go far,
stay comfy

You open your cupboard and rummage for kit to put out for tomorrow’s early-morning ride. Even though you own three pairs of bibs, you can’t help but reach for that one favourite pair. That’s been my experience with these bibs, which I’ve been wearing on most rides since October last year.

   The Apex sits one level of quality below CIOVITA’s pro-level, off-road-specific Sentiero bibs, and one and two above the Supremo and Corsa roadie ranges respectively. As soon as you step into them, you realise you’re wearing a premium garment.

   The longer leg length (to just above the knee) makes you feel like Mathieu van der Poel, and the front is just high enough to offer some flattering compression around the belly, making you feel like you didn’t spend the whole of December eating biscuits and drinking beer. The shoulder straps are wide and comfortable, and you soon forget they’re there.

   There’s also an Apex bib without pockets (the Apex Elite), but I’d choose this pocketed version every day of the week. If you’ve never ridden with pockets, you have no idea how useful they are. On a speedy road ride, you don’t have to do the awkward reach-around to get a gel out of your back pocket. Or, if you’re still young and supple enough for the reach-around, you can keep your fresh gels in your back pocket and stash the sticky wrappers in the mesh pocket on your leg. The bibs also have two smaller pockets in the small of your back, for extra storage.

   But they’re not just for roadies. Worn under a pair of mountain-bike baggies, those pockets give you all the storage you need for your phone, garage remote and snacks, freeing you up to wear a breezy trail shirt without pockets.

   “The biggest challenge was finding a way to add pockets without reworking the fit of the Apex bib completely,” says Lauren Neethling, senior product developer at Ciovita. Having also tested a standard version of the Apex, I can confirm that the fit is identical.

Newcomers to cycling often wince at the price of bib shorts. You’ve just shelled out thousands, if not tens of thousands, for a bike – now you have to pay many more thousands for clothing, shoes, pedals, a helmet and more. And yes, there are definitely cheaper bibs available; but this is an area where you really get what you pay for. When you find a pair that prevents your bum from getting numb even after more than four hours in the saddle, they’re worth their weight in gold.

   Much of this has to do with the imported, Italian-made chamois pad that Ciovita has used in the construction. The marketing spiel says it features a “free-floating 3mm perforated foam layer that adapts to your saddle position ... augmented by a 12mm high-density shock absorption foam layer.” Translated, that means the bibs feel really great – the chamois is firm but not too firm, and it conforms nicely to your nether regions as you pedal and move around on the bike.

   Importantly, the Apex Cargos have held up really well after four months of hard riding on road, mountain and gravel – and four months of less-than-careful washing. There’s hardly any abrasion on the insides of the legs around the chamois, the silicone grippers on the legs still do what they’re meant to do, and the stitching is still perfect. They’re also still black, which is less than can be said about some greying, see-through bibs I’ve worn in the past…

   All in all, if you want a really good-quality pair of bib shorts that will last many years, the CIOVITA Apex Cargo bibs are right up there with the best of the lot.