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TECH NEWS

New RH+ range hits the shops

Highlights from the autumn/winter clothing lineup, plus a sneak peek at a new helmet

Clothing brand RH+ just came visiting road.cc to show us their autumn/winter range that’ll be in the shops next week. It looks like a well thought-out range. Here are some of the highlights…

Now, we’re sorry to be the bearer of bad tidings, but it is getting colder. There’s no easy way to say it. Have you put the central heating on yet? Knee warmers? It’s going to be overshoes next. Sorry, but it is. That’s the way these things work, so you’d better get ready. As well as the cycling clothing, RH+ cover snowsports so they have a lot of experience of keeping people warm and comfortable in cold weather.

The Revo (main image, £185) is the top-level jacket from RH+, coming from their Powerlogic Lab – the tech department, essentially, where they look at new fabrics and try out new design and performance features.

The Revo comes with windproof/breathable panels and multi-thickness inserts with differing levels of stretch, designed to hone the fit.

The zips on the front aren’t pockets, they’re for ventilation, and one other little feature we like is that you get internal elasticated cuffs so you should be able to get a good seal with your gloves. It’s something that RH+ use on a lot of their jackets. You also get a two-way front zip, four pockets around the back (one zipped), an elasticated tape around the hem… It looks good to us. Nearly everything here is available in more than one colour, by the way.

RH+ have a whole range of other winter jackets too. The Creek, for example, is quite a bit cheaper at £135. Again, it looks like it has some good features, including windproof front panels, and other highly elastic panels for a close fit. You get chin guards at the top of the zips across the RH+ jackets range.

The Storm jacket (£125) is a different proposition entirely in that rather than being thermal, it’s designed for wet weather, as the name suggests. It’s a laminated fabric (an impressive waterproof rating of 20,000mm, with a very high 15,000g/m2/day breathability rating). The seams are fully taped, of course, and that’s a waterproof zip down the front. The vent zips are waterproof too.

RH+ have a whole range of bib tights priced from £85 up to £145. The top-level option is the Fusion Wind Out bib tight (£145) that looks particularly suited to UK conditions in that it uses a windproof thermal fabric and has water-repellent lower legs to keep road spray out. The seams are flat which bodes well for their comfort, and the straps are stretchy microfibre.

The quality looks good, although we must stress that we’ve not used any of these products yet. We’ll be dropping an order with RH+ in the next couple of days to get some clothing in for test.

The Sprinter bib tights are the cheapest in the range at £85. They’re more of an autumn/spring weight, or they might be suited to you for full-on winter use if you tend to run hot. These share several features with the Wind Outs: a pre-shaped construction, an elastic mesh back section and flat seams, for example. Again, the build quality seems high with camlock zips at the ankles and good-looking gripper elastic around the hems.

RH+ offset the zip on their Vermont overshoes (£45) so it’s a little easier to get at. Plus, the idea is that it’s a little more comfortable that running the zip right at the back, and that it prevents any damage to tights.

They do the same with their Happyfeet (yes, Happyfeet) shoe covers. These ones use RH+’s Airdry Gold 250 thermal fabric.

The Adapto skullcap (£32) uses a windproof fabric up front and there are couple of loops on the sides for the arms of your eyewear. That’s something RH+ have brought over from their snowsport line.

RH+ have a few different types of gloves too. These Nordic gloves (£40) are designed to be both water resistant and breathable, and they come with non-slip palms.

Zero RH is RH+’s helmet brand and they have a new model coming in February: the ZY. It’ll be priced at £110. As with the clothing, the quality looks high.

We reviewed the ZW helmet a few months ago and it’s now available in more colour options than before. You can get cyan, lime… all sorts. You can get a cover that fits over the top (£20) too, which is something we’ve also seen from Lazer.

If you’re not after the out-and-out roadie look, the £80 Rider is a neat alternative.

The same goes for the £100 Canyon.

For more information on the RH+ range go to www.zerorh.com or the UK distributor Veroli

Mat has been in cycling media since 1996, on titles including BikeRadar, Total Bike, Total Mountain Bike, What Mountain Bike and Mountain Biking UK, and he has been editor of 220 Triathlon and Cycling Plus. Mat has been road.cc technical editor for over a decade, testing bikes, fettling the latest kit, and trying out the most up-to-the-minute clothing. We send him off around the world to get all the news from launches and shows too. He has won his category in Ironman UK 70.3 and finished on the podium in both marathons he has run. Mat is a Cambridge graduate who did a post-grad in magazine journalism, and he is a winner of the Cycling Media Award for Specialist Online Writer. Now over 50, he's riding road and gravel bikes most days for fun and fitness rather than training for competitions.

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7 comments

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Tony Farrelly | 10 years ago
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Hmm… I think it's highly unlikely that TKMaxx are selling knock-off RH+ gear. Be interested to hear why buying a pair of sunglasses from an 'authorised dealer' for getting on for 10 times the price would necessarily make the same glasses any better?

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Mostyn | 10 years ago
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I bought some RH+ Bib Tights and a Jersey at the end of 2012. I wish I could afford more of teir kit. The quality is top notch, comfortable and wears really well.

I'll be looking for more RH+ when I have some spare cash.

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Maxgearettes | 10 years ago
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"Steer clear of their sunglasses; bought a pair earlier in the year and within a month, both lenses had broken at the bridge mounting point. I'd have been furious at the RRP (£120), but at £15 from TKMaxx, superglue and resignation was the order of the day."

I have to totally disagree with you here Dr Lex. I have raced in a genuine pair of RH+ Gotha Glasses all season and they are absolutely bomb proof (as has Contador if you need any further proof they're a decent set of specs). I bought these as I wanted to try something a bit different and actually favour them over the Oakleys I already had. I would suggest that the £15 pair you bought from TKMaxx is a knock off.

Nicola

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thetrouser | 10 years ago
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I picked some summer kit earlier in the year and it surpassed the more expensive Assos kit I have in looks and comfort. Will be heading to my local supplier for the new stuff very soon, very impressed.

I had a pair of glasses they survived being dropped, sat on and kicked the only thing that beat them was a car tyre followed by the rest of the car.

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DHC | 10 years ago
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I’ll certainly be looking out for some of the RH+ winter kit. I picked up one of their winter jackets last year (“Impact”) and it is probably the best bit of cycling clothing I’ve ever had – performs brilliantly, looks the part in my humble opinion (e.g. clean designs without any ugly big logos) and seems very hard wearing.

Since then I’ve also bought some RH+ jerseys and bib shorts – they have also been fantastic – amazingly comfortable and noticeably better (and probably cheaper) than, say, comparable Castelli stuff and on a par with Assos quality. Well worth a try (and no, I’m not on any commission, just trying to tip people off about what may be one of the best kept cycling kit secrets in the UK!!)

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Dr_Lex | 10 years ago
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Steer clear of their sunglasses; bought a pair earlier in the year and within a month, both lenses had broken at the bridge mounting point. I'd have been furious at the RRP (£120), but at £15 from TKMaxx, superglue and resignation was the order of the day.

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1trick replied to Dr_Lex | 10 years ago
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I have to agree with Nicola, your way off on your comment Dr_Lex. I have a pair of the Stylus glasses, you can bend them, sit on them and twist the frame and no damage occurs. They have a "NTX" lens and it cannot be damaged.Guess that's what happens when you buy from TKMaxx and not from an authorised dealer! I also have a ZX helmet and the fit is great. Can't wait to get my hands on some of the winter kit, the orange jacket looks awesome http://road.cc/sites/all/modules/smileys/packs/Yahoo!/grin.gif

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