Adventure Cycling Association | Holiday Gear Guide: Airliner

Text version of the review below:

Club Ride Air Liner Mesh Bib, $80

I’ve never been a bibs guy. Maybe it’s because I started out on mountain bikes and considered bibs some kind of roadie nonsense. Maybe it’s because they’re often more expensive than shorts. Or maybe it’s because the first few times you wear them, you feel ridiculous — like you’re wearing some sort of cross between a unitard and an adult diaper.  Plus, and this is key, wearing standard bibs under baggies is usually hot as the pit of Hades in the summer.

Club Ride attacked that last problem with a liner bib using mesh construction for breathability paired with a fantastic chamois. The Air Liner mesh bib has completely changed my opinion of the style, and especially for longer rides, the chamois (which the Idaho-based company markets as their four-hour–plus model) were among the best I used all season. 

Fit-wise, I’m a lock-down medium for shorts, and the first time I pulled on the Air Liner bibs, I was worried the Club Rides were way too big. I was concentrating on “bib” instead of “liner,” and unlike the Lycra road-style bibs I’ve worn before, these didn’t feature much compression. In fact, I was worried they might just be too loose all around, but in the end they performed flawlessly, proving that they know a lot more about fit than I do. –AS

You can read the full review here.