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review

Optimum Stowaway Rain Jacket

1
£22.99

VERDICT:

1
10
Pretty much everything you don't want in a cycling jacket
Weight: 
127g
Contact: 
www.optimumsport.com/cycling/product/stowaway-rain-jacket/

At road.cc every product is thoroughly tested for as long as it takes to get a proper insight into how well it works. Our reviewers are experienced cyclists that we trust to be objective. While we strive to ensure that opinions expressed are backed up by facts, reviews are by their nature an informed opinion, not a definitive verdict. We don't intentionally try to break anything (except locks) but we do try to look for weak points in any design. The overall score is not just an average of the other scores: it reflects both a product's function and value – with value determined by how a product compares with items of similar spec, quality, and price.

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  • Bad
  • Appalling

Put the Optimum Stowaway Rain Jacket on and it's immediately apparent that it's really not suitable for riding a bike. Using it doesn't dispel that first impression.

The Optimum Stowaway Rain Jacket lives up to the middle bit of its name by folding down incredibly small. It has its own draw-stringed stuff-sack sewn into a side-seam and squished into there it's about the size of a small fist so will easily fit into a rear jersey pocket with room to spare, or it'll happily get lost in the bottom of a rucksack.

The Optimum logo on the breast and back are reflective, and there's reflective piping stretching all the way across the back and down the sides for a soupçon of visibility if the red isn't enough. The zip has a wind baffle behind it and dock at the top.

Those good things don't make up for the jacket's failings, the worst of which is the amazingly baggy fit. It billows just standing upright in it indoors. Once on a bike it gets much worse. The Optimum jacket fills up with air at the slightest speed and the material flaps and balloons about you in such a way that it feels like it's slowing you down, which it probably is. All that spare material in the wind also makes a lot of fwappy noise.

The unsuitability for cycling thanks to poor fit is compounded by the arms, which are far too short. They are about the right length if you're standing straight with your arms right by your sides when the cuffs rest happily around the wrists, so if you're using the jacket for strolling about town you'll be fine, but as soon as you get on a bike and stretch your arms out in front of you the sleeves start their journey up the arms. It's annoying on a flat-barred bike when there's a fair amount of wrist-gap, it's actually comical on a dropped-bar bike, where the sleeves settle halfway up the forearm.

There are little elastic loop on the hem of each sleeve to hook your thumbs through, but these don't work because the sleeves are just too short.

The elastic on the cuffs and around the hem is too loose to control the jacket , so the wind pulls it up your body.

The zip has a broad baffle behind it to help with wind protection but this is cancelled out by the collar. It's high, but so loose it channels air down into the jacket when you're in a tuck.

The 'Rain' bit of the name is odd as there's no indication that the jacket does anything to protect you from the wet, and that's what I found. It will save you from the briefest of showers but beyond that it wets out pretty quickly and then does that horrible thing of clinging to your body in a creepily clammy way. On the plus side once the jacket is weighed down with saturated water it stops flapping away in the wind, and as it's not a breathable jacket at least you'll be warm and wet.

Ignore the cheap price and packability of the Optimum Stowaway Rain Jacket because it's completely inept as a cycling garment. The fit is appalling, the arms are farcically too short, it billows up and about in the wind, flaps noisily and annoyingly, and doesn't like rain.

Verdict

Pretty much everything you don't want in a cycling jacket

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road.cc test report

Make and model: Optimum Stowaway Rain Jacket

Size tested: Medium, Red

Tell us what the product is for, and who it's aimed at. What do the manufacturers say about it? How does that compare to your own feelings about it?

The Optimum Stowaway Rain Jacket Is a lightweight windproof jacket that packs down into a small stuff-sack that's compact enough to fit into your jersey pocket, making it perfect emergency protection in the unpredictable British weather.

Lightweight it is, and windproof too, although a lot of it does end up inside the jacket, I certainly wouldn't want to use it in an emergency if it gets cold or wet. It's incredibly badly tailored for riding a bike in.

Tell us some more about the technical aspects of the product?

Ultra lightweight windproof fabric.

Full length zip with inner storm flap

Sewn in stuff sack for convenience

Reflective Optimum branding

High collar

Rate the product for quality of construction:
 
2/10

It's a lightweight thing that certainly feels its cost.

