Cycling shorts insert

Atom1 spray painted on a boxcar:

Seattle fabrics and Textile outfitters (Canada ) has them. Having tried them, I think they are horrible!!

I make my own using the pattern that comes with Stretch and Sew 313. I layer polartec 200 on and ultrasuede. You either butt the center seam or stitch the seam allowances flat. I've probably made a dozen pairs like this.

Penny S

my bike clothes:

Hey thanks Penny, I'm doing it for DH and he dopes like the ones from the catalog it's more of cushy round piece sewn to the shorts, it almost feels like gel or something inside it. Can't seem to get your page to open, really curious now. Michelle

Atom1 spray painted on a boxcar:

hmm. link is working for me. Try this

Atom1 spray painted on a boxcar:

let me know if you find a gel pad... all the ones I have bought are just foam covered with a knit and like I said, they are the pits.

Penny S

I make them of sheepskin "chamois" leather -- you buy wash leather at an auto-parts store (or a hardware store, if you can find a real hardware store), because most people who buy chamois use it for washing cars. You may have to try several stores. It will have to be wet-blocked before you can use it.

You can butt seams on real leather, it's the least- irritating fabric you can use, and you can glue it in place with cold cream on very long rides, when the slightest shifting in the saddle area will wear through your skin.

You do have to rub chamois between your hands as if scrubbing a stain after it comes off the line, to restore the original softness, but you can skip this step if you get right on the bike and iron it against the saddle. (Well, I used to do that -- my skin isn't as greasy as it used to be.)

I make a slightly-smaller chamois from wool doubleknit, also butt seamed with silk thread, and put this between the chamois chamois and the shorts. If your saddle fits, one layer of real wool is ample padding.

I'm going to have to resume chamois-making Real Soon Now -- I no longer ride far enough to mind fake chamois with folded seam allowances, but Flye Clothing has vanished, nobody else makes wool shorts my size, and the last shorts Marthe Hess made for me have patches on the patches.

Joy Beeson