Rapha Men’s Pro Team Gore-Tex Lightweight Rain Jacket

The Rapha Pro Team Gore-Tex Lightweight Rain Jacket (‘the jacket’ from hereon!) is a high-end and extremely lightweight offering positioned as a worthy replacement to the brand’s discontinued Shakedry jacket. Using the next generation Gore-Tex fabric, it is very waterproof and impressively light for a three-layer fabric, although it doesn’t pack down as small as a (two-layer) Shakedry jacket.

> Buy now: Rapha Pro Team Gore-Tex Lightweight Rain Jacket for £295 from Rapha

Shakedry jackets had a moment, and then that moment ended, rather suddenly, when the world belatedly decided that using forever chemicals (PFAS) in clothing was something it would be best to avoid. It would be unfair to focus too much on Shakedry, as Gore (and many of its competitors) had been using PFAS in its fabrics and membranes for years, well before Shakedry emerged as the sliced bread of outerwear.

Sorry, did I say we shouldn’t focus too much on Shakedry? Yeah, scrub that – Rapha’s own marketing for this jacket makes an explicit comparison to its last Shakedry model, and in reality the question that most folk lucky enough to have £295 burning a hole in their pocket and a hankering for a new jacket are going to be asking is: “How does this new one compare to that other one that everyone kept wanging on about all the time?” (Deep breath, I mentioned it five times and I think I got away with it.)

So yeah, I will be looking at that key comparison in this review, because if you’re in the market for a jacket then I think that’ll be one of the things you’ll be keen to read about.

The Next Generation Gore-Tex used here is a three-layer fabric, so there is a membrane sandwiched between two face fabrics – this was how most waterproofs were made until Shakedry. So it is pretty astonishing that this can result in a jacket that Rapha claims weighs less than the equivalent Shakedry. I don’t have a Rapha Shakedry jacket but I weighed this jacket and my Castelli Idro Shakedry and they were exactly the same, to the gram. Impressive! It feels more robust than the Shakedry fabric too.

Fit

As befits a piece labelled as Pro Team, this jacket has a slim racy fit. A large was snug but not constrictive on me wearing summer gear underneath (I’m 6ft 2in and currently 84kg). Over a baselayer and winter jersey it was, er, taut. One of the factors in play here is that the fabric here is not at all stretchy. Unlike the Santini Magic that Dave reviewed recently, the fabric here feels a bit more like “old school waterproofs” to me, albeit in a lighter weight than they used to be. Thus, the fit around the arms is not as snug as it would be with a bit of elasticity, and I was quite taken aback when descending on my first ride at what a noisy jacket this is at speed.

To be honest, I prefer an elastic fabric – it allows for both a racier fit and for a bit more leeway with layering, and as we’ve seen with jackets such as the MAAP Atmos, you can get top-drawer rain protection even with a bit of stretch.

Rapha launched this jacket only in the dark grey colour tested here. Rapha describes the fabric used as a woven ripstop, and indeed it has the fine cross-hatched pattern that you’d expect from a ripstop, in black here. At the time of writing, Rapha’s website also offers the EF-Education white version, from the “Il Grande Switchout” (when EF-Education moves away from its habitual pink for the Giro), but I suspect this won’t be available for long.

The various white Rapha and Gore-Tex logos and stripes on my test jacket are all reflective, so there is reasonable nocturnal visibility (although my guess is that the EF version lacks the reflectives).

Performance

In use, the Rapha jacket mostly lives up to the marketing spiel about delivering peak performance in the worst conditions. As has been noted on road.cc before, making an entirely waterproof jacket is fairly simple – the eternal challenge is making one that keeps rain out and also allows sweat to escape. I tested these two things in isolation and together here, to give a picture of how the Rapha jacket performs in a range of conditions.

Waterproofing is – as you’d hope in a seam-sealed £295 jacket – excellent. Using my patented Prince Andrew Test Protocol, I rode fast in foul conditions on my e-bike, specifically to avoid sweating, while wearing the Rapha jacket over a long-sleeved cotton T-shirt (which is great at showing up any moisture penetration). On returning home, my T-shirt was bone dry all over. In particular, I noticed no penetration at all through the zip – the combination of a high-quality YKK Aquaguard Zip, the internal storm flap and the external Velcro flap on the chest didn’t let a drop through. I used the same technique on the same day to test another jacket I’m reviewing, and the results were really obviously less good than with the Rapha.

I used it as a top layer on cooler (10-12°C) dry mornings, riding at a medium and a hard pace, to see how well it breathed. Here it performed similarly to other quality lightweight waterproofs I’ve used, including the Shakedry, keeping me very comfortable at medium efforts and with some build-up of humidity inside when riding hard, although this was easy to manage by opening the zip from one end or the other. Notably, I didn’t feel that unpleasant clingy-sleeve sensation that you can get sometimes with some lightweight shells when worn over short sleeves.

