calling all tights wearers

The only "tights" I wear are poly long johns under hiking pants OR, when XC skiing, Lycra tights over long johns.
If I'm hiking in very cold weather (10F or lower) I will wear Lycra biking knee length shorts or cut-off long johns under my long johns to keep my femoral artery area warmer. This does make a difference that still amazes me – just as wearing two thin poly sox liners under my regular sox does. These are little tricks you pick up from others' over the years.

That said, I still prefer to see (most) women in tights.
Kinda inspires one to keep up with them on the trail.

good idea using the cutoffs to warm your upper legs. i'm talking primarily about those thru-hikers that seem to wear either tights or shorts or tights under their shorts. seems like the ligthest weight setup you could have but i wonder how practical it is from a comfort standpoint.

>"That said, I still prefer to see (most) women in tights.
Kinda inspires one to keep up with them on the trail."

i'm with you on this. i set a personal best in a half-marathon a couple of months ago using this very technique.

In most three season conditions I wear pants.
My winter conditions tight setup includes: -baselayer bottoms usually smartwool, shorts of a generous cut with thick non mesh material such as the top portion of those zip off leg type pants -and a pair of supa fat winter gaiters like MH ascent ventigaiters. I should however note that I have switched to the even cheaper MH nutshell ventigaiter in order to avoid the heavy duty strap on the ascent in favor of the cord strap on the nutshell. I have used this setup extensivly in winter conditions with great success. More specifically I used this setup in the southern appalachians and experienced great results in a variety of cold weather conditions. This setup provided amazing breathability and was adaptable to virtually all conditions including supa good ones and supa bad ones. Note that in supa cold I would don a frogg togg overalls over the whole business and in this setup you could move in the worst weather if you chose. The best part is that this style rig will set you back less scratch than a pair of gortex pants in most cases and maybe far less if you are a dirtbagging bargain hunter like me. The durability will be pretty good too. Gaiter cord straps will go every now and again which is no big deal. And you won't cry if you burn a hole in your toggers or rip em a litte. I use gear hard and the toggers held me over 80 days in the field before I retired them.

Last summer, I was on the PCT for about a 100 miles, and on the first day saw a dude with bike shorts and sort of laughted to myself, on the last day, I was wishing I had worn them. The inner aspect of my thighs were chaffed pretty bad and it was uncomfortable to walk.

I wear zip-offs (REI Sahara) and rarely bring the zip-off legs. Under those I wear Underarmor Heat Gear compression shorts (in late spring/early fall) or Mountain Hardwear Hyperdry tights (cooler weather). If temps are going to be consistanly cold, I'll bring the zip-off legs for the pants. For me this solves both chafing and temp regulation issues. Both the Underarmor and MH baselayers have very low profile seams and stitching around this waist which make them comfortable under a pack belt. Your running tights might not fit the same in this area, so I'd consider that.