Right blokes I got the Jacket and trousers last week and figured I may as well do a wee review for anyone looking into new gear, so if your in the neighbour hood for some nice all weather stuff then get the kettle on and ill tell you what I think of this stuff.
I started my riding career on the roads in november past and due to getting test, bike and all the gear at once I compromised a bit on the riding gear and have been slowly replacing everything since as I had the cash. Finally the good weather has started appearing and I quickly found out that winter type gear and sunshine all day, with 3 hours in a quarry at the end means your cooked and sweating like a paedo in a playground, not nice.
I took quite a fancy to the wolf gear as my local soozy dealer had an offer on the 3 qtr textile jacket and pants for £270, I incorrectly thought this was the outlast gear and went in for a try on and probable buy. when I mentioned the outlast stuff he informed me they were a helluva lot more expensive and only carried in the hillborough branch ( where I bought my 2 bikes) .... of I went the next day and bloody hell that stuff fits nice!
Ill assume you have all been in shops etc and wearing your gear and sweating like a loon well that fancy outlast layer really does keep you cooler when you need it. I was chatting to the dealers boss wearing the wolf suit all zipped up just to see if id start overheating and really didn't, I was warm but not uncomfortably so.
Fit of the Jacket is quite tight compared to what I'm used to but its nice an snug and soft to be inside, there are loads of poppers and velcro to tailor the fit to your body and have it just right, the collars and cuffs are coated in alcantara and soft as hell so its bead nice against your skin, I don't think you would ever feel chaffed no matter how long you had it on for.
One word of warning though, due to the cut and fit of the jacket its measured by your chest size, I usually wear large or medium in jackets and have a 44 inch chest, in this stuff I ended up in XXL !! but its perfect, I would just worry about getting the right fit from mail order, you really would have to go try it all on someplace before ordering.
The trousers feel so good I don't wear my base layer anymore, its got that cool outlast liner which is nice and soft and all the areas that need to stretch really do the job well and at no time have I felt like I needed to stop and pull them down a bit or up to be more comfy.
The bottoms of the legs fit over my sidi off road style boots without any hassle and they can be opened at the rear if you want a flaired out look
The 2 parts zip together to the rear from the front of your hip bone to the other sie, this keeps the jacket low and the waistline on the trousers where it should be at all times, you never end up with your jacket riding up about your throat or sticking out like Jordans chest.
As for the pockets..... there are loads and they all have rubberised waterproofed zips that can be opened and closed easily with gloves on AND when sittin on the bike, my last gear I could never close the pockets if I was sat on the bike and it pissed me right off.
You have ventilation areas on the front of each thigh and also a pair on you upper chest that have a exit on the rear across your shoulders, again these can be opened and clsoe while you ride along all except the big one across your back, unless perhaps your double jointed in the arms!
All the armor in both parts is where it should be and stays there for you, my last trousers I had to take the kneepads out as they were all over the place and just got in the bloody way, the wolf stuff its very light and doesn't get in the way at all but feels like the right kind of combination of being stiff abut still has a lot of flex.
Now I'm not a seamstress ( sp ) but my mother is damn handy with a needle and thread an no stranger to my gloves and gear needing the odd wee bit of minor repair work, I got her to have a nosey over the seams and all that to see if there was anything going to cause issues in a while and needed sorting out, she found nothing at all out of place, all the sticking is in perfect neat rows and well in from any edges so it would appear they put the stuff together right too.
The only drawback to the gear is its price, the jacket is £224 and the trousers are £179, now from looking at other manufacturers that's not MENTAL money really but for that kind of cash to me anyway I really wanted to be chuffed to bits with what I got, and I am. I can't say a bad thing about it other than my favourite pair of gloves are a bit of a pain to get oner the cuffs just nice, my other 3 pairs all fit fine so its the cuff of the gloves that's the issue not to cuff of the jacket.
After a wee bit of haggling and some help from the boss in the dealership I got both jacket and trousers for £330 all in, this is pretty much what made me get it.
All in all, its damn good, in sunlight you are just nice temp-wise inside the suit and when the weather is more normal its perfect too, wind doesn't cut into it the vents work fantastically when you need them and the outlast liner is brilliant for doing what it does. Its comfy enough to wear all day no problem at all and from what I see it should wear well longterm, whatever they coated the outers with totally turns water and it just sheets off in beads with the wind.
maybe I'm biased as I have the stuff now but I hope not overly so, its just bloody good gear and I'm happy I got it
Jeff
