I’ve been wearing a bright yellow Gore Brand cycling jacket over the past few seasons, and I’ve been very happy with it. It replaced another bright yellow jacket since I’ve always been partial to high visibility clothing. However, sometime late last fall, someone rode by me on College St with a ridiculously reflective jacket; I yelled out “nice jacket” and the rider yelled back “reflect 360”. A little searching on the internet turned up the Proviz line of bike jackets, and according to reviews, it seemed that the Reflect 360+ was even a bit better. Unfortunately, they sold out prior to Xmas, but I did manage to get one about a month ago for a late Xmas present.
Under normal lighting, it looks like a grey jacket with small shiny black dots all over it.
However, it is very retroreflective: i.e. when you shine a light directly at it, it will reflect back in the same direction. Here is a side by side comparison with a regular bike jacket, with a bike headlight shining on it and held close to the camera position. If I did a flash picture, the effect is even more pronounced, but it is perhaps a little exaggerated.
(photos: K. Nogami)
You can see that the entire jacket looks as bright as the small pieces of reflective trim on the yellow jacket.
You can also see an interesting optical effect when the jacket is partially wet. (warning: Physics). The droplets look bright in this picture since the water drops redirect light more isotropically than the dry, retrofreflective areas.
Here is the front of the jacket. You can see two small chest pockets (with water resistant zippers) and pitzips as well.
Here is the jacket turned inside out. It is fully lined with mesh and there is one internal pocket.
Looking at the back of the jacket, there is a vent across the upper back, and a zippered pocket on the tail, approximately where typical bike jersey pockets are.
A closeup of the pit zips. I wish they had bidirectional opening, and perhaps some zipper pulls as well.
The detailing at the cuffs.
How do I like it? Well I get lots of comments about it when I’m riding at night, and I can even imagine that drivers give me a bit more space on the road. The only downsides that I see are that it is a bit bulkier than my Gore Tex jacket (being fully lined) and it might not be quite as breathable. Also, water or wet snow doesn’t brush off as easily as a regular waterproof/breathable jacket.
Nevertheless, since I am a big believer in conspicuity, I’m very happy. We’ll see how it holds up, and how hot it will be on those warm, rainy riders when I’ve forgotten my raincape.
Great product, they could improve on zipper / pockets
How has this held up so far?
I love the visibility at night and am very interested, but worried that it might have a limited life which is my experience with waterproof and supposedly breathable jackets
. I’d be very interested in your thoughts now that you have had it for some time.
Thanks,
Ty
I’d say that it is holding up as well as a jacket from Showers Pass. The reflective material seems to be durable. Practically the only places where I can see that it has degraded is in small patches of highest wear around the collar. It is not as breathable as the very best cycling jackets, and it is a bit heavy since it is fully lined with mesh (note that this is the 360+model). The only other downside is that it does not shed rain or snow very well, and so it does get soaked, but it still keeps you dry.
Update: Just got the reversible vest from them. Works great so far, but definitely NOT breathable. Love the visibility!