Buying Pact Bike Shorts comes down to a few checks you can do from the product page. Everything else is preference. Squat test anything light coloured before you commit to it. A high waistband stays put; a mid one rolls. The groups below run from the decision that matters most to the ones you make afterwards.

What decides this is compression, waistband height and fabric recovery. Everything else is preference. Two from the first group show the range: spiritualgangster.com's AuraLight Formosa Biker Short at $54, and MATE the Label's Organic Stretch Contrast Biker Short at $78. The first is the easy entry point; the second is where the money goes. A high waistband stays put; a mid one rolls. Squat test anything light coloured before you commit to it. A higher price mostly buys materials and finishing, and occasionally it buys nothing at all.

One colour top to bottom makes cheap activewear look expensive. From the second group, matethelabel.com's Organic Stretch Biker Short 4" ($68) is the one that earns its place, because it works in more than one context without being restyled. The third group is smaller and deliberately narrower, activewear, for the decisions you make after the main one. None of this needs the whole group. One piece from each is usually enough.

There are 20 pieces here from 16 brands, $20 to $88, all in stock when this was written. We would not buy all of them, and neither should you. Kulani Kinis's Basic Bike Short - Wild Skies at $20 is the low-risk way in, and carbon38.com's Contrast Melt Biker Short - Cherry Red/White at $88 only makes sense if this is a category you already use constantly. On pact bike shorts specifically: the difference between the top and the bottom of this list is real but smaller than the price gap suggests. Nothing here is included because it is famous, and price is not used as a proxy for quality anywhere on this page. If you take one thing away: buy the one you can picture using this week, not the one you are saving for later.