REV’IT Gear vs Rain
It has been raining for the past couple days out here. I drove my car on the first day and was utterly disappointed and frustrated. Being used to a fast commute in and out of the office I found myself crawling home at a speed of a casual jogger. I had enough and decided to ride the next day.
The weather did not seem to be cold. So I opted out to wearing the following REV’IT! gear for my trial by rain:
- boots - Rival
- pants - Cayenne Pro with only rain liner in
- jacket - Ignition with also only rain liner in
- gloves - Monster
- socks - Tour Summer
Yes, every piece of my gear was REV’IT!. Well except for the helmet :).
The next day saw no rain in the morning. It was a bummer as I wanted to battle test my gear in the inclement weather. There were some sprinkles later in the day and then the rain stopped again. There was nothing on my commute back home. Only the last couple of miles saw some rain. I was happy that I was on a bike up until that moment. The visibility through the helmet’s visor immediately became obstructed by the droplets. The helmet started fogging up no matter what I’d do to its vents. 5 minutes later I pulled into my house happy and relieved. I would not have to do that again. Or would I? 
I was still curious about seeing how my gear can fight the elements. The couple of miles in the light rain could not be a test good enough to see how the gear performed its waterproofing duty. And I also hate the rain induced traffic. The decision was made and I was on my bike this morning ready to battle the inclement weather.
This time around it was the rain from the first minute of my commute. My helmet began fogging up, droplets were spawning on my visor at a lightning fast speed. I did not close the visor all the way and left a small crack. That helped preventing the fogging. However made my face much colder at freeway speeds. 10-15 minutes into my commute I started to realize what mistakes I made in my gear selection. Obviously the Monster gloves were not meant to be worn in the rain. Luckily my hands don’t get cold easily. So that was not a big deal to me especially knowing that all I got to ride is 15 miles. The bigger mistake was not to put thermal liners in both the jacket and pants. I began feeling cold due to the fact that the gear started soaking in water. When I arrived to the office and changed I found out that the rain liners in both the Ignition jacket and the Cayenne Pro pants did their job well. I was cold but dry. I suspect however that the pant pockets are not that good at water proofing. My cell phone felt a bit moist. However I can not legitimately back up this claim as my hands were not exactly dry when I was pulling the phone out of the pocket either.
Here are my thought on the gear items I wore:
- The REV’IT! Ignition proved to be a really good all around jacket. It is stylish and functional. If you are caught in the rain and have the liner in you will not get wet. However its pockets are definitely not waterproof. So if you plan on using this jacket in the rain then make sure to either ziploc the pocket content or store your stuff some place else. And do not forget to put the thermal liner in. Although this jacket has a pretty meek thermal liner. It is only a vest and it is not particularily too warm. But better then not having any at all.
- The REV’IT! Cayenne Pro pants were awesome. Again make sure to wear the thermal liner in and you will be good. I am sure you can find tons of reviews that pitched those against much worse weather conditions than I did earlier today.
- The REV’IT! Rival boots - comfortable and 100% waterproof, nothing else to say really.
- The REV’IT! Monster gloves although are awesome gloves are absolutely not meant to be used in the rain.
It stopped raining completely now and it is likely that it won’t be raining on my commute home. If it does start raining again I won’t mind. Now I know for the fact that my gear will keep me dry :).