Just give me that countryside

This question came in shortly before my extended holiday hiatus. Time to tackle it.

Dear cycledork,

What's the advantage of bib shorts over regular shorts? I'm willing to believe there must be one (other than looking like Eddie Albert in Green Acres), but I'm hard pressed to figure out what it is.

-lady macsquish

Dear lady:

Isn't looking like Eddy Albert enough? I do not own any bibs but I'll probably break down one of these days and buy a pair just to see how the other half lives. The magic — even greater than looking like America's most legendary lawyer turned farmer — is that bibs are widely felt to fit better and more comfortably than standard shorts. One review was particularly effusive about the Performance Elite Y Bib Short. It's hard to beat $40 for bibs, a price that's dirt cheap for any lower-body cycling wear. To give some perspective Bicycling magazine has had an award category for "Best Bibs under $200." The Elites probably merit my respect but it's hard to pull the trigger on something I expect would feel as good to wear as the other Performance shorts I have. My bet is that the closer I could come to that penthouse view bibwise the more likely I would be to ride in comfort.

Yours in velophility,

Cycledork

P.S. Any bib owners out there? Are they the Manhattan or Hooterville of cycling togs? We need to know.