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The Terrabound Padded Cycling Shorts are waist-cut road and MTB cycling shorts built around a 4D gel chamois. It is the same supportive pad system that sits in our Cycling Undershorts, here in a proper outer short with a zipped rear pocket and a hip pocket, so nothing about the ride has to be a compromise.
The pad is the point. A 4D gel chamois layers a firmer gel insert at the sit-bone zone over a multi-density foam base, under a perforated top surface lined with COOLMAX. The gel sits under bone rather than soft tissue, the foam spreads what is left outward, and the perforations let heat out of the seat instead of trapping it. It is stitched into a contoured one-piece seat panel with flatlock seams so it stays exactly where it was designed to sit, and a silicone gripper band at each cuff holds the legs in place around it.
Ride them on the road, on gravel, on the commute or on the turbo, and you get race-short support without the bib straps, and hour three that feels like hour one.
Key Features:
The Terrabound Padded Cycling Shorts are for riders who measure a ride by the road, not by how long they can stay comfortable on the saddle.
Pair them with our Cycling Gloves and Photochromic Cycling Glasses for a complete ride kit.
• Free delivery on orders £50+
• We have a 30 day return policy
Check out our shipping policy and our returns policy for more information.
A 4D gel chamois that puts your weight on the sit bones, in a waist-cut short with a zipped rear pocket and a hip pocket. Race-short support without the bib straps, and hour three that feels like hour one.
That's the cheap pair talking: a foam rectangle glued into a flat seat, with a plain elastic hem that lets the legs ride up and drag it out of place. This is built the other way round. The 4D gel chamois is stitched into a contoured one-piece seat panel with flatlock seams, so it sits exactly where it was designed to sit, and a silicone gripper band at each cuff holds the legs around it. The pad stays put. You stay sat.
A firmer gel insert sits at the sit-bone zone, the two points that carry most of your weight on a saddle. Bone takes the load instead of soft tissue, which is the difference between a long ride and a numb one.
The pad's top surface is perforated and lined with COOLMAX, so heat and sweat leave the seat instead of sitting under you. Hot rides and long summer miles end drier.
A contoured one-piece seat panel with flatlock seams holds the chamois in position, and a silicone dot gripper band at each cuff stops the legs riding up and pulling it out of place.
Nothing across the shoulders on a hot day, and a café stop that doesn't mean getting half undressed. A wide flat waistband, no drawcord, that sits rather than digs.
Below the rear waistband, with a reflective strip along the zip. Your phone rides zipped in over gravel, cattle grids and broken tarmac, jersey or no jersey.
An open pocket set into the side panel for a gel, a key or a card. Reachable while you're pedalling, so you're not stopping or unclipping to get at it.
Gel at the sit bones to carry the load, multi-density foam to spread what's left, a perforated COOLMAX top to let the heat out.
One zipped at the back for the phone, one open at the hip for a gel. On the short itself, so a t-shirt will do up top.
Black, Red, Blue, Light Blue, White, Fluorescent Yellow, Fluorescent Green. The body is matte black on every one; the name is the side panel.
Already love your bibs? Keep them for the long days in full kit. These are for the rides, and the café stops, bibs were never built for.
Numbness in the saddle is most of your weight concentrated on one small spot of soft tissue. A gel insert at the sit bones carries that weight on bone instead, the foam base spreads what's left outward, and the whole pad moves with you as you pedal, taking the pressure off the spot that goes numb. It works with the saddle you already have: nothing to fit, nothing to tilt.
Most waist shorts are one flat piece of foam, which is why they feel fine for a fortnight and numb a month later. This chamois is built in layers, and each one has a job:
And what keeps it there: a contoured one-piece seat panel with flatlock seams, so the pad is stitched where it was designed to sit, and a silicone dot gripper band at each cuff so the legs stay down around it. It's the same supportive pad system as our Cycling Undershorts, here in a proper outer short with the pockets to match.
Same pad, under your own clothes: the Cycling Undershorts · Cooler days: the Padded Cycling Tights
Order by height and weight, not by the letter you usually buy. This scale runs small next to high-street sizing: the maker's guide pairs L with roughly 165 to 170cm and 60 to 70kg, XL with 170 to 175cm and 70 to 78kg, 2XL with 175 to 180cm and up to 78kg, and 3XL with 180 to 185cm and 80 to 85kg. If you sit between two, take the larger. The waist is a stretch band, so the size chart on this page shows the relaxed-to-stretched range for each size; a padded short works best snug, never tight.
Same idea, different job. The Undershorts put the pad under your own shorts or trousers, for riders who don't want to look like a cyclist. These are the proper outer short: the same supportive gel pad system, in a waist-cut cycling short with gripper cuffs, a zipped rear pocket and a hip pocket. If you ride in cycling kit, these. If you ride in whatever you're wearing, the Undershorts.
If you love bibs, keep them. The reason people choose a waist short is everything bibs make awkward: straps on the shoulders on a hot day, getting half undressed at a café toilet, pulling them on in a car park. The compromise used to be the pad. Here it isn't: the chamois is held in a contoured seat panel with gripper cuffs, so it stays where a bib would keep it.
No. The gel insert is only at the sit-bone zone, where it's needed; the rest of the pad is multi-density foam that tapers out, so it reads as a contoured pad, not a nappy. Off the bike you'll know it's there. On the bike, that's the point.
Numbness in the saddle is usually a pressure thing: most of your weight concentrated on one small spot. The gel insert carries that weight on the sit bones and the pad moves with you as you pedal, which takes the pressure off the spot that goes numb. It won't fix a badly set-up bike, but for pressure, it does exactly what it says.
The zipped rear pocket sits just below the waistband and takes a phone; it's zipped, with a reflective strip along the top, so the phone stays put over rough roads. The open hip pocket is set into the side panel for a gel, a key or a card, and you can reach it while seated. Together they mean a t-shirt will do up top.
Because the short is matte black in every colourway. The colour name is the accent printed on the side panel: Red is a black short with red shards on the side, Fluorescent Yellow is a black short with a yellow side panel, and Black is the plain one. Pick the accent you like; the body, the pad and the pockets are identical in all seven. Fluorescent Green comes in S to XL only.
The pad's top surface is perforated and lined with COOLMAX, so heat and sweat leave the seat instead of collecting under you, and the four-way stretch shell is thin. A padded short is never cold, but these end a hot ride drier than a solid foam pad does.
Yes, and indoor riders are some of the first to feel the difference: on a turbo you never coast and never stand, so the saddle gets your weight the whole session. Gel at the sit bones and a perforated pad are exactly what that calls for.
Not for most rides. A COOLMAX-lined pad and flatlock seams take most of the rubbing out of the equation. On really long days, or if one spot always complains, chamois cream is still a fine friend, and it does nothing to the pad.
Machine wash cool, inside out, and hang them to dry. Skip the fabric softener and the tumble dryer: softener coats the wicking lining and heat is bad for the stretch and the gripper band. They're dry by the next morning.
Send them back. They're covered by the 30-day return policy. If the fit's the issue, start with the size guide above — this scale runs small, so the next size up is usually the fix — and remember the pad works best snug, not tight.
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