Gorewear Lupra Gore-Tex Pants Mens

The Gorewear Lupra Gore-Tex Pants are tough, really well shaped, impressively breathable and ideal for wet gravel and mountain bike rides. If you’re from the UK, rest assured they’re not actually, in either sense of the word, pants.

> Buy from Amazon for £130.26

At £199.99 these are not cheap, but if you ride off-road in all weathers, they’re worth it. In fact, my biggest complaint with the price is that we won’t be able to pay it for much longer. Gorewear has ceased to exist, and I for one was genuinely sad to hear WL Gore & Associates’ announcement about it. (Note the parent fabric company will continue; it’s just the cycling and running apparel bit that’s closed.)

With that out of the way, let me tell you what makes these so good.

The thing you notice as soon as you put them on is the shaping. They’re tall at the back and a little voluminous in the bum, but that gives excellent, relaxed coverage once you reach for the bars. The thighs are normal trouser proportions – loose but nowhere near flappy, unlike cheap waterproof overtrousers – and the legs taper strongly to the ankle via roomy knee sections that don’t pull too tightly as you pedal.

Much of the taper comes from the popper around mid-calf height, which cinches about two inches out of the circumference. Leave it open for extra overtrouser room, or do it up to avoid flappery and interference with chains.

At the cuffs you have another popper with a choice of two receivers, letting you tune the tightness a little. The folds the poppers create also shield the shoe-friendly 12in zips that run up from the cuffs.

The snugged-down result is a sleek but not tight fit that moves easily as you pedal, but doesn’t flap even at speed or in massive headwinds, such as found in Wales, where even pedalling downhill is hard. The fabric has a pretty loud crinkle to it, but while I found it really noticeable walking around (especially indoors), I didn’t ever think about it while actually riding.

The waist has only a simple drawstring, and while at first the trousers pulled down a little as I pedalled, properly tightening the stretchy drawstring – to the point where I can’t remove the trousers without undoing it – fixed that. I couldn’t feel the string even with it tight, and these stay very comfortable.

What I particularly like is that, even if it didn’t rain, I never had reason to regret wearing them. The Gore-Tex ePE fabric breathes very well, and the windproofing helps with warmth even if you’ve got just socks or bare skin beneath. They also never felt sweaty. Temperatures were typically 2-8°C during the test period, however, so I can’t vouch for how these are during wet and mild seasons such as summer. I did try them over insulated winter tights on an 8°C ride, though, and even that didn’t get sweaty, so the signs are good.

Being Gore-Tex, these are also predictably good at resisting rain and spray – excellent, in fact – and while you wouldn’t want to be sliding down mountains in them every day, they feel like they’d survive the odd crash well.

While they’re not built for featherlike packability, their 200g mass still squashes down well enough to carry for emergencies. The useful zipped hip pocket can be used as a stowage pouch.

If you want to be noticed by those behind you and feel the reflective details here aren’t enough, there’s also a version with fluoro yellow rear panels from knee to ankle.

Value

As I said at the start, £199.99 isn’ t cheap, and you can buy cheaper. The Endura GV500 Waterproof Trousers are a good option at £150, though prolonged heavy rain will eventually get the better of them.

The Jack Wolfskin Bike Commute Wi Pants M are cheaper still at £115 and breathable enough for proper riding. Fit is good with a pretty good taper, but they’re noticeably less sophisticated than the Gorewears.

Don’t go thinking the Lupras are unusually expensive, though – you can easily spend more. For instance the Albion Zoa Rain Trousers are £265, up from £200 in less than three years.

For me, the Gorewear Lupras earn their price tag with impressive quality and performance. They may not be the cheapest, but they are among the best. They did go up fully £20 during testing, however, which was a little tough to swallow (they were £179.99 when we got them), especially as Gorewear were planning to cease production.

> Best waterproof cycling trousers 2026 — keep your legs dry and warm throughout winter with some quality waterproofs

Overall

These are great: they’re built and shaped really well, they’re comfortable and secure, and they’re very breathable. They offer excellent protection from wind and rain. The Lupras are very easy to recommend.