Action pants!
With an eye to the unseasonably cool conditions, I picked up these Pearl Izumi Elite thermal tights on the way to Virginia. While presented as a step up from the Select series tights I’ve been using since February, I would consider them to just have a different purpose. The Select tights have a built in chamois, and are good down to the low 50s or upper 40s. The Elites (at least the ones I got) do not have a built in chamois, but are constructed for winter riding on the North Pole.
Seriously, these things are really warm.
The outer material is something like a scuba suit, tightly woven and, so far as I can tell, totally windproof. The interior layer is insulating fleece, and it’s all bound together with an intricate design of seams and stretch panels that make them very ergonomic. I picked up a size Medium, and while they’re certainly snug, after a few minutes on the bike you don’t really notice. I still wish there was a M/L option for all of my cycling gear. I’m always an in-betweener.
Something you get with all of PI’s top-level cycling gear is attention to detail. On these tights, the back of the waistband flares up, to make sure the wind can’t find a way between the tights and your upper body base layer. Smart. The calf zippers are positioned just far enough back to be out of the wind, and when fully closed, the zipper tucks into its own little pocket to maintain a tight seal around your ankle. The whole assembly is (at least) double stitched, and decorated with reflective logos to help keep you visible on dreary winter rides.
The only downside of these tights is the price point. Even there, it’s hard to object, for what you’re getting. Prior to getting these tights, I had figured that winter bike training just automatically meant cold legs. I’m happy to have been proven wrong!
[…] in need of a pair of cool-weather road gloves for awhile. When I was at Performance to get my new thermal tights, I spied these on the glove rack and thought they might be just the […]