Rapha rain jacket......

Richard1972

Forgive me for peering too closely beneath the halo which bathes this venerable brand in its golden glow of goodness, but after its first mild stress-test today, I have to warn you that this item is a cruel and ruinously expensive joke.

Within probably 5 minutes of moderate rain - perhaps slightly more - it had absolutely thrown in the (no pun intended) towel, and I was utterly drenched. I can only deduce that the Cycling Plus testers were using some magical form of water which isn't actually wet, (or had recently received a bursting-at-the-seams brown envelope from the good people of Rapha.....)

Don't get me wrong, it looked great in the mirror in my hallway. Which is convenient, as that's where it will be staying.

Caveat emptor.......

Garry H

Sounds faulty to me. Send it back.

Anonymous

+1

I have the stowaway and it works a treat!

cougie

I have an older stowaway - it lasts better than that.

Mark Alexander

let them know. £200+ is too much for a light jacket for the cold. I get the impression that they're usually quite good about these things.

Monty Dog

Face facts, Rapha are a marketing company that sub-contracts out to the lowest-cost supplier, regardless of prices tag - hence the inconsistent quality. If you want a decent and cheaper waterproof, buy Gore, at least they have the nouse to ask suppliers to test products and provide some sort of guarantee that it'll be waterproof.

cougie

Must admit - the quality on my rapha items has been great- but I've always bought them in their seconds sales and saved a fortune.

I'd be surprised if Rapha let anyone - irrespective of quality - make their kit - if their reputation suffers - they die. Like Ratners.

Chip \'oyler

Monty Dog wrote:

Face facts, Rapha are a marketing company that sub-contracts out to the lowest-cost supplier, regardless of prices tag - hence the inconsistent quality. If you want a decent and cheaper waterproof, buy Gore, at least they have the nouse to ask suppliers to test products and provide some sort of guarantee that it'll be waterproof.

You know that for a fact do you?

I know you're talking bollox - for a start the guys that set up didn't work in marketing, they worked at a branding company. So you should have said that 'Rapha are a branding company'. Which then opens up a whole new argument. Because Gore, Assos etc are all 'brands'. And the worse thing for a 'premium', 'aspirational' brand is for their products to be substandard. So I suspect that the OPs jacket is indeed faulty, or else he sweats like a pig, resulting in him feeling 'wet'.

Garry H

Good points made above. Making something that's waterproof is easy-peasy, the difficulty lies in also making it permaeable, ie making it so that vapour can escape from the inside out. So, like the above poster said, unless you sweat like a pig, or had it undone at the front it's faulty. I'm sure you will have no problem in getting a replacement. Let us all know if you do though...

Richard1972

I'm struggling to see believe that it's a fundamentally sound design which has been compromised by a one-off fault in manufacturing. The fabric is basically the same as you would find in any Millett's cagoule, and the margin Rapha are taking must be absolutely eye-watering.

I bought on reputation (plus a review which - sorry Cycling Plus - doesn't seem to have been worth the paper it was printed on), but the bottom line is that if you want functional performance kit which will come through for you when you need it then you're hardly going to go to Gok Wan!

Lesson learned. Never again.

cougie

Running their Rapha bike team isnt going to be cheap is it ? Nor will their stylish photoshoots that show little of the product but lots of the 'lifestyle'.

As i say - I've found Rapha to be nice kit, but I also wear some aldi kit too.

Anonymous

So you aren't bothering to take it back then and would rather just whinge?

Stellite

Ive always found Rapha stuff good. Give them a bell tomorrow and get it sorted out,
Sounds like the DWR isnt working.

If you dont get an exchange or refund, give it a wash in some Grangers or Nikwax and it will reproof it again.

Richard1972

Interesting definition of 'whinge'......would that perchance translate as 'criticism you disagree with'?

No, I wrote to them today to ask them to explain on what basis they felt that this design could possibly repel water. The fabric is massively porous and incredibly thin, although in their defence they have left the descriptive door wide open on their website by simply describing it as 'water resistent'.

Anonymous

Richard1972 wrote:

Interesting definition of 'whinge'......would that perchance translate as 'criticism you disagree with'?

No, I wrote to them today to ask them to explain on what basis they felt that this design could possibly repel water. The fabric is massively porous and incredibly thin, although in their defence they have left the descriptive door wide open on their website by simply describing it as 'water resistent'.

Whinge as in the fact that you have stated in pompous language how you feel that the product is poor yet haven't you taken it back to try another or to get your money back...

