Spatz Shiftr Jersey

The Spatzwear Shiftr Cycling Jersey is a high quality top with a great fit, and it's versatile enough for spring and summer riding. The price is high, but the performance justifies it.

Yorkshire brand Spatzwear is best known for its foul weather clothing, but the Shiftr is its new spring/summer jersey. After a variety of test rides, including some over six hours, I've come away impressed with how it performs.

The stretchy material gives a great fit across the chest and shoulders that's tight without being restrictive. The body is a good length front and back too – something I appreciated after testing a few stomach-exposing jerseys of late.

> Buy now: Shiftr Jersey from Spatzwear for £69.99

The sleeves are quite long too, reaching down to the elbow and staying there whatever the duration thanks to silicone grippers. You even get a zip garage, but as the neckline is quite low it doesn't really need it.

The fabric is a polyester/lycra mix and the lack of seams – the only one is at the front zipper – ensures this is very comfortable. At 180g it feels heavy, though, and while I was worried about how it'd deal with heat, I was pleasantly surprised.

It wicks well enough to stay feeling dry and I remained relatively cool in temperatures ranging from 11°C to over 30°C (all within one very long ride!), though it isn't as cool as the barely-there, sub-100g jerseys I've tested.

On the other hand, it's a lot more versatile than those too, which helps offset the high price.

The quality is great. I wore this a lot during the test period and there are still no signs of wear, despite frequent washing. The stitching is all perfect, as you'd expect at this price.

Spatzwear claims the Shiftr is aerodynamically optimised, and while I can't verify this with any data, neither does Spatzwear. Certainly though the fit is great and there is no excess material or flapping. The textured look attracted some attention on the club run though, and isn't likely to be to everyone's taste.

Size

The Shiftr only comes in three sizes. I tested the medium/large which, according to the size guide, fits anything from a 92cm to a 105cm chest – that's fully 13cm of difference. However, I think the stretchy material does a good job adjusting to your body, and I was happy with the result.

> 10 best summer cycling jerseys – tops to beat the heat from just £10

At the back there are three pockets made from mesh. The pocket entries are small, so they aren't that easy to access whilst on the bike, but they do excel at holding all your stuff in place. I had zero movement from any of it, even when climbing out of the saddle on gradients well over 10%.

They aren't the biggest once you are in either, so you may struggle to fit everything if you are carrying nutrition, spares and additional clothing.

There is no zipped valuables pocket either, which is disappointing at this price, but the security of the regular ones meant I didn't have any worries about my valuables anyway. I tested the 'hi-vis red' version, but it also comes in blue.

Value

£139.99 is towards the top end of jerseys we have tested here at road.cc – it's more than the Assos Mille GT Jersey C2 Drop Head, for instance, which scored well and costs £110.

The NVPA Short/Sleeve Jersey also reviewed well and offers a race fit at £125, but the graphics won't be to everyone's tastes unless you enjoy looking like you've got a PowerPoint slide from a particularly vacuous marketing meeting on your back.

You can get a great jersey for a lot less, too, such as the Stolen Goat Tappa Bodyline Jersey at £75.

It is not the most expensive jersey we've tested though either; the Santini Redux Istinto is an excellent aero race jersey, but is £175 – though that's actually slightly less (£10) than when we reviewed it.

At the time of writing the Shiftr was on sale at £69.99, which represents great value of a jersey of this quality.

Overall

I have been impressed by the Spatzwear Shiftr. The fit is excellent, the material is breathable despite feeling quite heavy and the quality is great. It does well against its high-end competition, and if you can get it at 50 percent off for any length of time, it's more impressive still.

Verdict

High quality jersey with a great fit, versatile enough for spring to autumn riding