price difference worth it?

[Fiona N]

It always seems to me that the critical question is not the price but how important the piece of kit is to what you're intending to do.

E.g. If you commute 5 miles and take the car if it's raining, then spending £100+ on a waterproof jacket for cycling the distance is completely OTT and a £1 plastic mac from Poundland would probably be adequate for the odd day when you find yourself getting wet.

However, if you're going to be doing 300 or 400km cycling events in the Scottish Borders in Spring when 24 hours of rain is distinctly possible and you want to a) finish in a reasonable time b) enjoy the ride as far as possible, then I'd say £250 Gore cycling jacket is looking like a good investment.

 

[GrasB]

It always seems to me that the critical question is not the price but how important the piece of kit is to what you're intending to do.

E.g. If you commute 5 miles and take the car if it's raining, then spending £100+ on a waterproof jacket for cycling the distance is completely OTT and a £1 plastic mac from Poundland would probably be adequate for the odd day when you find yourself getting wet.

However, if you're going to be doing 300 or 400km cycling events in the Scottish Borders in Spring when 24 hours of rain is distinctly possible and you want to a) finish in a reasonable time b) enjoy the ride as far as possible, then I'd say £250 Gore cycling jacket is looking like a good investment.

+1

I've got 2 £200 wind proof cycling jackets, seems like a lot of money but with a compression base layer they keep me at a comfortable temp from 5C through to over 20C (they've not been too hot yet). Because they're windproof when you layer up underneath they can deal with sub-zero conditions at a push. They're windproof when soaking wet & it takes an a lot of rain to get them soaking wet in the first place - a heavy 10 min shower isn't enough to get them soaking wet. Add in little touches like an almost completely waterproof pocket for a mobile phone &/or wallet & the fact it's ludicrously lightweight for what they do you have a very good do-it-all jacket for spring/autumn & a great mid-layer for extremely low temps. For someone who is riding in all weathers, day in day out, at training effort level that's great value. A fair weather cyclist who isn't doing training rides at silly am in the morning will scoff at the £200 price tag & not understand why people would buy it.