Pearl Izumi Elite WxB Jacket

The Pearl Izumi Elite WxB Jacket will keep you dry, but with no features to speak of and a loose fit, it's not the best value out there.

The WxB is a minimalist jacket. Things that don't feature include pockets, vents, Velcro, a drop tail, or the humble microfleece collar liner. Thanks to all this absence it does pack down small – taking up 600ml rolled tightly, three-quarters the volume of the recently reviewed five-star Endura FS260-Pro SL Shell, but weighing 2g more.

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In addition to saving you a whopping 2g in size medium, the Endura gives you an external gel/bar pocket, a slash zip for accessing the jersey, a proper bum-covering tail and a cunning elastic roll-stow strap. The WxB doesn't even give you a hanging loop for the back of the door or locker.

It's through the still-fresh prism of the Endura that I assess the £150 WxB – and for £10 more it delivers a whole lot less.

The look of the WxB is definitely less pro, more policeman. On my first outing with it, the comments from other riders were that I was perfectly attired to direct traffic, the forearm hi-vis sections looking for all the world like a road policeman's gauntlets.

Hi-vis is a divisive subject, and the two-thirds black WxB is possibly going to annoy both sides of the argument. Styling is of course entirely subjective, but one downside of the hi-vis fabric is that it does mark easily. After a month of use and storage there's a number of dirty scuffs and black spots that aren't shifting.

Pearl Izumi calls the fit 'Semi-Form' – I call it loose-bordering-baggy, even being bang on the 38in chest/33in waist spec for medium. Certainly for a product with 'Elite' in the title and costing £150, there's too much fabric acreage going on. Around the bicep there's twice as much loose fabric as the Endura FS260 has, and this translates into flapping at speed.

This is possibly down to the garment only being made of 10 panels, including one running from elbow to elbow across the shoulder. Fewer seams to fail, sure, but an inevitable compromise in fit results. The sleeves come up pleasingly long, my 1.04 Ape Index spread easily accommodated with the elastic cuffs ending in angled outside edges – bang on trend. So given the generosity in the sleeves, I can't help but feel a small might have been close to a genuine 'Elite Performance' fit on my 6ft, 73kg frame (it's not me in the pictures).

One critical point of a shell is how easy it is to ventilate – especially if there aren't any other vents to open or close. The zip of the WxB is waterproof – hurrah! – but is also a two-handed job, up or down. This means you delay nipping the zip up or down a bit until you can sit up with both hands off the bar, or come to a complete stop. Either way, it's a faff. Pearl Izumi has included a storm flap behind the zip, so it can't think it's that waterproof either. And there's no zip garage. At least the zip pull is nice and long. A few small reflective patches on sleeves and tail round out the 'features'.

The 10k/30k fabric (meaning mm of hydrostatic head/ml of vapour transmission per m2 per day) is only half as good on paper as the fabric used in the Endura FS260 shell, and on par with the fabric used in the recent four-star dhb Classics Shell. But the dhb is only 50 quid, not 150. And it has a pocket and a fleecy collar too.

The first time I used the WxB was as a windstopper, on a bright but chilly 4°C day. Less than an hour into the ride I had to remove it due to feeling clammy around the arms – this was over a long-sleeved 150gsm merino and dhb's excellent ASV jersey, and I was surprised breathability wasn't better, as this was a slow run.

> Read our guide to the best waterproof jackets

Out in proper rain the WxB did keep water at bay over several hours, as you'd expect from something touted to be able to hold off a two-storey-high drainpipe's worth of precipitation. On warmer days the two-handed zip got to be annoying as the need to vent on climbs then zip up for descents recurred. The fit of the sleeves leaves more than enough movement when out of the saddle, and the cut feels right for being on the hoods/drops, but there is a lot of spare fabric on offer for the supposed target market of performance/elite riders.

I wanted to like the WxB, but for the money there are too many compromises and omissions. A few years back it might have shone out, but in today's market where £50 gets you the same performance fabric and fit but with more features for less weight, Pearl Izumi's £150 WxB fails to impress.

Verdict

Lacking in features yet costing quite a lot, the WxB isn't the best option out there for the money