FastBikeGear
24th February 2009, 20:16
The Strada Giro two piece textile gear is extremely waterproof. I have ridden it in storm conditions with teh inner liner zipped in on a couple of occassions over the last 9 months with no water leaking in.
Even without the inner linner zipped in it seems fairly water proof although I have only tried it in light rain without the inner liner.
Would I buy the strada giro gear again? No, the problem is that even with the ventilation zips in the jacket open and without the inner liner it does not breath well.
Worse there are no ventilation zips in the pants at all and fabic in the top and pants (even with teh inner lining removed) just does not seem to breath well.
In summer this is very sweaty textile kit to wear
As a winter suit it works great (I do get a little cold around the kidneys on cold days on the open road) but for the summer this suit is just too hot. Also I do not like the dome and button cuff closure system around the wrists. It's just one more hassle to clip these up everytime you put on the suit.
It also uses dome and button tightening straps around the elbows. I tend to ride with these done up on the tighter of the two button options in the hope that it would hold the elbow armour better in place, but I think that in an accident these would probably pop undone on first impact. I prefer the buckle and cinch strap option offered on other brands.
And I like pockets. Lots of pockets. The 'Travel' scores highly in this regard, with four outer and two inner pockets, plus a wallet pocket inside the wind layer but still allowing you to keep the inner zip done up. And the two inner pockets are deep, very deep in fact (I keep my mobile phone in one and it is almost at my waist!). Storage is not going to be an issue with this jacket.
The zips don't have a fabric guard tape so they catch on the inner linning particularly teh cuff zips at wrist and elbows. In trying to free one fo these I snapped the zip handle off and had to replace this with paper clip.
The zips also have a fabric tags on them. These fabric tags are bulked up by stuffing them with some sought of thread. Interestingly after a few months this internal thread seemed to unravel and you would end up pulling a 30 foot strand of it out of the tag when you pulled on the tag - very entertaining.
Even without the inner linner zipped in it seems fairly water proof although I have only tried it in light rain without the inner liner.
Would I buy the strada giro gear again? No, the problem is that even with the ventilation zips in the jacket open and without the inner liner it does not breath well.
Worse there are no ventilation zips in the pants at all and fabic in the top and pants (even with teh inner lining removed) just does not seem to breath well.
In summer this is very sweaty textile kit to wear
As a winter suit it works great (I do get a little cold around the kidneys on cold days on the open road) but for the summer this suit is just too hot. Also I do not like the dome and button cuff closure system around the wrists. It's just one more hassle to clip these up everytime you put on the suit.
It also uses dome and button tightening straps around the elbows. I tend to ride with these done up on the tighter of the two button options in the hope that it would hold the elbow armour better in place, but I think that in an accident these would probably pop undone on first impact. I prefer the buckle and cinch strap option offered on other brands.
And I like pockets. Lots of pockets. The 'Travel' scores highly in this regard, with four outer and two inner pockets, plus a wallet pocket inside the wind layer but still allowing you to keep the inner zip done up. And the two inner pockets are deep, very deep in fact (I keep my mobile phone in one and it is almost at my waist!). Storage is not going to be an issue with this jacket.
The zips don't have a fabric guard tape so they catch on the inner linning particularly teh cuff zips at wrist and elbows. In trying to free one fo these I snapped the zip handle off and had to replace this with paper clip.
The zips also have a fabric tags on them. These fabric tags are bulked up by stuffing them with some sought of thread. Interestingly after a few months this internal thread seemed to unravel and you would end up pulling a 30 foot strand of it out of the tag when you pulled on the tag - very entertaining.