Assos - my ass!

Starting again with that whole cycling thing I had to get a bunch of stuff. Sitting on a bike for days makes picking the right setup between bike and ass a challenge. For the bib I must say, since I didn't had any idea of what to buy or not I finally went with Assos. There was an interesting article about these Italian guys which develop most of the padding cuts and materials and as well for and with Assos in my favourite mag, the Fahrstil. Having researched that the Mille S5 is/was one of the state-of-the-art-bibs for longer distances I wanted to get me one. Somehow Assos changed their complete line inventing the S7 products. So I had to go for one of those in the first step. I tried the T.cento - an 10mm padded bib. Sitting on that was fine, but after 160...170km I always felt some uncomfy irritations on the inner sides of the thighs. Doing a few times 200+ was not so much fun as they product was claimed to provide.

Fortunately I could get hold of a T FI.Mille S5 as well as a T.équipe_s7. Now that was fun. Riding and switching a few times between all of them. The Mille is a great product in general. You can ride it for long stretches without any trouble. These side flaps on the T.cento are really a disadvantage. They are simply too much at this position. Besides that, this 10mm foamish material is already too thick, I had many rides where I was sliding around on that pillow and had to maintain a certain position actively. That shouldn't be like this. So the comfort of the T.cento virtually dropped down with each mile riding the Mille or the new T.equipe. Since I used only these both bibs I was free of any trouble due to padding thickness or these side flaps. But - and this is a very small but nevertheless important factor - the front of the T.equipe has a slightly deeper cut than the Mille. Every time you stop and need to water the flowers this becomes a serious plus for the T.equipe.

I used the T.equipe in the Transcontinental Race without any problems, and kept the Mille for daily commuting. So there are approx. 6,000km on the T.equipe, 1,800km on the T.cento and some 1,200km on the Mille, I'd say that counts for field testing.

Mille, T.equipe, T.cento - all with typical reflective stripes

Mille, T.equipe, T.cento

Mille

T.equipe

T.cento

T.cento side padding, way too much for me