Gilets

Featherlight by name, featherlight by nature, this gilet from Craft Performance is extremely lightweight and packable. Does it still do as good a job at protecting you from the elements as a gilet should?

The Sportful Hot Pack Vest is a good windproof gilet that's incredibly lightweight and takes up hardly any space in your pocket when you don't need it on.

It's made from nylon with a little polyurethane thrown in there, and rather than a vent across the yoke, you get mesh panels that run down either side of the back.

The front's fabric doesn't let any wind through while a tall, close-fitting neck and elasticated armholes and hem ensure that cold air doesn't nip in around the edges. You get a baffle behind the zip too.

Safety vests probably aren't going to win any awards at the next fashion show (although who knows, perhaps fluorescent is this years florals) but there is no denying their ability to make you seen on the road. Craft's offering is well cut and designed, with features like a meshed backing and plenty of reflective material showing their prestige as a quality clothing manufacturer.

There aren't that many companies producing female specific cut lightweight windproof gilets- that staple for providing increased warmth with a very low weight penalty- and fewer still producing gilets cut with cycling in mind, rather than running, Rapha are one of them though.

That said, though, the women's Gilet from Rapha is by quite some way the most expensive of the options available to the female cyclist, and also not the lightest. So is it worth the Rapha premium?

Louis Garneau's Electra 2 convertible windproof/gilet forms a versatile all-round outer layer for autumn and spring. it's not particularly warm or waterproof but still comes in handy until winter kicks in, and even then it has its uses.

The Rapha Gilet, from the renowned London based cycle wear brand, is designed with milder weather in mind, the sort of changeable conditions for which the British summer and indeed autumn, depending on where you live, is famous for. It certainly ticks all the boxes that define all of Rapha's kit; stylishly understated - check, well made - check, exorbitantly priced - check.