You want water proof? Buy something that describes itself as such.

My crepe paper thin stowaway works fine so it is highly likely you were caught in a bout of very very heavy rain or the product is faulty.

Richard1972

Mate, you're from Cheshire - Jordan probably sounds pompous to you.

APIII

Richard1972 wrote:

Interesting definition of 'whinge'......would that perchance translate as 'criticism you disagree with'?

No, I wrote to them today to ask them to explain on what basis they felt that this design could possibly repel water. The fabric is massively porous and incredibly thin, although in their defence they have left the descriptive door wide open on their website by simply describing it as 'water resistent'.

I have to ask why? Why bother writing to them I mean, just send the thing back.

Richard1972

It was free......

Anonymous

Richard1972 wrote:

Mate, you're from Cheshire - Jordan probably sounds pompous to you.

I live in Cheshire. I'm not from there.

Chip \'oyler

Richard1972 wrote:

I'm struggling to see believe that it's a fundamentally sound design which has been compromised by a one-off fault in manufacturing. The fabric is basically the same as you would find in any Millett's cagoule, and the margin Rapha are taking must be absolutely eye-watering.

I bought on reputation (plus a review which - sorry Cycling Plus - doesn't seem to have been worth the paper it was printed on), but the bottom line is that if you want functional performance kit which will come through for you when you need it then you're hardly going to go to Gok Wan!

Lesson learned. Never again.

Well buy a Millets kagoule then :roll:

Anonymous

Richard1972 wrote:

Mate, you're from Cheshire - Jordan probably sounds pompous to you.

I live in Cheshire. I'm not from there.

Even if you got the thing free, send it back, it may be a dodgy batch they don't know about...

Chip \'oyler

Richard1972 wrote:

It was free......

Fook me.

It was free and you're fookin moaning. Are you a wind up merchant?

Richard1972

The fact that it was free to me isn't really the problem - what frustrates me is that there will be people out there willing to sacrifice a stack of money which they could better spend on something else, who will end up feeling totally let down. If just one person chooses something different on the basis of this thread then it will have been worthwhile.

I think it's bad for cycling in general when someone brings something to market which is badly manufactured and demonstrably unfit for purpose - which is supposed to allow us to enjoy riding more, but actually does the opposite.

Garry H

Stellite wrote:

Ive always found Rapha stuff good. Give them a bell tomorrow and get it sorted out,
Sounds like the DWR isnt working.

If you dont get an exchange or refund, give it a wash in some Grangers or Nikwax and it will reproof it again.

DWR and "waterproof" are not the same thing. DWR is a coating that repels water, but once it saturates it will stop working, it will also wear away over time, but can be re-applied/re-"activated". A "waterproof" shell (Like Gore Tex, or eVent) contains a membrane that water cannot pass through, but vapour from the inside can pass to the outside (if you believe the hype). Most will also have a DWR coating, that is also supposed to aid permeability by stopping the build up of water on the surface. I would not expect a jacket that is only described as "water repellent" to keep working in heavy rain.

There you go. Anything else, just ask, I'm a bit of an anorak anorak

Richard1972

Cheers - am going to order a Gore Xenon Race 2 and see if that works any better.....

Anonymous

You want waterproof?

You'll sweat and be wet underneath anyway.

As long as I'm a comfortable temperature I'm not bothered...

cougie

Who gives away Rapha jackets for free ??

Sure beats Wiggle giving you the odd bag of Haribo.

rokkala

I'll give you a fiver for it

onthefells

not sure I believe a word Richard says

I quote....'I bought on reputation',,,,then a post later....'it was free'....so which was it??????

gabriel959

Richard1972 wrote:

Cheers - am going to order a Gore Xenon Race 2 and see if that works any better.....

I am not a Rapha fan myself, I think they are overpriced in my opinion, good quality but undeserving cost but and this is a big but ... why don't you wait until you get the replacement? It looks to me that you have got a faulty item and I reckon it is worth giving it a second chance.

Personally I wouldn't buy Rapha, they sell onto that kind of people that want exclusivity.

Richard1972

I know, and I'm happy to come back as an exhausted, soaked mess, I just don't want to be like that by the time I reach the end of my road.

As an ex-rower I know that it's a tough balance to strike and that we (hopefully) don't choose our sports based on their comfort levels. I don't expect Rapha / my bike / my legs / or anything else to be 100% perfect all the time, but I felt that this particular instance needed pointing out.