I'm looking to buy a light shelled jacket, but with a thin layer of insulation.
The jackets I'm looking at are the Montane Hyper-Lite, Marmot Driclime and Buffalo Equimax.
Does anyone have any experience of any of these jackets, and know if they're any good?
Cheers,
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 I have just got a Montane Featherlite Smock from backpackinglight.co.uk, but it doesn't have your thin layer of insulation. Then again the medium weighs in at 3oz (I have the XL which weighs around 4oz I think)!
I tend to wear a layer system of wicking t-shirt, micro-fleece top and then a windshirt like the Featherlite (I had used a golite wisper previousily) or if I need extra warmth as it is freezing a down smock like the Liv Down Smock (320g for the large), and put the Featherlite on top of that if need be.
Unless it is tipping down heavily when I start out, I don't take heavy waterproofs now days, both of the above pack down so small and weigh so little they are always in my rucksack since getting them.
Not the answer you wanted, but maybe food for thought.
But also call/email Bob about the above jacket he would be able to give you more info on it. His contact details can be found on his website www.backpackinglight.co.uk
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Jason-have a look at the "Windproof Fleece" thread on this forum,especially capt. paranoia's post on micropile lined windproofs.
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| Edited: 13/02/06 11:25 |
 windproof fleece thread. I've not used any of the jackets you're looking at, but have used earlier Montane efforts (Krypton smock), and other similar style items, and find them very useful. Personally, I'd go for one with a hood, then it can truly be a shell. If you're wanting it for cycling, the hood is less relevant.
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 Yeah i got a mountain equipment one from the Factory shop in Glossp, its very similar to the Montaine one but was £15 instead of £38 or whatever the montaine one is! Bargain! not sure if they have any left tho!
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Thanks for the advice. I was really interested in finding out about the Buffalo Equimax--because of its use of two good materials, Pertex Equilibrium and Coolmax--but no one seems to know anything about it. And, at £90, I'm not going to shell out blind for it. The Marmot Driclime looks like a very good jacket but I found the neck gaped open too much for me to risk it. Nope, I've decided to ditch the whole idea and go with Wierd Darren's advice of a windshell with various layers underneath. I have used this approach before, with my old Buffalo windshirt over a Helly baselayer and an M&S lambswool jumper--an awesome combination which kept me more or less ok one Scottish winter a few years back. So I'm going to go with a Montane Lite Speed, and will upgrade to some better quality insulation layers now that Ibex have a sale on (www.ibex.com).
Cheers,
Jason
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| Edited: 18/02/06 21:35 |
 Much too late for the original question this of course  However I recently got an O3 shirt which uses the same liner as the Equimax jacket but with a quantum outer so can give a bit more information about it. The liner isn't like Coolmax socks say - it's really is a mesh not continous material. Compared to micropile it's not as warm or comfortable next to the skin. But it still felt fine to me as a single layer and it is surprisngly warm. Indeed slightly too warm for the time I tried it (a fast walk around the peak on a dry day this August.). That did at least confirm that it did it's job dealing with sweat very well  I'd expect it to deal with rain and the like well enough too but I'm yet to test that. Their original idea behind putting the liner in the O3 was apparently to stop the fabric clinging to bare skin. Useful with quantum (over t shirts say) but it must be less so with equilibrium which is much more solid. So basically it's a equilibrium shell somewhere between the vapour rise stuff and the dynamos from Montane in warmth. They don't seem to have included any stretch so it'll have to fit well to start with (also finding one may well be near impossible.).
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Hi Martin, thanks for the reply after all this time. In the end I went for a Marmot DriClime, which I was able to get from the US at around half the price of the Equimax, and which I am very happy with. I'd still like to get a look at the Equimax though, or get some feedback (something, anything...!) from someone (a user must be out there somewhere...). I have a RAB quantum windshirt which I use for running and xc skiing. Quantum is great stuff--appears to be very fragile but performs very well in cold and dry situations where I don't have to carry very much. Jason
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No problem. While there must be a few users I wouldn't hold your breath It's pretty rare to find any Buffalo's besides the really warm P/P stuff in shops. In fact I'd be surprised if they're making anything else at the moment - they're very busy with millitary orders and winter stuff etc. If you're really interested then probably your best (only realistic) chance would be contacting Buffalo to see if they have any lying around. They're happy to deliver things to shops so that you either buy it or pay for the postage there and back if not. Some shops might cover the postage for you of course It's how I got the O3 this - I noticed it in their catalogue online and e-mailed to find out why anyone would make a 275g Quantum windshirt.... They were very helpful with info about it. Don't expect organisation though - three weeks to deliver a jacket across the pennines?! Annoyingly perhaps ithe equimax is one of the few jackets they do which doesn't use their basic shirt pattern so fit might won't be easy to tell in advance. It's a shame they don't have a factory shop really. Really though it probably won't do much that the driclime won't so it's strictly a luxury thing. I got the 03 out of curiosity as much as anything. I wonder how many of those they sold.... Not sure how I'd get on with a pure quantum windshirt but I've got one of those microlight ones from Montane. Very nice
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Martin, one interesting thing about the O3/Equimax jackets is that they use a mesh lining, whereas the RAB/Montane etc equivalents use microflece or some sort of brushed polyester lining. Do you think that the use of mesh puts the O3 in (sort of) a slightly different category than the others?
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Well Certainly when I got the 03 I was wondering if it would work as a single layer during wet and windy summer days. The mesh liner certainly isn't as warm or as heavy as the ones used in the micropile garments. iirc Buffalo gave the warmth at windshirt + thin base layer with the vents shut but it's slightly more than that I suspect. I guess that having the layers sewn together must help it trap air. Actually thinking about it there was almost no wind the day I tried it - if there is some then venting it might well have kept the temperature comfortable enough. It wasn't so badly over warm in the first place. It's not for 30 degree summer days of course! My main worry with it is durability - I'd probably prefer it to be microlight instead. Oh well The equimax will be slightly different as it's a jacket and Equilibrium is a bit thicker/warmer. It should also be a fair bit more weather resistant of course. Whether there's a noticeable difference in performance when worn in rain I'm yet to discover. I can't see the mesh holding much water itself and the Pertex won't of course. Perhaps some potential for it to be trapped between the layers though.
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| Edited: 19/09/08 19:50 |
Keep us posted on your progress with the O3 when you've been able to test it a bit more--and especially as the weather turns a bit cooler.
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| Edited: 19/09/08 19:59 |
Martin, an afterthought: what's the hood like on the O3?
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