Rivelo Barbondale Merino SS Jersey

Rivelo is a house brand of online sporting goods site Sportpursuit – hence the 'RRP' of £100 for the Barbondale jersey needs to be taken with a hefty pinch of salt. If you're happy to wait around for the Barbondale to be 'on sale' around the currently listed £39.99, grab one. At £100 it's not bad – at £40, it's a steal.

• Pros: Premium manufacturing, design, technical features and decent material, possible bargain price
• Cons: Fiddly zip with gloves on, dropped hem is a bit loose, sleeves could be longer

Rivelo's brand ethos is full of words like 'British', 'understated' and 'classic' – and in the red/blue colourway with white trim the Barbondale is only a few Tetris moves from being a Union flag. This design language is carried across the brand, and it's a nice look in my opinion.

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Fortunately for me Rivelo hasn't gone full-sportive-gent-vanity with the sizing, so the Medium is bang on my 38in chest/32in waist for what you'd call a racy fit (it's not me in the photos). I'd prefer the sleeves to be a bit longer, but they did manage to cover arm warmers without a Mind The Gap warning needed from any sartorial police. If you're not needing to pair with arm warmers, they're just fine.

There are a fair few tech features to mention, starting with the build – flatlocked seams throughout, in complementing blue thread. There are three decently deep rear pockets ready to take a long ride's worth of stuff, and a zipped valuables pocket just able to take an iPhone 5-sized mobile – anything larger will struggle, especially in a case.

At the base of the centre pocket is a wee strip of reflective, and the white branded pocket trim is suitably springy to keep contents in place.

On the inside of the warm-kidney-friendly dropped hem there's a silicone grip-strip, which could have been tighter. With a reasonable load of food/tools and some rolled-up arm warmers, the hem lifted away and could be felt flapping a bit.

The zip features a full-length flap of the same fabric to minimise any breeze, which is appreciated but I'm not sure how noticeable because the rest of the jersey's a nicely breathable fabric; possibly it's a boon for the hairier gent who is riding sans baselayer.

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The zip flap ends in a folded garage to remove any scratchiness when done up. Running cold as I do, there are gloves involved for any ride below about 13 degrees, and here I found the small zip tag to be too small for gloved fingers to find reliably every time. Could be bigger.

Paired with a merino baselayer, the 50/50 merino-poly mix material kept me warm in 12-18°C rainy, windy rides. Toward the warmer end of that spectrum, judicious use of the zip helped control excess heat. Merino's wonderful stuff but can suck up moisture and not let it go as quickly – the mix used here breathes well out in the open and not too badly under a shell. Obviously your own personal microclimate will dictate, but I found no overt dampness to be an issue.

If your position on the bike tends toward more stretched out you might find the Barbondale's arm-shoulder cut to be a little restrictive – this is clearly a cut less for the aero-barred whippet, more the relaxed scenery-devouring all-day rider. But then we're back to the design language of 'classic' here – and that's what Rivelo is clearly aiming for here. The fiddly zip and rear hem notwithstanding, if you can grab a Barbondale for £40 you'll be smiling all the way to that well-earned real ale pub stop.

Verdict

A nicely done classic jersey with good features, and great value on sale (which it often is)