MP3-playing cycling shorts from Pearl Izumi - a snip at $500

by Bob Crabtree on 26 February 2007, 16:32

Apple, Sony and all the others competing to sell clip-on, strap-on and pocketable music players will be quaking in their boots when they hear about the Vertex MP3 Bib Shorts from Pearl Izumi - a company that reckons it's "defined the standards for performance apparel for over 50 years".

The cycling shorts - a snip at just US$500 - have an integrated Bluetooth-compatible player that appears to be controlled by scratching around somewhere sou'sou'west of the nadgers.

Quoted specs are:

* Integrated MP3 player
* Blue tooth compatible
* 16 hours of storage for Mp3 encoded files
* MicroSensor fabric with MicroSensor mesh bib upper
* Direct-Vent rear panel provides ventilation under jersey pockets
* 3D Pro Stretch Chamois with 10mm contoured pad protection
* Ergonomic panel design
* Comfortable Pearl Izumi spandex leg grippers
* 9¼-inch inseam

Oh, and if the price is likely to make you fall off your bike, the fall may be broken slightly by the knowledge that $100 of the $500 ticket will go to the Davis Phinney Foundation , set up to help sufferers of Parkinson's disease.

Our David Ross is probably the only one of us who could fit into them (or would want to) - though even that thought is unsettling to the stomach - but are they just what you want or need?

Tell us about this and other strange desires over in the HEXUS.community.