Winter Cycling jacket Update

So while trying to find a winter cycling jacket that would be good on and off the bike, I had a conversation with a very nice sales rep at Mountain Equipment Co-Op. He told me his vaforite jacket was one made by Axiom and that he got it at The Cyclepath on Danforth Ave. So I finally made my way over there today and I found the Axiom Stormfront.

This jacket is no longer made. In fact, I purchased their last one. It has all the features I was looking for except one.

1. Removable Hood
2. Stow away rear flap
3. front pockets
4. ventilation
5. adequate reflective striping
6. a nice colour (I got a slate blue) 

The one thing I'm worried about, and cannot yet report on is it's breath-ability. It's a 2.5 layer HydroPEL Stretch material. Hopefully it's good enough though I would have prefered, and paid for Gore-Tex.

I'll make another blog post at a later time reviewing this jacket. Little good it will do most people looking for a similar jacket since Axiom no longer makes them.

I am not the Stig

I am not the Stig
Originally uploaded by tracer.ca

For those who don't know, my favorite TV show on the planet, is BBCs Top Gear. It's by far the best show in terms of entertainment. And yes, I do like cars. 60 Minutes in the US recently did a show on the show. Worth a look.

For halloween this year, I tried to dress up as "The Stig". The faceless tame race car driver that tests all the cars and does some funny mute bits here and there. Not 100% right, but that would have taken upwards of $3300 in gear :)

Winter Cycling jacket

I'm on a quest for the ultimate winter cycling jacket. It's proving to be rather hard. I've decided for my own comfort, that the jacket has to be made out of gore-tex. It has to have reflective striping on the back for my own safety. I'd love for it to also not scream cycling jacket when I'm off the bike. A hood would be nice too.

I've tried the Gore Alp-X jacket. It's close, but too thin. It's a good spring/fall jacket for when it's wet.

The local standby, MEC offers the Derecho jacket. Sadly, no front hand pockets and only two very loud colours. It's also not made out of Gore-tex. Reviews say it performs as well as Gore-tex. The other problem is that there is no ETA for this jacket in stores. A standard MEC trait.

Mec also sells, but is out of stock of the Showers Pass Elite jacket. Reviews however point me to the previous jacket as a better buy.

The jacket I think I want is the Gore Cosmo. However, no dealer has one in the area, and ordering one means I have to keep it. Which is a hard sell considering the price.

My search continues.