Waterproof clothing

benhben

Can anyone recommend a decent lightweight waterproof jacket that won't break the bank. Needs to be breathable and suitable for my other sports of football and running.

Any ideas?

Cheers.

aripallaris

waterproof and breathable dont go hand in hand matey. usually if its breathable it will let water in. ive just purchased the altura pocket rocket. packs to a tiny size. worn it during heavy rain and its kept my uppers completely dry. open the zip slightly to ventilate if required!

cougie

Yep - can't have breathable and waterproof.

MrChuck

cougie wrote:

Yep - can't have breathable and waterproof.

You can, it's just how breathable it is.

Breathable waterproofs don't let any water through in any conditions anyone is ever going to encounter*. Apart from at the big holes for your head and arms of course.

*With the possible exception of things like Paramo.

Monty Dog

Try Probikekit Polaris Neutron - the regular Polaris one sells for £100, so it's a relative bargain at £55 - C+ gave it a good review a while back. Don't expect not to have condensation with any waterproof - regardless of how breathable they claim - when working hard you simply belt out too much sweat for anything to cope - top of the range GoreTex included.

Alinshearah

maybe the best breathable material in eVent. Far better than the current Gore=tex, though I have heard good things about the new Gore-tex Active shell material that is being released latter this year

benhben

Cant have breathable waterproof clothing?

The hiking and outdoor shops are full of breathable waterproof coats. I even have a pair of breathable fishing waders which are designed to be worn in water.

Unless you meant you cant have breathable waterproof and lightweight all at the same time?

danowat

I have a breathable eVent DHB jacket, seen me through all last winter, and a 200km Audax in the pouring rain.

Its not TOTALLY waterproof, on the audax I found my arms got wet, but it was cheap, and normally keeps me warm and dry, and not too sweaty.

rogerthecat

Hardshell: Better at keeping the Water out however you will heat up alot.

SoftShell: Better breathability no so good at keeping the water out.



Endura Helium This keeps the water out 8 hours on the last Magnificat rained from start to finish upper body did not let water in this is a summer rain Jacket IMO, race fit.



Gore Phantom You can get it at a better price than Halfords however dross IT at work, not too bad, generous fit, rain roles off you will get wet after about 3 hours depending on how heavy the rain is, better for winter riding oh and comes in other colours rather than a black jacket for winter, (not a cleaver idea).

So far as other sports, beats me never even thought about using my cycling kit for anthing other than cycling.

daviesee

benhben wrote:

Cant have breathable waterproof clothing?

The hiking and outdoor shops are full of breathable waterproof coats. I even have a pair of breathable fishing waders which are designed to be worn in water.

Unless you meant you cant have breathable waterproof and lightweight all at the same time?

Walkers don't tend to put in as much effort as cyclists and therefore likely to sweat less and not notice as much.

What manufacturers claim and the reality are quite often different.

Water resistant and breathable is achievable but expensive. Generally more waterproof = less breathable but expensive ones may hold out the water for longer. Even then the resistance wears out and I have had no joy using Nikwax to re-treat my previous jacket to it's former performance. It is now a windproof/shower resistant jacket. In rain I get wet in it.
My latest jacket is a Gore which was cheaper appears to be as waterproof (when new) but less breathable. Time will tell if it retains it's proofing.

Cycloslalomeur

It's all relative but no waterproof or even reasonably showerproof piece of clothing deserves to be called breathable. They're all plastic bags with tiny holes in them. A cyclist will get wet either from the outside or from the inside. I find that the latter makes me much more miserable than the former does.

Phil_D

benhben wrote:

Can anyone recommend a decent lightweight waterproof jacket that won't break the bank. Needs to be breathable and suitable for my other sports of football and running.

Any ideas?

Cheers.

I looked into this with some effort not too long ago. The conclusion I came to is that unless you are prepared to spend mega bucks, you will go one of two ways. You will either get wet from the outside or wet from the inside. Wet from the inside is also accompanied by lots of heat and discomfort, followed by a grotty feeling when you arrive at your destination iof you cannot have a shower there. Wet from the outside keeps you cool, it feels refreshimg, and if it stops raining while you are cycling doesn't take too long to dry out. If it doesn't stop then you can only get so wet before you stop getting wetter.

On cold days I go for getting wet from the inside, on warm days I let the rain get me wet.

MrChuck

danowat wrote:

I have a breathable eVent DHB jacket, seen me through all last winter, and a 200km Audax in the pouring rain.

Its not TOTALLY waterproof, on the audax I found my arms got wet, but it was cheap, and normally keeps me warm and dry, and not too sweaty.

It's very likely just as waterproof as the day you bought it- there probably isn't any water coming through the fabric. But what does get worse is the breathability- as the water repellant coating on the outer fabric wears, the outer gets saturated much more easily and breathability takes a dive. Often this makes it feel like it's leaking.

