Ground Effect Supertankers
Price: £32 (not incl. P+P)
www.groundeffect.co.nz

Right over the far side of the world in New Zealand a bunch of New Zealander mountain bikers are frantically trying to fill air mail bags with their excellent no nonsense cycling clobber and send it over here. Mainly because we and other mags generally like it so much we keep telling you to go plunder their website.

Style
There’s baggy and then there’s B A G G Y! The Supertankers are huge sheets of ultra tough cotton which hang round your knees. Ground Effect recommend you “buy a size smaller if you want a more conventional fit”.

Cut + construction
These are a big pair of loose baggy shorts with no lycra liner, just a soft fleecey pad between the legs. However, they do have a curved “Strictly Ballroom” crotch so there’s no seams under your sensitive bits.

A lightweight webbing belt adjusts waistband altitude from hip to nipple as appropriate, with no elastic to get in the way of your style choice. If the big leg flappage gets on your nerves then straps on the legs tighten them down, granny’s bloomers style.

Fabric
The sort of heavy duty cotton that normally gets used for old CTC saddlebags and truck tarpaulins, mean these shorts are ultra durable. They feel a bit stiff and cardboardy at first, but rapidly wear into that ‘favourite pair of jeans’ comfort you rarely get with synthetics. Be wary of them in the wet though, as they treble in weight and take ages to dry.

In a word, enormous, in the style favoured by modern street urchins. If you want them to ever touch your legs in more than one place at the same time get the next size down.

Pockets
The big hand pockets and back pocket are lined but open-topped. There’s a chunkily zipped thigh pocket on the left hand leg (complete with trademark spare puncture patch).

Special features
The real feature of these shorts is the toughness of the fabric and the hugely baggy styling, making them top shredding shorts.

With no liner, heavy fabric and only a fleecy pad these shorts are not all-dayers but they’re fine for cruising round town or just mucking about. Just be careful standing out of the saddle as that loose fit and lack of liner can leave your tackle rattling on rough sections.

We absolutely love these shorts and have been wearing them fairly constantly since they arrived just for slumming round the house and quick trips round the block on test bikes.
If you need a pair of well-priced super-durable shorts that happen to have a pad that gives a bit of crotch comfort then run aground in a pair of Supertankers.