Sportful Neo bib shorts review

The Sportful Neo bib shorts are the Italian brand’s entry point to its extensive bib short range.

Sportful says these shorts are designed to marry “simplicity, comfort and effectiveness” when riding.

The construction is superb and the brand has managed to pack in some neat details for a modest asking price, although fans of longer rides may feel let down by the chamois.

Sportful Neo bib shorts construction

The Neo bib shorts use a predominantly polyamide main fabric and polyester for the legs, in combination with elastane.

Sportful says it has worked on the construction of the inner part of the leg by introducing a new raw-cut fabric to eliminate seams in areas that could cause chafing.

Sportful specs its entry-level Bodyfit Pro MD Seatpad, a multi-density and two-layered chamois. The first soft fabric layer has 3mm-diameter micro perforations and there’s a second internal layer with expanded foam.

The pad is claimed to be suitable for ‘long rides’, and can also be found on the brand’s Classic Bib shorts, which cost £105.

The bib straps don’t rewrite the rulebook with their classic seamed design, although Sportful has incorporated perforations to promote ventilation.

There are gripper dots on the inside of the leg of the shorts to keep them in place. These run around two thirds of the way around the leg, with the back of the leg gripper-less.

There are two reflective bands on the outside of the leg grippers, as well as two Sportful logos. A third reflective Sportful logo is situated at the back of the shorts.

Sportful offers the shorts in six sizes – from S up to 3XL. You have three colours to choose between – Black, Cedar and Black, and White and Black as tested.

The Sportful Neos are also available as waist shorts for £75/$100/€70/AU$134.95.

Sportful Neo bib shorts performance

I’ve been putting the Neo bibs to the test over a mixture of short and long rides on both road and gravel.

The bib shorts were tested on three different saddles – a Forza Stratos, a Fabric Scoop and a Specialized Power Pro Elaston.

I found the fit of my size large bib shorts to be balanced perfectly between close-fitting and relaxed, with just a touch of bagginess underneath the pad.

Despite the brand’s clothing fitting rather snugly in the past, these fit true to size.

The Lycra offers excellent compression and the shorts feel as if they are lighter than other bib shorts at or around this price point.

The leg grippers are very comfortable and among the best I’ve used. They stayed put throughout rides and didn’t degrade in elasticity over the test period.

I found the shorts to be particularly well ventilated, keeping me cool in temperatures up to 24°C.

Unfortunately, I found the Bodyfit Pro MD Seatpad to be the shorts' Achilles heel. While it’s comfortable over short distances, I began to feel uncomfortable after the three-hour mark.

The pad is reasonably soft and provides good coverage, however the fact it’s one of the thinnest I’ve tested (albeit not as thin as the pad on the dhbs Aeron shorts), that might explain its unsuitability for longer rides.

The furthest I rode in the shorts was 180km and although it didn’t cause me any saddle sores, I had pushed the pad a little beyond its limit in terms of long-ride comfort.

However, for rides under three hours, the shorts are excellent and dampened vibrations on my weeknight gravel club ride competently. That said, if you know you may want to ride a sportive, audax or an all-day ride, there are better options available.

The pad didn’t degrade over the test period, nor did any of its properties change after multiple washes.

I also found the shorts didn’t ride up when using knee warmers (grippers often don’t work as well against another fabric as they do skin). They even stood up valiantly to a Welsh downpour.

Sportful Neo bib shorts bottom line

The Sportful Neo bib shorts are well constructed and details such as the micro-dot leg grippers are great to see on shorts at this price point.

Although an excellent proposition for rides under three hours, the Neo’s chief downfall is the chamois isn’t particularly well suited to the longest rides.

That said, if your rides don’t stretch much beyond the three-hour mark, the Neo bib shorts offer plenty of performance for relatively little outlay.