Rate the product for performance:
 
1/10

Poorly designed for cycling in, and no good in the rain.

Rate the product for durability:
 
5/10

It's a lightweight and flimsy thing.

Rate the product for weight, if applicable:
 
8/10

Packs up small and light, so you won't notice it's in your back pocket.

Rate the product for comfort, if applicable:
 
1/10

Poor fit and blousy demeanor make it unpleasant to ride in.

Rate the product for value:
 
1/10

Cheap, but mostly useless for cycling. Cheap doesn't have to mean badly designed.

Tell us how the product performed overall when used for its designed purpose

The fit was totally wrong for cycling and it was only good for the lightest shower, getting dismayed with actual rain. Packed up tiny though.

Tell us what you particularly liked about the product

It packs up small in it's own little bag.

Tell us what you particularly disliked about the product

Most everything.

Did you enjoy using the product? No.

Would you consider buying the product? No.

Would you recommend the product to a friend? No.

Anything further to say about the product in conclusion?

Avoid.

Overall rating: 1/10

About the tester

Age: 47  Height: 180cm  Weight: 73kg

I usually ride: It varies as to the season.  My best bike is: The one I\'m on at the time

I've been riding for: Over 20 years  I ride: Most days  I would class myself as: Experienced

I regularly do the following types of riding: road racing, cyclo cross, general fitness riding, fixed/singlespeed, mtb, Fun

 

Jo Burt has spent the majority of his life riding bikes, drawing bikes and writing about bikes. When he's not scribbling pictures for the whole gamut of cycling media he writes words about them for road.cc and when he's not doing either of those he's pedaling. Then in whatever spare minutes there are in between he's agonizing over getting his socks, cycling cap and bar-tape to coordinate just so. And is quietly disappointed that yours don't He rides and races road bikes a bit, cyclo-cross bikes a lot and mountainbikes a fair bit too. Would rather be up a mountain.

Add new comment

16 comments

Avatar
3wheelsgood | 8 years ago
1 like

At last! A jacket for short armed tubbies like me.  1

Avatar
thesaladdays | 8 years ago
0 likes

I think people are being too quick to dismiss this product. If the material does indeed fail to dry quickly and ends up creating a water seal, then this plus the big, fwappy pockets could be a revolutionary new way to collect lots of water on a ride and not have to take along any bidons.

Not sure how you'd drink it, maybe you could scoop it out with some of those newfangled algae globules.  16

Avatar
Jacobi | 9 years ago
0 likes

"...it wets out pretty quickly and then does that horrible thing of clinging to your body in a creepily clammy way."

I want one.  21

Avatar
Colin Peyresourde replied to Jacobi | 9 years ago
0 likes
Quote:

Pretty much everything you don't want in a cycling jacket

.....but I can buy ten of them for the price of a Rapha jacket, right?!?

 4  26  16  41  35

Avatar
KiwiMike replied to Colin Peyresourde | 9 years ago
0 likes
Colin Peyresourde wrote:
Quote:

Pretty much everything you don't want in a cycling jacket

.....but I can buy ten of them for the price of a Rapha jacket, right?!?

 4  26  16  41  35

Heh.

Somewhere there's an equation, combining cost of goods, relative value of quality of experience delivered versus time invested in use and recurrence of use over certain duration, to arrive at propensity to bag products at a certain price point.

I don't think anyone knows what that equation is.

People who can 'afford'§ Rapha* or other top-end kit don't have a 'bad time' due to 'weather', due to the technical superiority of design/construction/material.

People who can afford Lidl/Aldi et al will either suffer through or not go out. Or will, having never actually compared, bag said top-end kit as unnecessary.

It was ever thus.

§ meaning justify. Against that extra pint per week (= £3 x 52 = £156), for example.

* I don't own anything Rapha.

Avatar
I love my bike replied to KiwiMike | 8 years ago
0 likes
KiwiMike wrote:
Colin Peyresourde wrote:
Quote:

Pretty much everything you don't want in a cycling jacket

.....but I can buy ten of them for the price of a Rapha jacket, right?!?

