What trousers are you wearing? Cycling is destroying mine!

This is a weird one, and wasn’t sure where to post it.

I get through trousers at an insane rate. I wear through the crotch within months. It’s taken me a while to work out what it is but I’m pretty sure it’s cycling. I cycle nearly every day of my life. I barely walk anywhere. And I think it’s putting excessive wear on my trousers. I even get the same wear pattern on my boxers too. And it’d never been a problem until I started cycling very regularly so I’m beginning to think that’s the cause.

Has anyone else experienced this? I don’t really wear cycling specific clothing because I’m on and off the bike all day. I will if I’m going for longer rides but otherwise I have to cycle in street clothes.

To get an idea of the style I wear, for a long time all of my trousers were Gramicci G pants. I’ve now also tried Stan ray, Carhartt, Dickies, Uniqlo. All of which have worn out the crotch.

What do you wear? If you can recommend something straight leg/baggy relaxed fit, work wear or climbing related that is likely to stand up to more abuse I’m in desperate need of something new.

Have you tried the proper Dickies workwear? I've got some cargo trousers that I've had for a few years that I wore for fucking around in a warehouse and riding a cargo bike. They're a bit faded but otherwise seem as new. I wear the more "fashion" Dickies otherwise and they're nowhere near as robust.

Denim jeans; I’ve had (so far) good performance with Alpkits “Jeanius” line. Good movement, not restrictive and has an additional patch in the crotch precisely for this issue. I have two pairs on rotation and think they’re both comfy and don’t look too “tech wear” off the bike.

I’m not sure, I always get their lines mixed up. I’ll look into them and see if they’ve got anything I’d wear daily!

I’ll check these out! As a rule I don’t really like jeans personally, but I’ll take a look

That's the thing. The proper workwear is a bit dorky for casual wear!

It’s weird, the workwear website seems to take you straight to their ‘fashion’ clothing. It’s not till you look on things like screw fix that you see the actual workwear

Levi's commuter jeans are very good- Super tough and great fit,Kinda stretchy material but discontinued - You'll find pairs on Vinted/eBay

I find these £39 ones from Service Works do the job. Need to roll up the DS ankle though as they're quite baggy.

What about leather jeans? Levi's do nubuck ones. Not shiny. A bit like suede but they look OK when worn and stained.

Thanks, I’ve always like the look of their stuff!

Elasticated waist is always a winner :)

MI Supplies is worth a look as well! They quite often have sales on Dickies/Carhartt stuff.

The jeans that I like the most is Tommy Jeans Ryan. It has lots of stretch and is very durable.

Screwfix Site brand trousers, worn with braces. Always hang at the right height, do not fall off your arse. Very robust and cheap, £20-ish.

I think you’ll struggle. I’ll do an occasional ride home in civvies after a night out, but the simple reality is I’ll wear through the crotch of a pair of jeans in about 5 commutes (10-14 miles each way). I’ll do a bit of local stuff in normal clothes, but anything involving distance or speed is just going to kill normal clothing.

Swrve jeans are good. Not cheap but they’ve got some on sale at the moment.

If you’re smashing through the gooch on several pairs of trousers per year when cycling then it’s probably time to admit defeat and wear Lycra shorts and change on site, change saddle or shorten your commute.

I just buy cheap jeans and chinos on the understanding that they're not going to last very long so why pay lots for them.

I did have a pair of Dickies that I bought when I was probably in my late teens/early twenties and they lasted for years, like easily a decade. I then bought some more more recnely and they didn't lastg very well at all. I also went off how stuff sat in the pockets when riding.

Other than that first pair of Dickies I've never been able to equate spending more to them lasting any longer.

You can get the crotch repaired on your jeans, I usually take mine up to a place on d’arblay st, not the cheapest repair, but costs less than getting a new pair of jeans.
Get some swrve cordura jeans, they’ll last longer, the crotch will still blow out eventually but you’ll get more mileage out of them. And when they do blowout, get them repaired, and keep repeating that process until the crotch can't be repaired anymore, then buy new ones.

I've have minimized the wear on my trousers by having the correct fit - trousers actually sitting at the waist and wearing fjällräven or haglöfs. I have three pairs that I rotate and have yet to wear through commuting 3500-4000km a year for two years.

Another shout for swrve. I have one pair of their skinny cycling shorts that’s over 15 years old and still going strong.

Agreed that it doesn't sound like the trousers are necessarily the problem. Probably do a similar amount of commuting and always in casualwear and have probably gone through two or three pairs of trousers in twice that many years, and most of them were probably reasonably worn to begin with, or too tight to be sensibly cycling in..

@edavies94 when your trousers wear through is it a thinning of the fabric or a rip? My trousers that die generally do so ripping from being too stretched out by a wider range of movement than they were designed for, rather than worn down by friction/chafing..

I repair all my trousers myself but there comes a point where there’s so many repairs they’re barely holding together! One pair I’ve repaired 4 times at the crotch. I definitely try and get the most out of them, I hate throwing clothes away

I get both. I have some trousers that have a gusseted crotch to allow for better range of movement. These thin out and tear. And ‘normal trousers’ rip at the seam.