The hardest conditions for a jacket such as this are always high-intensity rides in wet conditions, when you’re generating a lot of heat and sweat, and it’s also trying to keep the rain out. Once the outer face of a fabric wets out, its breathability is reduced and then you typically find sweat builds up inside. I’ve not yet found a jacket (Shakedry included) where this didn’t happen – it’s just physics.

In this jacket, high-intensity riding in the rain left me feeling clammy, particularly my arms. I found that when the rain stopped, the outer face of the fabric was pretty good at making the water bead and then drying out, whereupon the breathability would return quickly, so I’d say that it performed comparably to Shakedry, which is to say, about as well as any jacket I’ve used.

Weight & packability

Rapha makes a point about the weight of this jacket, and it is genuinely impressive – lighter than most summer jerseys we’ve tested recently.

Probably the area where it compares least favourably to Shakedry isn’t weight, however, it’s in packability. It’ll still fold down to go in a jersey pocket, but whereas my Castelli Shakedry jacket would fit in most jersey pockets with some other stuff wedged in there too, the fabric here is just that bit stiffer, which means it doesn’t fold down as small.

Is this a Big Problem? I don’t think it’s a dealbreaker, and there will be plenty of riders who aren’t worried about whether it packs down to a fist size or not, but for me personally, it would probably influence whether this would be the jacket I’d reach for on a big day out, where conditions meant it would be wise to bring a shell, but where I also needed pocket space for all the Haribos and everything else. In perfecting the balance of protection vs packed size, I don’t think you could fairly say that this jacket beats Shakedry.

Other notables

In terms of other details, there aren’t loads – you can’t have tons of features if you’re trying to make a 134g jacket. The YKK Aquaguard zip was a highlight for me – this is probably the first cycling jacket I’ve used with a double-ended zip where I haven’t hated it. Despite the two pulls, it was easy to join up, easy to open and close, and I really liked using the lower pull to let a bit of air in, or to access the contents of my jersey pockets. Top marks here!

The sleeves are a good length, with the underside of the cuffs elasticated and the upper side slightly extended to provide better coverage of the wrists. My Shakedry jacket has excessively tight cuffs and always feels like it will disintegrate when you yank it off over mitts (but never has); this jacket is notably easier to pull off and put on (even without stopping).

A bonus mark from me is also for the inclusion of a loop to hang it on a coat hook, and a section of soft fabric behind the top of the zip to improve comfort when done all the way up.

We don’t generally score gear on road.cc on the basis of aesthetics, as they are subjective, and what one person hates another may love. So I’ll just say that I’m not sure this is how I’d want a jacket to look if I was going to spend £295 on it (but I’m not scoring it on that basis). I think the ripstop fabric looks dated and for me the dark grey colour is just a bit gloomy. That said, it doesn’t compare unfavourably with Shakedry in this respect, which was never the best looking thing, to these eyes.

As well as this jacket, Rapha also offers the Gore-Tex Rain Jacket, also made from the next generation Gore-Tex, and costing £5 more despite not being sold as Pro Team kit. This is available in a nattier Jewelled Blue colour, with a zipped pocket added (at – I’m guessing – a modest weight penalty).

Value

To compare it with others that we’ve reviewed recently, the Santini Magic Packable Waterproof is less money (£200) but also definitely less waterproof. Mike was very impressed with the MAAP Atmos, which is a little less than the Rapha (£270), offers similar high-power protection from rain, but adds in the compelling bonus of a stretchy fabric.

And Iwein was generally satisfied with the 7mesh Mission Jacket, which is £300, and has the unusual feature of straps to attach itself to your bike, if that’s a thing you want to do.

For a lot less money (albeit at a significantly higher weight, if that matters to you) you can have the Galibier Tourmalet. It’s just over £80 and we’ve consistently rated it well. 

Take a look at our guide to the best cycling jackets for more options.

Conclusion

In a post-Shakedry world, then, the Rapha Pro Team Gore-Tex Lightweight Rain Jacket does an excellent job of keeping rain out, helping sweat escape, and weighing almost nothing – performing comparably to its Shakedry ancestors in these areas but hopefully creating just a little bit less harm to the planet and the health of its inhabitants as it does so. It is very expensive, coming in at £70 above Gore’s own Spinshift jacket, made with the same next generation membrane, but that is not unexpected from Rapha.

If you like the look of it, and if you prioritise protection from rain over ultimate packability and a stretch-enabled sleek fit, then I’d say it’s a strong offering, albeit at a substantial price. If you’ve already got a Shakedry jacket, then I don’t think it makes a compelling case for you to replace it. Without downplaying the importance of environment credentials, I would say that they are about the only area where this is a clear step forwards from Shakedry.

> Buy now: Rapha Pro Team Gore-Tex Lightweight Rain Jacket for £295 from Rapha

Verdict

Excellent protection from the rain, a very effective shell but not really improving on Shakedry – and more than £2/gram

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