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People's Choice: Your favourite gilets revealedPakagilet.jpg

People's Choice: Your favourite gilets revealed

You like your vests light, packable and well-price
by John Stevenson
Wed, Mar 30, 2016 12:13
2

Last week we asked you to name your favourite gilet. Your top selections had a few common features: very light weight, ventilation and the ability to be easily crammed into a pocket. Not very surprising, that: gilets are great to carry as a precaution if the weather turns bad, so packability is vital. The envelope please…

Rapha Brevet — £80

Rapha gilet.jpeg

The stripy luxury option fits comfortably in a jersey pocket and is super light to wear yet surprisingly effective at warming up the core. Side mesh panels allow for enhanced breathability, the fabric at the front is windproof and the offset zip makes one-handed unzipping easier. It also features reflective accents including a reflective stripe.

Read our review of the Rapha Brevet gilet

Sportful Hot Pack 5 — £59.99

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The Sportful Hot Pack Vest is a good windproof gilet that's incredibly lightweight and takes up hardly any space in your pocket when you don't need it on. It's surprisingly water-resistant too thanks to its Schoeller NanoSphere finish. That means tiny particles bound to the fabric repel water – and dirt and oil – and the finish is permanent; it won't wash out over time.

Read our review of the Sportful Hot Pack 5 gilet

Endura Pakagilet — £31.34

Pakagilet.jpg

You like your gilets packable, it seems. The most popular selection in our survey was this feathery and well-priced gilet from Scottish clothing specialists Endura. The Pakagilet provides access to your jersey pockets too, so if you're putting it on because things have turned chilly, or taking it off as it gets warmer, you don't have to faff transferring your stuff.

people's choice
John Stevenson

John has been writing about bikes and cycling for over 30 years since discovering that people were mug enough to pay him for it rather than expecting him to do an honest day's work.

He was heavily involved in the mountain bike boom of the late 1980s as a racer, team manager and race promoter, and that led to writing for Mountain Biking UK magazine shortly after its inception. He got the gig by phoning up the editor and telling him the magazine was rubbish and he could do better. Rather than telling him to get lost, MBUK editor Tym Manley called John’s bluff and the rest is history.

Since then he has worked on MTB Pro magazine and was editor of Maximum Mountain Bike and Australian Mountain Bike magazines, before switching to the web in 2000 to work for CyclingNews.com. Along with road.cc founder Tony Farrelly, John was on the launch team for BikeRadar.com and subsequently became editor in chief of Future Publishing’s group of cycling magazines and websites, including Cycling Plus, MBUK, What Mountain Bike and Procycling.

John has also written for Cyclist magazine, edited the BikeMagic website and was founding editor of TotalWomensCycling.com before handing over to someone far more representative of the site's main audience.

He joined road.cc in 2013. He lives in Cambridge where the lack of hills is more than made up for by the headwinds.

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2 comments

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wycombewheeler | 8 years ago
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I would go for the standard rapha gilet over the brevet gilet, as the former has pockets, while the latter only has openings to get to your jersey pockets.

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Danger Dicko | 8 years ago
0 likes

You can't fault any of these choices.

My partner has a Rapha gilet and I'll be getting one for next Autumn.

She loves the fit and the feel of it.

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