PEdAL ED Tokaido Alpha Vest

The PEdAL ED Tokaido Alpha vest is a useful layer that'll see some use all year round in UK conditions. It's expensive, but you'll get your money's worth out of it.

• Pros: Good fit, warm for the weight and pack size
• Cons: Flappy shoulders, three pockets would be better than two

The Tokaido vest has been tested on the trails of Kyrgyzstan with the Silk Road Mountain Race, so it's a garment designed for tough conditions. The Mendips aren't quite as remote or high but it still gets pretty dismal up there at this time of year, and I was mostly very impressed with this vest.

> Buy this online here

The fit is good: I was wearing an XL and it was more or less perfect on me, so sizing is pretty good, maybe a touch on the small side of average. When it's on it doesn't have the look of something that's going to be particularly warm – it's not bulky or puffy – but actually it's a really good layer to have in the wardrobe.

When it's cold and dry you can wear it over a light winter jersey and it'll keep you warmer than you'd expect. It's impressively windproof, with a sizeable baffle behind the zip, and the Polartec Alpha insulation means you're noticeably warmer on those days when it's bitter out. It doesn't look or feel like expedition gear, though: it just looks like a pretty standard riding gilet, really. It's understated, with a reflective decal front and rear and a two-colour finish.

If it's wet you can layer up with a hardshell jacket and it works well like that too. The material wicks better than you'd think: I tended to find that the outside of the gilet was the bit that got wet, suggesting it's moving sweat away from your body more efficiently than a hardshell jacket can deal with it. Even on some long rides in some pretty abysmal conditions it stayed comfortable, even when I ended up reasonably wet in spite of my best efforts.

The vest is very quick to dry; hang it over a radiator in the cafe and it'll be dry again by the time you leave. Out on the bike the fact that it's very windproof works against it a bit if the inside has got wet, but it's still pretty good at drying itself out.

Practicality is good. Polartec Alpha is very low density and the gilet stuffs into a small pocket on the rear. The resulting package is easy to stow in a jersey pocket or bag; you could compress it further with straps if you're short of space.

You get two pockets at the rear, which I found a bit big: stuff tended to rattle around in them a bit. It'd be better with a more standard three-pocket arrangement, I think.

My only other bugbear with the vest is that the outer layer isn't attached to the inner over the shoulders except at the seam, which means it flaps about a lot in the wind. It would be easily solved by adding a bit of stitching there, and I've hacked mine with some extra lines of stitching which has improved matters considerably.

As for price, £150 is an awful lot of money for a vest top, but this is the kind of thing you can wear in a variety of different conditions so you'll get your money's worth out of it over time. It's surprisingly warm, very windproof and breathable. It's not waterproof but it works well with a hardshell jacket, so it's something that'll get dragged out of the drawer for both wet and dry rides in the winter. For the rest of the year it's a useful, packable layer to take the edge off early starts or late finishes, or just colder days.

> Buyer's Guide: 9 of the best cycling gilets

We're seeing more insulated cycling kit as bikepacking influences road and gravel riding; a full insulated jacket is a nice thing to have on those really bitter days but something like this, that you can layer up with summer or winter gear, is more versatile, and the Polartec Alpha fabric is really impressive.

Verdict

Warm, packable layer for changeable conditions or staying comfortable on long rides or tours