Hi there Alan. Thanks for your review. Appreciate the feedback. We'd be keen to get to the 'bottom' of the issues you're having. A softer thicker pad may give you more immediate comfort on the bike, but from our testing and experience, along with our customer feedback and product benchmarking a lighter pad will be better the more riding you do. We tend to update the chamois as technology moves on, the eXo premium pad we settled on after loads of testing and is standard in the market right now. Every now and then a chamois doesn't work for someone, it happens with any design. It sound like these shorts may just not work for you. It's worth trying them on their own, just in case it's wearing two pairs of padded shirts that's the issue, plus it's possible you may need a size up? If not then we'd be happy to concede defeat and you can return the shorts to us. Pedal on, Ernie