, crit, or tempo rides, but there's a healthy mix of work commutes and slow base mile-type days. We spend as much time in the saddle as possible trying to recreate all of the major riding styles.
All shorts get at least 20 hours in the saddle with perhaps as many hours of reading and researching fabric, composition, performance, complaints, and anything else we can find that will give us useful insight into the products, how they're holding up for us, and what other riders are getting out of them.
It's important to note that we don't handicap any cycling shorts, but we do pay attention to specialization and intentional designs. By that, we mean speedy criterium shorts likely won't have supple chamois padding, so they're not going to be as comfortable as touring shorts on a four hour ride sitting up on the hoods. Those speedy crit shorts are designed to cushion you when you're down in the drops in and out of the saddle for 45 minutes and that's the performance we're looking at when we assign scores.
To that end, we do analyze under the frameworks of our award winners. Affordability shorts need to meet some parameters to be serviceable relative to a price point. Top awards need to be top-ranked in the categories related to their award category. The top scorers need to have the most consistent high marks across all categories with zero dealbreakers or sandbags. That said, you can't help when shorts are just hurty, no matter their designated purpose.
