Jacket; the Holy Grail

[David Martin]

I've just ordered a Night Vision Evo frmo Cycle Express. £75 price tag and reduced further by their 10% discount on orders over £50. I paid £67.49. I'm not a great fan of hi-viz for normal being seen after dark use - that's why I have an array of very bright lights -  but I do want other road users to be able to see my signals because they are very elegantly executed.

I have just returned mine to the LBS. It has welded seams and the one on the breast pocket came unwelded, depositing mobile phone etc into the hem of the jacket.

Also their zips are crap.

..d

[David Martin]

The simplest solution is to remmeber that if you are looking for a jacket that

a) keeps you dry

b) is breathable
 
c) whilst you are exerting yourself

then you are on to a loser.

You will get wet. The trick is to be warm and wet. Or slow. Very slow.

..d

[Biggsy]

Have you looked at Carradice rainwear?
no one seems to have mentioned us!

I see ponchos and capes on the Carradice website, but no jackets.

[Chris N]

The simplest solution is to remmeber that if you are looking for a jacket that

a) keeps you dry

b) is breathable
 
c) whilst you are exerting yourself

then you are on to a loser.

You will get wet. The trick is to be warm and wet. Or slow. Very slow.

..d

Not strictly true.  You can have all three, but you need to pay for it.

[andrew_s]

No you can't, or at least I can't.

If it's windproof, I get sweaty faster than anything can breathe it out. I get wet in unproofed pertex and in  polycotton not much more substantial than an office shirt.

[mattc]

I know some of the manufacturers publish very precise figures for water-resistance and vapour transmission rates.

Can we settle this using those figures? Can we work out if the Most Breathable fabrics can actually shift the moisture created by Cyril Cyclist?

[Can't decide which result I want to see:
- if money CAN buy happiness, well I don't mind paying $$$ for something I _know_ will work. But
- if cheap breathables are just as good, I can just carry on regardless!
]

[Greenbank]

No cheap jacket I've bought/used has performed anywhere near as well as my Gore Alp-X.

It's not perfect but it's good enough that I wore it continuously throughout the Bryan Chapman 600 last year which went from a chilly 6am start, sideways rain and 30kph wind in the Brecons, sunshine in Barmouth, chilly evening ride over Pen-Y-Pass to Menai and back to Dolgellau, morning hail over Cross Foxes, sunshine to Aberhafesp, afternoon drizzle to Knighton, sunshine in Weobley and to Monmouth and then downpour to the finish. I overtook plenty of people doing the "Goretex¹ Dance" (faster people stopping to remove waterproofs, overtaking me, and then stopping again 5 minutes later to put them back on, off, on, off, on, etc).

It's not just about the jacket, it's also about the choice of base layers and jerseys you're wearing underneath it. I sweat like a very sweaty thing (even without a jacket on) so I don't expect a jacket to magically stop me sweating, but it's good enough that I can ride for 40+ hours in the same jacket in temps from 0^oC to 15^oC and not feel uncomfortable enough to want to remove it.

I also use the 'chilly for the first 10 minutes' maxim to try and make sure I'm not overdressed. If you're warm enough without your jacket on then you're going to be too warm if you stop to put it on and don't remove one of your layers.

I won't guarantee that an Alp-X will work for anyone else, I seem to be less 'sensitive' than others, but I'm happy that it works for me.

1. Not specific to Goretex, it could be called the "Waterproof dance", I just heard it first as "Goretex dance"

[mattc]

I won't guarantee that an Alp-X will work for anyone else, I seem to be less 'sensitive' than others, but I'm happy that it works for me.

Well quite ...

Oh, and thanks for derailing my appeal for science with such an epic anecdote

[thing1]

It's not just about the jacket, it's also about the choice of base layers and jerseys you're wearing underneath it.

Yes, totally. On Saturday for the KVR I went for similar combo: marino base layer, marino arm warmers, short sleeve jersey, goretex jacket. Didn't need change it at all, except loose the arm warmers for the last stage. I would have kept the jacket on at controls too, except for some ingrained aversion to eating with my coat on.
The jersey mid layer got pretty damp, but the marino base layer kept me plenty warm and dry enough that no Gortex dance needed. Wicking that works^TM.

(I guess the temp varied from 3 - 8 degrees, and rained pretty consistently all day.)

[mattc]

... but wool (merino et al) doesn't dry quickly at all. Just the opposite.

Which just shows that most of this stuff is in the head!

[thing1]

... but wool (merino et al) doesn't dry quickly at all. Just the opposite.

Which just shows that most of this stuff is in the head!

But but but I said that I was kept dry enough, not it. Presumably marino's ability to absorb (and so convey) water could actually help in this?

(And by dry 'enough' I really mean no uncomfortable streams of sweat running down the back, like what I get when I has poly's ester next to my skins. Or was that the stuff that was in my head?  )

[simonp]

I don't think Merino works by being dry, it works by not feeling wet and by keeping you warm even when it's wet.

[Wendy]

Isn't merino just nice and warm whilst it is wet?