 4  26  16  41  35

Heh.

Somewhere there's an equation, combining cost of goods, relative value of quality of experience delivered versus time invested in use and recurrence of use over certain duration, to arrive at propensity to bag products at a certain price point.

I don't think anyone knows what that equation is.

People who can 'afford'§ Rapha* or other top-end kit don't have a 'bad time' due to 'weather', due to the technical superiority of design/construction/material.

People who can afford Lidl/Aldi et al will either suffer through or not go out. Or will, having never actually compared, bag said top-end kit as unnecessary.

It was ever thus.

§ meaning justify. Against that extra pint per week (= £3 x 52 = £156), for example.

* I don't own anything Rapha.

Many more & very much more expensive kit does not seem to be cut much better. However being prestige brands, it seems to be accepted.

Decathlon shows that it can be possible to manufacure functional kit for not much money. Unfortunately Lidl & Aldi mostly don't get the cut right & along with Decathlon often choose rather questionable colour schemes.

Avatar
jacknorell replied to KiwiMike | 8 years ago
0 likes
KiwiMike wrote:

§ meaning justify. Against that extra pint per week (= £3 x 52 = £156), for example.

Unless your local is a Wetherspoons, those are some cheap pints! £4.50 and up around my way...

Avatar
hsiaolc | 9 years ago
0 likes

wasted every ones time to review it and read it.

Should have just put it on and then take it off and leave it as that.

Avatar
Leeroy_Silk replied to hsiaolc | 9 years ago
0 likes

Surely the purpose of a review is to help the reader decide whether something is worth buying? Or not in this case.

If I was in the market for a "fwappy" jacket this might just be the ticket.  1

Avatar
KiwiMike replied to hsiaolc | 9 years ago
0 likes
hsiaolc wrote:

wasted every ones time to review it and read it.

Should have just put it on and then take it off and leave it as that.

That's not how it works.

Companies submit stuff. It gets dished out (there's actually a list of stuff up for review that reviewers get to wave hands for - you'd be amazed how many people opt to review the DfT Transport Cycling Policy manuals over the latest Exposure lights/Lightweight wheelsets).

Once dished out, it get reviewed. There's no arbitrary 'This Was So Crap I'm Not Going To Bother' option.

Becuase you, dear Road.CC reader, might be tempted by this product. Indeed on the face of it it doesn't look bad for the price. There are products out there at this price point that have rated highly in Road.CC reviews - the Decathlon jackets spring to mind.

This one, however, is by all accounts a steaming pile of extruded polymer with a marketing budget.

You deserve to know this. Anyone searching for reviews on this product deserves to know this.

This is why we write. This is why Jo suffered in fwappy ignominy, mocked by Raphaites and the Castellati in uber-snug £250 jackets, braving the cold and wet, so that others might be spared his pain.

All for the Greater Good.

Knowledge is power. It's all good.

Pedal on.

Avatar
sethpistol replied to hsiaolc | 8 years ago
0 likes
hsiaolc wrote:

wasted every ones time to review it and read it.

Should have just put it on and then take it off and leave it as that.

Disagree, I think this demonstrates well what 'crap kit' looks like and gives context to good reviews, also helps people that do go for the 'budget option' realise it might not really be value for money since they will have to go buy another jacket instead!

Avatar
The _Kaner | 9 years ago
0 likes

"All that spare material in the wind also makes a lot of fwappy noise."

Now, far be it from me to judge anyone's personal habits whilst out for a bike ride...
...but fwappy noises!!!???
 24

Avatar
KiwiMike | 9 years ago
0 likes

"On the plus side once the jacket is weighed down with saturated water it stops flapping away in the wind, and as it's not a breathable jacket at least you'll be warm and wet."

Never let it be said that Road.CC reviewers are fixated on the negative  1

Avatar
sneakerfrfeak | 9 years ago
0 likes

I'll bet the review of this jacket doesn't attract half as much vitriol as that directed at relatively more expensive jackets that actually perform really well.

Avatar
Grizzerly | 9 years ago
0 likes

Don't mince words, tell us what you really think!  4

Avatar
nowasps | 9 years ago
0 likes

Yes, but is it any good?

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