My faithful old winter jacket has been in service for a good few years now and I suspect probably isn’t up to another winter of cold & rainy commuting - especially as I’ll be moving out of London & commuting in from near the M25 at the end of the year.
Was looking for something with a bit of hi-vis/reflective (I usually ride in a hi-vis vest in winter but it’s a bit unwieldy so I’d rather ditch it for a shiny jacket) and obviously it needs to be waterproof, not looking to spend Rukka money as the house move is likely to be draining funds as it is.
I had my eye on these 2 but can’t find any reviews - anybody got experience of either of them:
had one a while ago, really robust well made gear, and very good value. completely waterproof too, and very warm. there are less wanky colour options I think
I know this i not exactly what your asking for, but…!
I have this jacket and matching trousers in the light colours. The inner jacket is very good, keeps you warm and is waterproof. In proper winter time, you maybe need something warm under it.
i had a paragon 2, wich was brilliant, but the new one has vents that i dont trust (big ones down the front, not waterproof zips), so it didn’t get replaced with another (as i wanted a waterproog jacket)
Might be worth looking for used Rukka on ebay as their gear is the business. Everyone who has it harps on about it even after the 3rd time you tell them to shut up. I had an Evolution Motorsport jacket and trousers for the first 3 years of my biking career. I slid down the road in these no problem. They are a Dutch brand and are pretty good. http://www.evolutionmotorsport.com/en/home
I wouldn’t recommend Frank Thomas. I had a 2nd hand set of theirs which was 100% synthetic and at anything above -2 degrees my skin objected to it.
I’d also second the idea of second hand Rukka gear. Recently picked up a damned good jacket cheap. Bit old, but still in very good nick. Just beware of items that have faded to purple (should have been replaced under warranty, but weren’t) and the mesh armour breaking apart. That said, replacement armour is easily available fairly cheap, and the Forcefield 009 insert fits Rukka gear grand if you want to upgrade the back to level 2 (about £50 ish). I just slapped the jacket (sans armour) through the washing machine with some Nikwax Tech Wash/Softshell stuff (just remember to rinse all bio-powder out the machine first), looks almost new now and perfectly waterproof. Struggled to find any matching trousers in my size (super skinny) however.
Got myself some Alpinestars Drystars cheap, £100, brand new still with tags. Which I thought wasn’t bad. However these don’t seem to pop up much on ebay second hand. Just arrived, so not tried them out yet. Look decent and fit well though.
The other brands I was watching out for were BMW Streetguard gear, trousers at least, as the BMW logo is fairly discreet. And old Hein Gericke Gore-tex gear. Even their cheaper Sheltex stuff isn’t too bad, had one of their jackets, perfectly waterproof and warm, but zip bust on it. Though rain did eventually run down my arms and wick through seam at sleeve.
Otherwise, there has been a few Klim Adventure Rally items popping up recently, which look decent and on par with Rukka gear. Still went for a lot of dough though.
Another consideration is the Bering Goretex Jackets, they only started doing some Goretex stuff around 6 years ago, i had one of the jackets which was superb, warm and fully waterproof.
The only problem I found with high viz textiles was after a month they are covered in so much crap you have to wash the life out of them to get them half descent again
The best thing I found was a traffic cop high viz jacket it’s both waterproof cheap and washes well and as added bonus its gortex
I’m lucky Mrs wise gets mine for me
I have rst protec something textiles and they hold up well for the money you pay and this year I have a proviz vest and small rucksack they both wash up well
I’d forgotten all about this thread, I popped into J&S Stockwell on Friday while I was getting my MOT done and tried on a few jackets - ended up with an IXS Calgary goretex jacket with leather bits on the elbows etc. Cost a bit more than I was intending to spend but with a longer journey (especially in this weather) I figured I’d treat myself.
I actually already have one of the police goretext hi-viz overjackets but I find it a bit of a faff putting 2 jackets on - it’ll stay in the topbox when I’m wearing the leather jacket in case I get caught by the rain. I got a proper bike hi-viz vest to go over my new jacket - it’s elasticated and has a zip up front so it doesn’t flap in the wind and it’s no hassle to just do up the extra zip.
Was very glad of the new jacket this morning when I came out to find the bike covered in a thick blanket of frost and the saddle frozen solid.
