Gear

love the look of the Trail Stretch Top, might have to try one of those.

the baltoro guide jacket looks nice too...not to dissimilar to mine i guess apart from the colour and the use of lighter fabrics.

Still i cant fault mine and thinks its a cracking jacket especially for £99

Enjoyed reading that, I like Rab gear, I'm a fan of their Vapour Rise stuff. I tried their new Super Dru jacket on at Needlesports in Keswick over the weekend. I liked the fabric reinforcements on strategic areas but the main eVent lightweight fabric felt a little too flimsy for my liking.. I'd worry about snagging it on thorns or it scraping against rock during bad scrambling technique, ie bellyflopping. I think I'll buy the good old Rab Bergen instead.

Tower ridge have some good offers on rab gear...i just did a quick search for the trail stretch top and their site came up.

they have the reactor jacket in but only in xl...shame as i could possibly have gone one for my gf.

I liked the look of the VR Trail Stretch Top too, having used a similar jacket from Patagonia for a number of years - the lightly-lined windproof fabric idea is brilliant! But I tried on the new Rab on at the weekend and unfortunately it didn't quite do it for me. The sleeves were a bit too long, but the main issue was the collar - it hung untidily when the zip was open and stayed quite loose and gaping at the front with the zip done up. And when I tried the neck drawcord, rather than pull the neck in tightly around me, it left the front loose still while pulling the stretch fabric up and off my shoulders at the back! (I'm not sure what would have happened with a pack on.) So a shame but a great idea not quite well enough executed to get me to part with £80, and i really wanted one! :(

Jon, I notice you give the 'claimed weight' of the jackets. How about next time you visit a manufacturer you bring along some scales and tell us the real weight.

You can then ask the manufacturer to explain any discrepancy and find out when they plan to update their web-site and other publicity material.

We're getting a Super Dru and a Trail Stretch Top in for test in the next few weeks.

As far as weights go, all the weights we publish in tests are measured on our digital scales, manufacturers' claimed weights are generally reasonably accurate though obviously there's a variation between different sizes.

Occasionally stuff is lighter than claimed, sometimes it's heavier. Very occasionally there's a real howler. Weights for new products are generally based on pre-production samples, so not always the same as a production version.

Different companies sample in different sizes too. So Rab and Berghaus both have large pre-production stuff, Montane's is medium I think, so I suspect that the weight is done from whichever size it is. There's not usually a massive difference anyway.

Could this be a cue for another Rab sale to clear out some of the old stock? Did anyone get a date for their next one last time out at Matlock?

I think I've been wary of manufacturer's claimed weights ever since I bought a Montane 180 - "The world's lightest..." "180g - Large" only to find it weighed 209g. I know 29g isn't much, but when you make claims like world's lightest and even name the thing after the weight, you really ought to make sure it is accurate. I noticed they later listed the 200 jacket as weighing 220g!

I don't own anything by Rab. I've been tempted by the VR stuff, but while I see Rab list the new trail jacket at 430g, almost acceptable to replace a fleece/windshell combo, this shop seems to have weighed it at 555g for a medium.

If the shop has got it that badly wrong then Rab should probably tell them to sort it out as it could well lose them sales. If Rab have got it wrong (based on pre-production samples or whatever) then it shouldn't take them long to update their web-site, should it?

does it make a difference if you're wearing it?

Err, yes.

Does it make a difference if you weigh 12 stone or 18 stone?

120 gms in what you're wearing!?! i'll wear mine and not drink the mug of tea, get my hair cut and a have general waxing instead ;-)


<starts paring away at toenails>

430g for a VR Trail jacket? hmmm... my size M VR Trail smock weighs 501g. I can't see how the jacket would be lighter than the smock. Maybe the weights are quoted at 'S'?

Anyone know if the Trail Smock has more room across the shoulders.

I tried the old ones and for me(skinny medium) it felt too tight across the shoulders. So much so that it felt like it could rip.

Super Dru looks very impressive for 400g, although why would anyone now bother buying the latok "alpine" if its heavier and yet lacks the abrasion resist reinforcements?

An event jacket with pit zips . i was on the understanding that event fabric did away with the need for them as it was so breathable.

Now there putting pit zips in there new jackets .

Whats the story there then

beh - thing is with the Super Dru, it may have the reinforced panels on areas prone to rucsack abrasion but, the rest of the jacket is made from a lightweight variant of eVent. Both the Latok and Latok Alpine are made from a heavier, more abrasion-forgiving grade of eVent overall.

and where is the gear for girls ?...

Outdoors - There are some new Rab Utility pants out this spring for girls. Haven't had a chance to photograph them yet but they are slightly different from the gents version , cut obviously, and they don't have the cargo pocket - they have like a vertical zipped smaller pocket near the thigh I think.