With conditions hovering around 5\u00b0C in a consistent gloomy murk of pelting rain, this was the perfect opportunity to give the jacket another go and see if my findings stood up to the scrutinous eye of an older, if not wiser, me.<\/p>\n
Fully defrosted from this memorably stupid ride<\/a>, I stand by my original findings, and revisiting this jacket has, once again, hammered home an important lesson about how we should choose our kit.\u00a0<\/p>\n The siren song of specialism Lest you accuse me of being a wilting Zwift wuss made of sugar<\/a>, I\u2019ll defensively stress from the off that I\u2019m a keen winter rider<\/a>, and have enjoyed (I think?) many rides in bleak weather in the intervening years.\u00a0<\/p>\n But the specific conditions required for this jacket to be practical are found so infrequently here in the south west of England that I have always shunned it.<\/p>\n Still, while cresting a gentle hump on a dank Welsh hillside, as my overshoes<\/a> filled with icy water, but my core remained cosy and dry, there was nothing I would rather have been wearing.<\/p>\n The jacket\u2019s impermeable ShakeDry face fabric, cosy insulation, head-hugging hood and weather-beating zips seal you fully from the elements to a level that remains unmatched \u2013 in the right conditions, there’s no questioning that this is a great piece of kit.<\/p>\n But it speaks volumes that it has taken almost six years for me to find another compelling reason to wear it.<\/p>\n Some of that is unquestionably personal. I have lost count of the times I\u2019ve referred to myself as a sweaty Scotsman on this website \u2013 even moderate efforts in insulated or waterproof jackets<\/a> see my oxters guffing profusely.<\/p>\n More broadly, I stand by the conclusion of my original review \u2013 while the promises of specialist kit might tempt our basest urge for adventure, we should remain canny to their hydrophobic siren song.\u00a0<\/p>\n To quote the naff passage stitched to its lining, you don’t need this jacket to tackle “the clouds\u2026 poisoned with a green hue” or “dime-sized hail”.<\/p>\n That\u2019s because very few of us find ourselves riding frequently in conditions that warrant buying something so narrow in focus \u2013 and more to the point, do you really want, or need, to ride in such weather?\u00a0<\/p>\n Test, note, repeat If you do \u2013 and I count myself among this number \u2013 a wardrobe of well-selected layers will do the job just as well for a similar, or the same, price as something as specialist as this slightly daft Rapha jacket.\u00a0<\/p>\n A dependable, solid foundation of winter cycling kit<\/a> is far more useful for almost all riding than garb designed for fringe conditions.\u00a0<\/p>\n In my case, I\u2019ve settled on wearing the following essentials for the past few winter seasons for almost all rides:\u00a0<\/p>\n A lightweight mesh long-sleeve baselayer<\/a> You\u2019d be hard-pressed to buy all of that for the same price as the modern-day equivalent of the jacket I tested (RRP \u00a3330) from Rapha.\u00a0<\/p>\n But canny shopping in the sales, or from more affordable brands, would net you a similar combo that is far more versatile than a single specialist jacket.\u00a0<\/p>\n Indeed, I\u2019ve ridden comfortably in various combinations of the above in conditions ranging from around freezing up to about 10\u00b0C \u2013 a far wider spectrum than a single, specialist item could ever achieve.<\/p>\n Establishing the magic formula for those specific conditions requires a little trial and error. I would strongly encourage anyone who frequently finds themselves too hot or too cold to make notes after rides, outlining what worked and what didn\u2019t about a particular outfit.<\/p>\n That sounds ridiculous, but committing these things to paper helps ingrain them in your psyche, so when you look out of the window while running late for a ride with your friends, you don\u2019t panic into the wrong choice.<\/p>\n So the next time you consider buying new kit \u2013 for any season \u2013 that promises to fix the ails of old, consider whether you\u2019ve been hooked by a solution in search of a problem. <\/p>\n There will always be riders who benefit from kit designed for the extremes, but for most of us, I can almost certainly guarantee that what you have already will do just as good a job.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In 2020, I awarded the Rapha Pro Team Insulated Gore-Tex jacket three stars out of five, praising its…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":463059,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[445],"tags":[49,48,635,82],"class_list":["post-463058","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-cycling","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/463058","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=463058"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/463058\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/463059"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=463058"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=463058"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=463058"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n![\"Rapha](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Rapha-jacket-reflections-scaled.jpg\")
Roaming in the gloaming, ensconced in a ShakeDry safety blanket. Felix Smith \/ Our Media<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Rapha-Gore-Tex-jackets-1-48388ed.jpg\")
Do you look at this jacket and dream of adventure? Then the marketing is working \u2013 resist!<\/p>\n
\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Rapha-jacket-hood.jpg\")
My reaction when you tell me you’re buying a \u00a3320 specialist jacket rather than a sensible foundation of winter basics. Jack Luke \/ Our Media<\/p>\n
\nMid-weight fleece-backed jersey<\/a>, or a windproof insulated jersey, depending on conditions
\nAnd a windproof gilet<\/a> or waterproof jacket \u2013 again, depending on conditions<\/p>\n![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/lusso-31_15d43179-d145-4518-8388-e7f63c429952.jpg\")
To pick one, affordable example, something such as the Lusso Paragon Micro-Fleece jersey, paired with a waterproof layer, will do 90% of the work of a specialist, insulated waterproof. The same applies to other niche kit.<\/p>\n