Hi!
In this blog I am going to...
- Tell you a short story about riding in the rain.
- Give you some sneaky tips about how to stay dry.
- Ask a favour.
This month we launched the new Singletrack Pant.
It has been designed to help you stay warm and dry while riding dirt this Autumn and Winter.
Which means that in order to shoot photos of it doing its thing, I need to be out in the worst, wettest, most miserable weather I can find.
Lovely.
Simon wears Klim. Michael wears Adventure Spec.
With the weather forecast looking particularly grim, myself, Michael and Simon headed out into the wilds of northern England to test the limits of our wet weather gear.
Michael was kitted out in the new Singletrack Pant and Aqua Pac Jacket, layered over protective knee armour on his legs and his CE AA Mongolia Jacket on top.
I wore the Singletrack Pant, CE AA Supershirt, Linesman Jacket and Aqua Pac Jacket.
Simon was wearing his Klim Badlands Pro Jacket and Pant, which was not ideal from an Adventure Spec media point of view, but actually was pretty handy to be able to compare how both sets of gear performed on the trails.
There should not be a river here!
We headed from Northumberland out into Teesdale and followed the TET up towards Alston in Cumbria. For those who haven't ridden this way, it's a mix of twisty roads over big desolate moorland, and steep rocky ascents. The route takes you up over the Pennines which make up the spine of England and provide firmer rockier ground rather than the wet boggy farmland that exists in lower plains.
By mid day what are normally loose rock strewn trails had turned into raging rivers. You really start to get an understanding of how wet weather shapes the British landscape on days like this.
Still smiling Michael.
To their credit, Michael and Simon were very patient as I kept jumping off the bike and directing them left and right to get the best rain soaked shots I could manage.
Conveying the amount of water involved on this day was not hard!
I suspect that had they actually been wet on the inside of their gear they may have not been so patient, but thankfully our waterproof riding gear was hard at work.
Aqua Pac Jacket and Singletrack Pant hard at work.
In all we were out for about 6 hours before we called it a day.
As you can see by the beading, Michael's lightweight Aqua Pac Jacket was still repelling water wonderfully. Its three layer laminate construction doing everything it could to provide a comfortable waterproof barrier against the rain.
Quick tip - regularly using Tech Wash and Re-Proofing agent is a great way to keep your jacket beading for its lifetime. Find out more here.
This was Michael's first outing in the Aqua Pac Jacket so when the rain really started hammering down I reminded him to cinch the neck opening tight to stop water from getting under his helmet and down the back of his neck.
"I wish you had told me about that an hour ago!" Was his response.
I have a 'thing' about getting shots low down on the ground which require me to literally crawl on the wet floor with my camera. I give my pants a pretty hard life, but the Singletrack Pant was up to the job. Its 500D fabric construction is much tougher than a light throw over wet weather pant and it's designed to be worn all day so you really get a sense of the durability when pushing it to its limits on days like this. Although it was wet all day, it wasn't that cold so I had the front vents open a fair bit, only closing them when I needed to make sure to keep the worsening weather out.
My Aqua Pac Jacket largely kept me dry, however I hold my wet hands up and admit I did make an error of judgement.
I had worn my Alpine Gloves which are not waterproof and eventually wet through, which was to be expected. The thumb loops on the end of the my Supershirt sleeves sit under my gloves so the water got through the gloves, onto my Supershirt and tracked back up my arms and into my Linesman Jacket over the course of the day. Lesson learned. A pair of waterproof gloves that sit over the cuffs of the Aqua Pac Jacket would have prevented this.
Do we make waterproof gloves? No.
Are we developing some? Yes.
Will they be available soon? I'm afraid not, we still have more work to do.
The Aqua Pac Jacket and Singletrack Pant have a hydrostatic head of above 28,000mm, which makes them highly water resistant. I'd say that by the time we got home after 6 hours of constant rain we were probably close to the limit of that 28,000mm.
Other than sailing, I can't think of many other outdoor pursuits that put as much of a demand on your lightweight wet weather gear than adventure motorcycling. We ask our gear to withstand water when standing around, and then jump on our bikes and essentially create hurricane conditions as we ride through the rain at 50mph+. And then we ask it to keep us safe if we have a tumble. Tough stuff!
Wet days like this one are absolute gold for learning about what you and I need to stay warm and dry on our adventure bikes in the great outdoors.
And now the favour.
We have sold much of our first batch of Singletrack Pant.
If you have put on some dirt miles I'd love to know how you are are getting on.
I'd love it if you could share your experience so far by scrolling to the bottom of The Singletrack Pant product page and leaving a review.
Thank you.
☔️🙂🙏
Greg Villalobos
BUY THE SINGLETRACK PANT + AQUA PAC JACKET HERE
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