As you’ll all know by now, I’m a bit of a Lusso fan boy, I’m lucky enough to be an ambassador but I still have to buy my kit and other than a bit of discount I don't get any kickbacks for getting your guys to buy their stuff, I recommend and wear their kit because it's good quality and it's good value and i'd recommend in the same way as I wear or recommend other brands when they do something better than Lusso. I was hoping to curb my bike kit purchases this year but recently turning 41 and having been given some Lusso vouchers for my birthday (in lieu of presents for my big 40th last year) I took a gamble and bought two of the new Lusso Rivington Jackets. A gamble because i'd not heard much about the jacket, and my riding doesn't shy away from riding in some pretty grim/tough UK conditions on and off road, so I want to be comfortable riding it has to do it's job well. There are a couple of reasons why I went for the new jacket instead of the more expensive Aqua Pro Extreme, firstly I wanted something brighter (brighter than Orange???) and more jersey styled in my cycling wardrobe, and secondly I’m not letting COVID lockdowns get in the way of my out door riding so wanted something for the conditions, I wasn't able to ride as much as I wanted to last year for obvious reasons. So with the various teases @Lussobike had been posting I couldn’t wait for release and pestered them until.... ping it was put online, and I bought one in each colour, luckily I picked up the phone to Jake who guided me to the right size (you might need to size up as it’s an aero cut) But why am I bothering to write about this, well for me it’s the fact that Lusso are making progression in the right areas and I’ll explain why and talk you through my purchase, but spoiler alert, this is a super thin, extremely water resistant, warm jacket and at £140 I don’t think there is a jacket on the market that is better suited to cope with the unpredictable UK Spring/Autumn/Winter conditions. If that's enough for you head over to Lusso now pick one out in your size. TESTING So far since I received the jacket in Jan 2021 the weather has barely climbed above freezing, has often been raining and the one day it was sunny it didn’t get above 7c, and I’ve managed to ride all of those conditions, and the jacket has done nothing but surprise me in a positive way. THE COLD Sunrise at the Cat and Fiddle it dipped to -5c off the bike taking photos for far longer than I should have done (check out the sunrise though) layering wise it's bib tights, and good base layer and the jersey. It traps the heat incredibly well, so at that temperature, and having climbed a few hundred meters I’d generated that heat. The descent down into the Goyt valley was very slow but I was able to move enough keep that heat in. At those temperatures I’d say it’s the kind of jacket that you have to work to keep warm at those temperatures but is more than comfortable to ride in. I even accidentally ended up rolling in the snow at one point and whereas usually you might stay damp for a bit and fighting off the cold (think wet glove) I was bone dry underneath and just kept going. THE WARM(ISH) Sadly i've not been able to ride in anything warmer that 7c and have’t needed to open the vents that are built into each side, but I did do a pretty step hill climb in it that generated a bit of heat too (it peaked at a 37% gradient) if I had the stability to unzip the vents then I might well have done, but other than that one effort I didn’t really exert myself anywhere else so was one riding round the hills with everything zipped up. My experience of the vent though is they work really well, One of my early posts I used to ride in a Decathlon vented jacket when i first started riding again and when it got hot you could quickly shoot some cool air in the sides to drop your temp a bit and they work really well. The Aqua Repel V2 i find a bit restrictive in terms of breathability it can get damp inside and so I think the vent will really help from that perspective but only time will tell, just need the conditions to test it. THE RAIN Finally the rain and I think this is wear I tested it to my extreme, a night ride in the rain/hail with 15mph headwind at 3c so a bit cold a bit wet and for a lot of people conditions that they wouldn't usually ride in.I must admin that I actually thought as I was riding up towards the Cat and Fiddle again that some water might have been getting into the jacket as I developed a bit of a cold spot just above my sternum, but as soon as I turned out of the headwind it warmed up again, and soon forgot about it, but this was purely down to the fact that for 30mins I had been riding into driving rain and it was just really cold, but this is where it think the jacket really excels, I wasn't wet and once I was out of the chilly head wind that spot warmed up again it was just cold for a short period of time because I was riding into really pretty horrible conditions, you've got to cut it some slack. Had it needed to dry out I could have been carrying that cold spot round for the rest of the ride. I’d hazard a guess that during the 1 1/2 hour ride it was only the last 5-10mins heading home that were dry, usually in that instance when I get home I’d been carefully peeling off damp clothes leaving them by the door. In the space of those 10 minutes though the top half had me had completely, and I mean completely, dried out, base layer was bone dry and other than taking off the muddy boots I wasn't faffing around in the hallway trying not to drag my damp self through the kitchen. And I feel this is where it really differs from most other cycling jackets, I’ve always felt that most jackets repel water to a point, then it absorbs in the first layer and kind of warms up like a wetsuit, but never seeps through into the inside, but when you stop moving the wet layer gets cold quickly and you need to get going again to avoid getting uncomfortable. With the Rivington jacket it just runs off, to quote from the website. They call this Direct Venting™ technology, and unlike other technologies, it doesn't need to get wet to work. It’s a 'dry system' that allows eVent fabrics to be fully waterproof and fully breathable. Direct Venting™ technology is engineered to keep you in the ‘dry zone’ – a steady state of temperature and humidity that reduces the wild swings our bodies go through to stay in balance during physical exertion. The dry system also means that when you stop the wind isn’t able to cool down a wet layer on the outside so you’re not having to (or at least I found) to worry so much about cooling down rapidly. As mentioned I do feel that this is a jacket that you perhaps have to make work for you, by that I mean you need to generate some heat to trap inside first, it’s not a fleece lined jacket that feels like you’re being hugged when you first put it on, but once you’ve spend 5 mins getting going it works really well, and recently I cycled a leisurely 80km over 5 hours in snowy conditions and was comfortable all round so I'm not talking flat out head down efforts to get warm. My jackets have been through the wash a couple of times and are still working as expected, sadly for the time being at least all my other Lusso Jackets have been benched down to just how well the Rivington Jacket works. I really hope Lusso continue to develop kit in this fabric, the price point and style in my opinion makes these impossible to beat in value. The fit is described as a close aero fit so it doesn't blow or rattle around when you're going at pace, it is on the snug side i'm 6ft and 82kg and take an XL but when you're on the bar tops and have the tail pulled down everything sits nicely, but it is worth taking a look at the sizing to make sure you get the right fit.
Absolutely there are jackets out there that are cheaper and will offer decent waterproofing but if you’re heading out autumn through the spring in the UK you could throw this on and not have to worry about packing a separate rain coat or Gillet and you could easily pay double for Rapha or Castelli and end up with a jacket that isn't a patch on this one. To say i'm impressed with this would be an understatement and I have no doubt the Rivington Jacket will be topping the reviews before you know it and I can’t wait to see what else Lusso make using this tech. Go and head over to the Lusso website to take a look, a perk of being an ambassador is that I get a discount code that I can share that’ll get you 20% off at the check out so if you like what you’ve read then head on over and use Mike20 at the checkout.
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Mike GaskellI started commuting around May 2017, mainly to save the £45 a week train fare and get ready for the Dunwich Dynamo. Archives
August 2022
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