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Picked up for a shade over £100 from Sportspursuit a while ago, I'd been wanting to give my jacket a proper going over for quite some time.
Well, sometimes the planets align and after sitting around for 2 hours waiting for a heating engineer, looking longingly out at the dry roads wishing I could be outside on my bike, it happened - the phone rang. He wasn't coming.
The sky darkened and after polishing off another slice of toast and searching weather sites for the one that had the nicest forecast, I decided to take the plunge. 2mm of rain in 2hrs predicted, that doesn't sound too bad, does it?
I was committed now, with an iPod playlist consisting of 90/00's dance music, gore tex boots and light enhancing lenses in my glasses. The ride started promisingly enough with a bit of drizzle before full on "throw me in a swimming pool" rain. None of your namby pamby rain, this was full on British, sideways, gritty, boot filling rain and I was swimming my way through it.
Those 30 miles turned into the ride that had everything - euphoria - when a track came on, catapulting me back to Ministry of Sound at the Dome NYE 2001 to delirium - when I found myself inexplicably shouting at a seagull.
And as I crouched there at the side of the road reattaching my crank arm, with rain bouncing off the tarmac back into my face, cars whizzing past, terrifyingly close - I thought, "this is what life is all about, getting outside and experiencing the cold and the great things that the countryside has to offer."
Well, all good things come to an end but this ride had a little more fun up it's sleeve. I'm stood at a T junction ready to turn right and admiring the pond that had now formed in the road when a van approached. We both knew what each other needed - him - dishing out a bit of cyclist punishment, and me - a thorough testing of a new waterproof jacket. In a moment of clarity, I gave him a smile and thumbs up as he unleashed a neck high tidal wave of water and grit over me. Lovely.
Back home now though i'm afraid and as I suffer from the early stages of mild hypothermia, you can rest assured that if you are thinking about getting a new jacket, you won't go wrong with a Berghaus Vapour Storm. It kept me dry and made a good ride great.
RECOMMENDED.
You know when the van splashed you, did any of the water go up those slightly ridiculous gill-style vents that Berghaus stuck in that jacket? And have you ever noticed them doing anything at all in terms of ventilation / breathability?