Bike shorts...

[osodecanela]

I struggle a bit with body image. Over the last several years, having gone thru some very significant physical changes, my own mental image of what I look like and what fits has shifted. How could it not? Truth told, I’m frequently surprised by what fits and how I look.

Bike shorts. A couple of decades ago I used them while biking. I have a dozen pair, but there was a time when I did the bike commute thing at a time the arthritis wasn’t too bad. They’re 2x. Most people of size will tell you there are 2Xs and there are 2Xs. Bike shorts are form fitting and rather revealing. The first time I tried these on again I thought, “oh, HELL no!” There’s no gay man who doesn’t like clothing that makes his endowment look impressive. I just wasn’t ready to have my circumcision status clearly evident to passers by on the street. I certainly didn’t have a form I wanted fitted that clearly. I still don’t.

Mid afternoon I grabbed gym clothes to head out for my run. Opening the drawer, I noted no
clean jocks. There was also that stack of bike shorts, which had the benefit of serving as a jock and shorts in one. I grabbed a pair and a grey sleeveless tee and pulled them on. They were comfortable; looking in the mirror, they were neither overly revealing nor overly tight.

Comments

[furr_a_bruin]

My favorite memory involving bike shorts was the time my friend Paul (known to many as "Pappa Bear" - he had a long running bondage column in The Leather Journal) decided he needed to get more exercise and took up bike riding - and one sunny Sunday rode his bicycle all the way from his home in North Hollywood to the beer bust at Griff's. Now, Paul was a burly fireplug of a bear with a bushy cinnamon-and-sugar beard... and was, as they say, "well blessed" and that latter fact was ... very obvious ... in those bike shorts. It was hilarious to see conversations grind to a halt in a radius around him as he walked around the patio greeting various friends. ;)

[osodecanela]

Love it!

And to be honest, if my lower belly were less prominent I would wear bike shorts more often. I’m self conscious not only by the size of my lower gut, but it’s asymmetry. I had a pretty nasty appendicitis as a kid, followed by an equally nasty appendectomy. The thing had ruptured and they left drains in me several days post op. I was told n the hospital for almost 2 weeks. The resulting internal scarring led to fat depositing more prominently on the left than the right. Not obvious in pleated pants or baggy gym shorts. Bike shorts? Didn’t want to go there.

Like I said, lingering body image stuff. With me being much smaller, the asymmetry is also less, but my mental body image still lags behind reality. Further, I got 2 spontaneous comments on how muscular my butt is the day I wore them. That’s real motivation for me to wear them more often.