Yes, I am a Cyclist…

I’ve been an adult cyclist since 2012 after realizing that I was 300 pounds of fat and laziness. I would become out of breath bending down to tie my own shoes – no joke! So I got a bicycle and started riding every other weekend, which turned to every weekend and eventually mostly each day of the week of 20, 60 and even 110 miles in one riding segment. Cycling saved my life – it made me lose a lot of weight and even got me into hiking again. I kept riding past the ‘Heron Pond‘ sign on the Tunnel Hill State Trail and eventually got off the trail and rode to the hiking trail where I hiked all over that area after that and then even started a YouTube channel called, well you guessed it, Hiking with Shawn!

Since I don’t have a lot of cycling-related content on this blog yet, I wanted to touch base on that information before I dive into reviewing the MPG Cycling Shorts. I hope you enjoy this review and feel free to share it, comments below and tell me what your favorite cycling short brands are!

MPG Cycling Shorts for men is the latest cycling apparel items that I picked up from REI using my dividend and a little extra cash that I had laying around. I purchased two pairs of MPG cycling shorts because I enjoyed the patterns they had to offer. This is my review of both pairs of MPG cycling shorts and what I think about them thus far.

Before the MPG Cycling Shorts Arrived…

When I first was looking to buy the MPG cycling shorts I selected, I was fooled a little by the photos on REI. When it comes to cycling shorts, I prefer a shorts length rather than an inseam that is right directly above the knee like a lot of cycling shorts are. Now I do usually have an advantage, I’m tall so most cycling shorts are shorter on me. I like them a little shorter for multiple reasons. It is cooler in the summer and they fit more comfortably. When they are right above the knee on me for some reason, they tend to bother me in that particular area above the knee. For the longest time, I just went with it until I bought a pair of tri-shorts and those were much shorter. It felt a whole lot better. Now I don’t like them extremely short – this isn’t the 80s anymore haha and no wants to see that much leg from ole Shawn, LOL. But shorter than average is what I usually go for. When the shorts arrived to me, they were longer than I expected but not so long that it was a problem. Upon looking at one of the shorts on the main MPG cycling shorts website, their ad shows a short that is about the length size that I got. In the end, really, no big deal on the inseam length – they are short enough and long enough at the same time.

Now I know I am not the best model to be sporting cycling shorts but I wanted to make this review as realist as possible so the picture to your left is yours truly, Hiking with Shawn. Those MPG cycling shorts are officially called MPG Gravity Bike Shorts. They were $55.00 on REI and they are listed as $80.00 on the MPG website. MPG may be phasing this particular product out soon, I am not sure because listing for these cycling shorts were scarce. There is a TMF Italian-designed chamois in these shorts and it is big enough to protect the main functions of what I need it to protect while not being so huge that it feels like I am wearing a diaper the whole time.

The overall material of the MPG cycling shorts seems durable. When I put them on, I didn’t hear any stitch breaking or anything like that like you usually get with cheaper cycling shorts. The material is thick enough not to be transparent when tightly fitted around your body. I liked these shorts particularly of their colors because wearing black all the time is boring. Brighter colors also help for drivers to notice you quicker and in return not run your down on the side of the road!

Overall, I feel as if the MPG cycling short above were a good pair of cycling shorts to add to my collection. If they were available in a bib-short, it would had been a lot better. Bib-shorts feel a lot better on you than tight shorts around the waist – my opinion at least… Now for the price, I feel like these shorts were a bargain. Sizing-wise, they fit great, they are tight but that is what they are supposed to be. While I can comfortably wear these MPG cycling shorts, I probably should had went a size larger than I normally wear for a better fit but again, a little tighter, but they still fit well. The pad is nice and after a quick test ride, I found that it was comfortable on my sit bones and that nothing was hurting. A well made pad is important when it comes to cycling shorts, any rider that wears them will second that notion. The waist of the shorts fit well and don’t dig into my love handles. Hopefully those will be gone by the end of spring! The material is well made and very durable. I’ve worn cycling shorts in the past that were so bad that my leg hair poked out of them and that is not flattering at all, even for me. I don’t shave my legs like most cyclists, not that I am against it – there are plenty of benefits in doing it, it’s because I’m too lazy to keep shaving them, LOL. So if I wear to give these shorts a rating between 1 and 10 with 1 being the worst and 10 being the best, I would say they are a 9. That to me is a fair rating. I didn’t give them a 10 due to the sizing and them being a bit tight around the hems of the shorts. But those cons are not that much of a concern at all. These MPG cycling shorts will be coming with me tomorrow when I head to Giant City State Park to conquer some hills on the road bike.

The second pair of MPG cycling shorts that I picked up are pictured to the left. These are officially called MPG Catalyst Bike Shorts. They are the same price and also appeared to be shorter than they are when looking at the REI website. They have the same pad and type of leg grippers. However, these shorts seemed to fit more based on my size than the other ones did and they don’t seem as tight around the leg gripper area. These are black but the pattern on them appear to be reflective in low light and they are different than straight black which is what made me like them. I’d give them a 10 out of 10 to be honest because they seem to fit a little bit better. So I recommend these particular MPG cycling shorts as well but it seems that you can only get them from REI at this time.

Thanks for taking the time to check out my review of the MPG cycling shorts for men. This is a little different than the normal blogs I make but I wanted to do more with my cycling activities and start reviewing more of my gear. I have cycling kits and apparel that I might review in the future as well as my bikes, component upgrades, tools and other cycling gear. Again, sorry that I am not the perfect model for cycling apparel but give me time, I’m trying to shape myself up really nicely – LOL.

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