Female Cycle Nerds:
You may be interested to know that there appears to be a special formula to lady parts successfully fitting into Surly pants.
These pants were not made with a woman in mind. We never involved lady parts in the fittings or development. Why you ask? Because this is our first time developing pants, the developers only have dude parts to work with and we are a small company so we couldn't dang right afford to make a hundred variations. No offense or judgement intended. This time for real.
That being said, the pants arrived and I was supplied a pair for testing (job perk!!). I was skeptical at best thinking these were going to feel stiff and ill fitting like most men pants I've tried.
Turns out I have a new favorite pair of pants! They fit incredibly well. According to Tyler this is due to the fact that they were designed to be more "blousy in the thighs". Whether this is true or he just took a well aimed shot at me, doesn't matter. They feel so nice I want more.
Drive side snaps! Yeah mama.
First attempt at trying them on I was bothered by the higher waist. This may just be a woman thing because we tend to have wider hips (I for sure do) that prevent waisted pants to hang lower without major league crotch bunching above your knees. I also noted that it felt like someone was cupping my rear and the material was a bit stiff. Yet I still had hope since they were not as grossly unfitted as I had thought they would be.
I prancercised around and successfully broke them in within the first day of wearing them. The waist gave up a little and isn't mom jean height but also does not fall short of covering my rear cavern during rides. The gusset cupping turned into a nice feeling of comfort during rides and unnoticeable whilst strutting.
After receiving questions about what pants I was wearing and would they fit other females, I set up a day of tryouts for lady types in the building and found these pants were either magic fit or no fit.
Body types with rounded hips, thighs and buttocks below a smaller waist (in comparison to the rounded) seem to fit these pants like a dream. Body types missing any of these specs tend to see crotch hang, butt sag or g money issues (too baggy). The three sizes that were successful during the try outs were 30x32, 32x32 and 34x34. Each size measures exactly. The waist is actually 30 inches around and the inseam is actually 32 inches long on the 30x32 and so on.
I have ridden and worn my pair much to my delight. I have even accepted awkward compliments. I love the no pressure point feeling of riding without a seam pinching me in my down there. I am not a lycra gal. I don't see that in my future so having daily wear pants that ride without personal injury to my bits puts a smile on my face.
So lady buyer be warned, these pants were not created with your parts in mind but SOME of you will jump with joy (just probably not too high carrying all that booty).
Make yourself known and maybe we can muster up the courage to produce lady pants! I know we have it in us to make great products for female cycle geeks like myself. I think the Surly women's long sleeve jersey is the bomb diggity. It looks great, feels great, fits great, HAS THUMB HOLES, is made of sweet sweet wool and hasn't shrunken or broken with all the wear and tear I have put mine through.
I suggest you go bother your local bike shop to carry a few sizes for you to try and then order yourself some magic.
I know you are out there. Googlelytics told me.
