Gear

Agree with the support requirement and  have worn to destruction and beyond my pair of HH windy briefs. Great all year round IMO.

I have a pair of icebreaaker merino in 180 weight and as boxers. It is great for winter but in summer just stores up your sweat until you get serious damp induced chafage. Also very baggy after a while as the stretchiness starts to sag. It is very comfortable at the beginning. Not for summer or wet weather as unless your waterproof trousers positively suck out the sweat when you are in a rain storm. Above all if you get caught out by a sneaky, heavy rain shower and get wet through to our undies then these will stay wet all day IME.

Patagonia is good and my pair I'm using now as they cope with the hot weather well.

Yet to find a pair that offers good support and wicking yet does not chafe.

TTG,

My climate (South of France... temps in the 30s) is a bit hot for HH Windy briefs for me; they still do the job but it's a bit 'boil in the bag' down there !

Subzero All Active are the closest I've found to ticking all three of your requirements... but they do bunch & tangle a bit on me. Other people rate them highly... maybe these would be worth a try.

John

If they bunch and tangle then they will chafe on me I'm afraid. I have had serious problems with that hence I have to make cafreful attention to the undies and particularly shorts I wear in summer. Trousers are less ofoa problem for this bt more for leg length. Needless to say I find that it takes several washes to get undies right IMO. kind of break them in.

Too much detail! It is as difficult to buy the right undies as it is to buy other items like boots, but you can't really shop around, try a load on and above all get fitted / measured!!!  There isn't a Phil Oren technique for undies, YET!

TTG,

just like boots, fit is very personal. SZ all active bunch a bit (not much compared to some things I've tried) on me but might be fine on you. Or worse! Who knows. Given the ludicrous price of some of these items, I tend to buy what's on sale and give them a try.

John B - I have a thigh issue due to, well genetics I think, or possibly leg strengthening at the gym particularly heavy weights on the leg press. This means boxers can bunch quite badly on me and there will be chafage. I find the thin capilene are the only boxers that don't rub in summer.

I have the lightest weight in icebreaker merino boxers but they are incredably hot and sweaty at this time of year. I also find that if I get caught out in a shower and my trousers get wet so will these boxers. As you might know merino absorbs moisture which means the boxers don't dry whilst you are wearing them. Capilene and other synthetics can dry whilst being worn. As you will understand wet boxers are a serious source of chafage.

Will be looking around again and might try the haglofs pants I've seen. Anyway I need some more so will shop for brands.

> Peter Macfarlane, the lightweight gear guru chappie from Trail

Otherwise known as ptc*

No, I can't find it in any French dictionary I've been able to access either.

I've got no problems with "Patagucchi" briefs - except their price. Those boys are quite proud of their products!

 Look at REI and Cabela's online. Try for CoolMax polyester. The microgrooves in the extruded  fibers form capillary channels that DO wick moisture away. They will dry very fast, say 45 minutes in 80 F. weather (except for the elastic waist band).

Eric,

I never pay rrp for undies (or much else for that matter)... my patagonia boxers cost me 5 Euros; my HH windbriefs were all between £1-3... my SZ briefs were a fiver and my SZ All Active boxers were a costly tenner! These things are always going on sale somewhere or other.

As for CoolMax... used it to great success in Bridgedale liner socks and some running kit. My impression is that it's best suited to warm weather and isn't great in the cold. Obviously that's what its for... but if you plan to get baselayer for year round use then I'd say there were better options.

Another fabric that is good against the skin is Supplex. My rowing lycra is made of this stuff and it's a good compromise of comfort & durability and is pretty fast drying too.  

Chaffage = made up word but gets the meaning across. It is when your hot sweaty... and your sweat drenched underwear have interacted in a painful way to create very tender and possibly red raw area of skin in the nether regions. Now isn't chaffage a nicer way of saying that?

If you want me to be more crude about the effects of poor base layer choice in the lower regions I can. I can get quite descriptive if forced to!

I am in the market for these products as I have just realised I only have 3 pairs of outdoors underwear, one needs throwing away, another is merino so too hot now and the other starts to chafe badly after 20 odd miles. I need a few pairs and only have about 1 hour free to find them this friday afternoon. I live north Lancs / south Cumbria so will be hitting the outdoor shops. I doubt the two nearest M&S stores would be large enough to stock those M&S sports pairs mentioned above. Besides I have a pathological hatred of being seen inside, going in or coming out of an M&S store. Much prefer being seen in outdoors shops even if it means spending 5 times as much.

What's wrong with the word chafing, a real word which already exists and means exactly what you are trying to say? It gets the meaning across without any crudity.

"Besides I have a pathological hatred of being seen inside, going in or coming out of an M&S store. Much prefer being seen in outdoors shops even if it means spending 5 times as much."

Talking of pathological hatred (or a less hyperbolic term, dislike),  going into M&S doesn't bother me at all but I do have a pathological dislike of the use of non-words when perfectly good properly constructed ones that fit the bill already exist and have done for decades, centuries, millenia.

Such anal fixation is the negative side of a grammar school education. With today's poor standards  of literacy it ensures that I live in a constant state of irritation. Pity me.

John,

Yeh, Supplex is good also. I have a cross country ski racing Supplex/Lycra suit that dries in an instant.