First impressions: Canari Raglan jacket, February 24, 2005

Sleet stopper

Cyclingnews chief online editor Jeff Jones has just been banished from sunny Sydney to the more cycling-friendly but distinctly colder environs of Gent, Belgium. To ward off the later-winter weather, he took Canari's Raglan winter jacket with him, and found that it helped make riding less foul in the worst Belgium could offer.

Canari Raglan jacket

After reading the weather forecast for the weekend, I was eagerly looking forward to today's ride in order to test out the Canari Raglan jacket. I was slightly disappointed to find that, at 9:00am it wasn't even raining, even though the roads were wet. In fact, there were patches of blue sky everywhere and it looked like a nice day.

Nevertheless, I suited up with an undershirt and short sleeved woollen jersey underneath the jacket, along with various other paraphernalia, and bravely sallied forth, puncturing almost immediately. It wasn't a bad day, even though it was wet on the roads and 2 degrees, but when I turned around after 45 km I could see a large gray cloud that was unavoidable. Pretty soon it began to rain, then by the time I came to the foot of the mighty Col de la Cafe Trap Op (3 km at 2.7%), it was sleeting very nicely. Due to the 60 km/h winds, it was sleeting horizontally as well. I had to look up sleet when I got home just to confirm that it was indeed frozen pellets of rain - sort of halfway between rain and hail. And it bloody stings!

My legs started to feel like someone had replaced them with an ice prosthetic, my hands were pretty much history despite wearing a short and a long pair of gloves, but my torso wasn't too bad thanks to Canari (tm). I noticed that it was both rain and sleet repellent, which is pretty impressive in my books.

Perfect test conditions

Fortunately the sun came out after a bit and I could enjoy a frozen ride into the icy north wind on the way home. At some points I was down to 23.7 km/h and not enjoying being out there any longer than I had to. Of course, the wind brought with it more sleet and with 10 km to go I was doing 23.7 km/h and getting stung to death by icy pellets, forcing me to take shelter momentarily next to a tree. The jacket was still doing its thing though, and not one pellet of sleet penetrated into my upper body.

The sun had come out by the time I got home, but I still had some difficulty getting my keys a) out of my saddle bag b) into the door lock and c) turning them. That was the hardest part.

Tomorrow they predict snow, so that should be a laugh (It was).

Tech editor's notes: As Jeff's fingers have clearly been frozen into near-immobility by the Belgian weather (he says it's nice there in July, usually for as much as 15 minutes at a time) it falls to me to point out that the Canari Raglan is part of Canari's line of custom clothing, so while our sample is black, it's available in any colour you like to suit your team needs. Features include reflective fabric at the zip for visibility, a high collar to keep out the elements and a rear zip pocket for your keys and other essentials. We suggest you also wear gloves so you can actually use whatever you store in the pocket.

More information: www.canari.com