POC Contour Aerofoil Bib Shorts

Okay, so I'm pretty conflicted about the POC Contour Aerofoil bibs. On the one hand, they're a super-comfortable and beautifully made pair of shorts. On the other, the price is predicated on aero capabilities that are marginal at best, and I'm not convinced they offer any meaningful benefit against the clock.

Let's go over the good stuff first. The good stuff is mostly everything about the shorts in terms of construction, fit and on-the-bike comfort.

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The Aerofoils are constructed from a warp-knitted Coolmax/elastane mix, with more elastane in the bibs for a bit of extra stretch to accommodate different torso lengths.

The leg grippers are a silicone filament that's woven into the leg cuffs; it's very nicely done and holds the shorts nicely, as well as gripping leg warmers effectively.

Looks-wise you'll take or leave the big POC logo depending on your tastes; I don't mind it. I do like the reflective panel on the rear, and the fabric itself has a nice finish that looks good too. Fit-wise they're on the large side of average but not excessively so, with an L fitting me fine; I'm normally an L or an XL depending on the brand.

The Contour pad is a 3D, seamless, multi-layer chamois with vibration-reducing silicone inserts under your sit bones. It feels fairly dense and it's not particularly thick, but I've found it really comfortable on both long and short rides, and the inserts do seem to do a good job of getting rid of road chatter through your backbone. It's well positioned and nicely made, among my favourites.

In fact the shorts are among my favourites to drag out of the drawer for general riding. There's very little about the fit and the comfort that I don't like. They've been through the wash a good number of times with no issues at all, and the material on the seat where it meets the saddle is wearing very well. The fabric isn't the most hardy when it comes to getting snagged, though, and I managed to rip the shorts catching them on the saddle, which necessitated digging the sewing kit out for a repair.

So they're lovely comfy shorts, for long rides or short. You can have the same pad in POC's Raceday shorts that are £80 less, so what's the draw here? Well, POC claims that the dimpled fabric on the legs offers an aero advantage over a normal pair of shorts. And that, I would suggest, is, well, optimistic.

I've asked POC if there are any numbers to back that claim up. In fact I've asked several times. But I haven't had any, and so I'm going to assume that there isn't any wind tunnel data knocking about to verify the aero claim. Should some appear, I'll make sure I append it here.

Could the dimpled surface make a difference? It's not inconceivable – we know golf balls use a similar methodology and various bikes and frames use trip profiles to create turbulent airflow. And we also know that, taken as a whole, the rider accounts for about 80 per cent of the drag of the bike-and-rider combo, so making gains on the airflow round your body is meaningful.

> Three things I learned in the wind tunnel

On the other hand, we're talking about a small band of fabric between your thigh and your crotch that spends half its time pointing directly into the wind, when your knee is bent. If you're going to make a bit of your body aero, it's low on the list for sure. And you're paying an £80 premium for that, on top of the fact that other POC shorts are already very expensive. These aren't the most expensive shorts you can buy, but they're not far off.

Assuming you want aero gains, let's look at what else you could buy for your £280. You could get a Rapha Aerosuit, some Castelli Aero Speed gloves and some Velotoze shoe covers. Or you could go for a Castelli Velocissimo Sanremo speedsuit and a Bontrager Ballista helmet. I'm confident that spending your money in either of those two ways would result in a vastly increased aero advantage over just changing your shorts.

Bottom line? If you've got plenty of money to throw at your next pair of shorts and you want something that's well made, comfortable and good looking, the POC Contour Aerofoil shorts are worth a look. If you've got £280 to spend on making yourself more aero, then this isn't the best way to spend it. You can do better. Ironically, I think I'd be inclined to score these shorts more highly if they'd made no aero claims at all. Okay they're expensive, but they're very, very comfortable and some people have plenty of money to spend. As it is, I can't help but mark them down for saying a thing and then not really backing it up.

Verdict

Great fit and comfort, but you can buy much better aero gains than this for your money