Giro CA Ride Overshort 2.0 Shorts
Color: Carbon
Size Tested: 32”
Inseam: 9”
MSRP: $120
Features:
- 4-way Stretch Woven Fabric
- 90% Nylon / 10% Spandex
- Stretch Panels at the Hip
- Internal Adjustable Waist
- Tailored Fit
Days Tested: 8
Locations Tested: Moab and Park City, Utah
These shorts are part of Giro’s New Road collection, targeted towards commuters and / or road riders. They are a baggy short, but they were designed to be slimmer fitting than most mountain bike shorts so that they would look good on the road without flapping around in the wind.
I liked their simple cut and clean look, so decided to put them into use on my mountain bike to see how their features and construction performed off road.
There are four features that make or break a pair of bike shorts: fabric, features, fit, and aesthetics.
The aesthetics on most shorts are pretty easy to assess from afar, so I’ll just walk you through the rest.
Fabric
The fabric used in the Giro CA Ride Overshort 2.0 is soft and stretchy. Often that equals poor durability, but the fabric has held up well for me so far, and I expect that it would only tear in a crash if I found some really sharp rocks to land on. I am going to keep riding in these shorts, and I’ll update this review if I run into any durability issues. But so far, so good.
Features
The fly closure on these shorts is simple and functional. Awesome. So many shorts these days use Velcro. It works, but I find it to be pretty finicky and it catches on everything in gear bags and the laundry. These shorts have a simple button and zipper. It is totally secure, doesn’t catch on anything, and the zipper doesn’t get in the way when riding.
There is a zipper pocket on the right side of the shorts and two butt pockets on the back. The zipper pocket can hold a phone and chapstick, but it definitely has to stretch around them. I missed having hand warmer pockets, but if you usually ride with a pack, the limited pocket situation won’t be a problem.
Fit
The fit is true to size, but pretty tight. I have bigger than average butt and thighs, but not crazy road cyclist big, and I found the shorts to be quite snug. Giro does say to expect a “tailored” fit, so this isn’t a complaint. But this cut will probably work best for riders with thinner legs, and I would probably look for one of Giro’s “Classic Fit” pair of shorts next.
The CA Ride Overshort 2.0s are pretty short, too—I had to pay attention to which spandex I was wearing underneath them. Any of my spandex shorts that weren’t on the shorter side tended to stick out from the legs of these shorts.
On the plus side, the shorter length did make these noticeably cooler, and the tighter fit made it impossible for them to catch on the saddle.
Bottom Line
All in all, the Giro CA Ride Overshort 2.0 is a very well made piece of kit that exactly hits its intended design mark. I’ll continue to wear them on the bike on hotter days where their shorter length helps to keep me cool, and I’ll wear them for hiking and camping, too—I don’t think anyone will know that I am wearing biking shorts.
For the most part, these were a bit too tight for me to use as regular mountain bike shorts, but the details and finish of these shorts has me interested to check out some of Giro’s baggier shorts with hand warmer pockets, as they might be my perfect mountain biking shorts.