We have a penchant for wearing Assos road bibs under our mountain bike baggies. We've grown so accustomed to its anatomically mapped female fit and the comfort from its chamois, nothing else quite comes close. We fear not wearing them with the protection of a baggy short outer as the propensity to crash means maybe ruining them, but there are days when we want to forgo the baggy, think XC racing, which is why we're grateful that Assos now offers the XC Bib Short providing its excellent chamois technology and fit with the added durability to stand up to off-road use. It tested the shorts with BMC MTB Racing Team, helping to refine them into the tough, lightweight, and highly breathable shorts here. This version features its women's specific mountain bike insert with thicker memory foam and a new position optimized for off-road riding. To beef up the durability, the short utilizes ripstop fabric on the side panels of the legs in the form of high abrasion resistant and breathable dyneRope material. It's a close-fitted woven fabric consisting of a black polyethylene weaving. Claimed to be the world's strongest fiber, its 15-times stronger than steel while remaining extremely lightweight and able to wick moisture. Elsewhere, it uses its Type. 429 Titanio fabric that's engineered with 4-way stretch so they easily move with you. Assos also took the opportunity to create a mountain bike-specific insert and in this instance, women-specific as well. Its positioned a tad more forward and cut narrower there than on its road bibs and tuned for a slightly more upright mountain bike position and the increased body English required on steep switchback climbs. It uses a thick 10mm memory foam over an elastic insert to soak up the bumps over rough trails while reducing friction for increased comfort. The short also benefits from Assos' goldenGate technology that interrupts the sewing in the area between the legs creating three-dimensional freedom of movement. Fewer seams mean re...