Lusso Paragon Deep Winter Bib Tights

The Lusso Paragon Deep Winter Bib Tights keep you shielded from the very worst of the weather with an excellent combination of technical fabrics and membranes. They’re not cheap, but they are excellent – plus they’re heavily recycled and made in the UK.

Manchester in the depths of winter has some weather and Lusso, which is based there, has a solid grip on what it takes to cope with it. The clue’s in the name, but the Deep Winter bibtights are aimed squarely at those conditions, with Lusso suggesting a temperature range of -5 to 10 degrees centigrade.

There are a total of six different fabrics used here. You get windproof and waterproof membrane panels on the front, DWR-treated Roubaix fabric on the rear of the legs, and a couple of different breathable fabrics for the top half – Polartec PowerGrid on the front and a mesh for the back and sides. There’s a higher-stretch Roubaix panel behind the knee to improve articulation, and a further membrane at the bottom of the legs.

Five of those materials are 100% recycled, and the last is 95% recycled. All of them are free of PTFE and PFAs. The bibs are made in Manchester with fabrics milled in Italy, so overall I’d say Lusso is doing pretty much everything possible to reduce the impact of its products on the environment – full marks here.

Elastic Interface supplies the Paragon pad, and Lusso uses the ‘floating’ arrangement where the pad is only attached at the front and rear. The theory is the small movement that allows between the pad (moving with your backside) and the outer fabric (moving with the saddle) aids comfort, and Lusso reckons it’s good for eight hours in the saddle.

The first thing you’ll probably have noticed is the rather unusual bib arrangement – it looks more like a tri-suit than tights. The sides come all the way up to the armpits and there’s a zip down the front; useful for tuning the warmth. It’s interesting to see manufacturers trying new things, and Lusso’s thinking seems focused on keeping your core warm and comfortable. The only comparable arrangement I could find was from another northern brand, Spatz. Its ‘Bibz with built-in gilet’ have a similar concept.

And I’m… not quite convinced. Conventional straps work well for me, and if I want my torso a bit warmer I’d rather use a base layer, thicker jersey or a gilet. Mid-ride pee stops are a bit more faff here – feasible, but you have to reach up inside your jersey to pull the zip down. And without a base layer the zip is not quite as comfortable as having no zip. It’s certainly not a major issue, but for me it’s different without being better.

What of the legs then? Here the Paragons are really outstanding. All of the fabrics feel super cosy against the skin, and the combination of membrane at the front and more conventional Roubaix at the back shields you without anything getting uncomfortable. I’ve used bibtights with membranes before, and it’s a tricky balance between protection and flexibility – the lack of stretch can lead to tightness over your knees when pedalling. There’s none of that here.

You know when you’re riding under wet trees in the winter and fat droplets land on your thighs as you pass? In my experience, no DWR treatment will stop this from getting through immediately, but the Paragons keep out light rain, heavy rain and even those big fat droplets. On rides up to six hours in the rain my legs never felt cold, and they stayed largely dry throughout. I can’t emphasise enough how much more effective these are than bibs that rely on nothing but DWR. It’s night and day.

The membrane extends from the belly button down to the lower calves at the front, and wraps around to cover a section of your lower back. The backs of your legs don’t get nearly as much water landing on them, and hence the DWR-treated Roubaix is perfectly adequate there.

A word about the fit. In my (large) size the legs at first felt quite tight, while the top section felt slightly over-sized and baggy. I found this resulted in the legs and pad gradually working their way south. I talked to Lusso, who said this was probably a pre-production sample pair, and the patterning of the top section had been changed to address it. A second pair arrived and the fit was clearly better – the top was less baggy and kept everything better in place. Over a few rides the legs softened up a mite too, so they weren’t quite as tight to put on.

Lusso’s own website has reviews mentioning this issue, so it looks like mine wasn’t the only pair to go out not quite right.

There are a few things to take away from this. Firstly, it’s nice to see Lusso not only leaving the less positive reviews up, but offering to take back the product/make adjustments to fix them. That’s such a breath of fresh air, and not something many brands (with production on the other side of the world) could do.

At the bottom of the legs is a ‘shin seal,’ a long cuff made of a stretchy but stiffer membrane fabric, designed to sit outside your shoe cover so the rain runs over, rather than into, your shoes. It works an absolute treat. It’s long and tight enough to stay in place for hours on end, making a big difference to how warm and dry my feet stayed in foul conditions.

What of the promised eight-hour pad comfort? I found it fine for the 5-6 hour rides I did, though if I’m being picky I’d like it positioned slightly further back. It’s plush and made with a nice dense foam, though, so I expect most people will get on well with it. I couldn’t sense any benefit of the ‘floating pad’ arrangement, but then I felt no downsides either. Plus it’s mildly interesting to see what the other side of a pad looks like. Assuming you’re also into mildly interesting.

It never reached -5°C during the test, but I had plenty of days in single figures. For me these were certainly warm and comfortable enough down to near zero. I suffer a little less on very cold days than some friends, and I’d expect these to work well for me below zero too.

The Paragon Deep Winter tights are available only in black and only in men’s sizing. Night-time visibility is enhanced by those large reflective logos on the thighs. The small text on the right calf is reflective too, and advertises that they’re made in Manchester. I like that.

The majority of the competition we’ve tested offer either no rain protection or merely a DWR treatment, but we have seen a handful with membrane protection, such as the very warm Stolen Goat Alpine Bodylines which Iwein rated well. They’re a bit less at £160, but best suited to very cold days.

Assos’s ultra high end Mille GTO Bib Tights C2 are wildly expensive at a did-you-mix-the-numbers-up £420, but Ben reckoned they offer excellent protection on cold days. Some might expect armed protection for that much, but no. Assos also offers the Mille GT Eisenherz Ultraz with an unusual construction, consisting of two layers which are only joined at the back, and an unusual name that sounds like the very group you need armed protection from. They’re an absolute snip at £305.

Overall

Having given a rare five stars to Lusso’s outstanding Paragon jacket, I’m once again very impressed by Lusso. At £225 (currently reduced to £199) these bibtights are not cheap, but the protection is really top drawer, and they’re absolutely my first choice on a miserable, cold day.

The fact they’re made locally, and about as sustainably as is realistically possible, is admirable too. I’d prefer a set with conventional bibstraps, and the pad positioning isn’t quite perfect for my bum, but neither issue detracts from what these do really well: keeping you warm and impressively dry when the weather turns truly foul.