But even at peak performance for something like eVent you can still get plenty of mositure building up on the inside as you work, and that's before it comes in at the neck and gets wicked up the sleeves.

alfablue

At least with Gore if and when it does leak they will replace it (had this done several times). "Reproofing" with spray on / wash in products like Nikwax or Grangers won't restore waterproofing of a leaking garment, what they will do, and to which MrChuck alludes, is to restore the water-repellant coating (called DWR) that makes water bead up and run off, without this you get wet inside because breathability is impaired.

If you have a genuinely leaking Gore product they replace with no quibbles, whereas I could find no similar guarantees from any other fabric manufacturer, including eVent (which is very good apart from this issue).

daviesee

alfablue wrote:

At least with Gore if and when it does leak they will replace it (had this done several times). "Reproofing" with spray on / wash in products like Nikwax or Grangers won't restore waterproofing of a leaking garment, what they will do, and to which MrChuck alludes, is to restore the water-repellant coating (called DWR) that makes water bead up and run off, without this you get wet inside because breathability is impaired.

If you have a genuinely leaking Gore product they replace with no quibbles, whereas I could find no similar guarantees from any other fabric manufacturer, including eVent (which is very good apart from this issue).

Which is exactly why I went for Gore.

keef66

The very first Goretex was incredibly breathable and 100% waterproof. trouble was, the membrane was too susceptible to becoming compromised by dirt and oil from the inside, at which point it started leaking.

I had leaky Berghaus mountain jackets replaced twice without quibble.

As I understand it, to protect the membrane they resorted to covering it in tiny dots of pu (polyurethane) on the inner face which improved it's resistance to dirt no end, but buggered up the breathability.

On the bike I prefer a breathable Pertex top which is windproof-ish and showerproof-ish, and keeps me at about the right temperature. If it really pi$$es it down I get soaked and have a hot shower when I get in

For day long walking / climbing getting soaked to the skin isn't really an option so I opt for Goretex and unzip everything at every opportunity.

alfablue

keef66 wrote:

As I understand it, to protect the membrane they resorted to covering it in tiny dots of pvc on the inner face which improved it's resistance to dirt no end, but buggered up the breathability.

The dots was what the first Paclite fabric had, being a single layer approach (other Gore-Tex fabrics have linings and are heavier but probably more durable). The current Paclite (the third version I think) doesn't use the dots, it has some sort of very fine (almost invisible) mesh bonded on the inside instead.

Carlm90

Big thumbs up for Gore Phantom II. I used this in heavy rain the other day, seriously heavy rain.

Although it does not claim to be waterproof, it stopped my t-shirt underneath becoming completely soaked. I'm sure a little bit of rain constantly would not be a problem for it. I bought mine for £79.99 from Evans Cycles after price matching online

keef66

Ooh, I love all that techno babble type stuff. Trouble is, I'm always afraid to buy something in case a better version is just round the corner!

Slack

My take on this is reinforcing what has already been said. You will not stay bone dry whatever you do.

The most important thing to me is warmth - I don't care if I get wet, as long as I stay warm. Warm means comfort which means better quality ride. Therefore, in spring/summer/autumn I ride with a windproof jacket, just to keep the windchill off my damp body.

MichaelW

I have an old gortex cycling jacket from US own-label brand nashbar. It has underarm pit-zips, a poppered zip flap so you can be showerproof without having the zip sealed, and it has a large vent at the back where the shoulder panel meets the back panel.

No matter what the material, for athletic use you really need all this venting.
The current "best material" is probably Event (or eVent??) but the multi-activity jackets from various manufacturers lack any vents at all.

I think the new generation of water-resistant soft-shell jackets may be better.

I use a 9yr year old Paramo jacket in winter. The temp cutoff for overheating an issue, I wear mine below 16C, most people find it too warm at that temp. Once the temp falls, Paramo is much better than membrane waterproofs. Any dampness on the inside soon dries out and it is simply more comfortable. I have ridden 8hr days in torrential rain then dried out in a small tent at night.

The performance of membrane jackets depends on the water-repellant coating. During magazine reviews, this holds up well but after a season or 2 of hard daily use, it fails and the fabric soaks up water, losing breathability, gaining weight and taking ages to dry.

millereski

You may be best wearing a wicking material top underneath, something with a bit of thermoregualtion. And there is definitely a trade off between waterproof and breathability. I have an Aether jacket which is highly waterproof and seems to be Ok for breathability but this comes in around £240. You may want to look at a showerproof as opposed to a waterproof if you desire a greater amount of breathability!!

thegreatdivide

The new Castelli Gabba range looks interesting

http://road.cc/content/news/38797-tour- ... roof-video

I just hope they do a long sleeve in red

Sammyw23

it looks awesome if you don't mind the price - I saw a US website suggesting the RRP will be $285 for the black short sleeved version!!