Nighttime jacket recommendation?
 

I ride home from work around midnight and the temps are dropping precipitously. I need something reflective that cuts the wind. Anyone use a Brooks Nightlife jacket or have another favorite?

Thanks in advance.

If you don't mind a little sweat on your arms, the Performance Illuminite works well as long as the temperature is below 50. It's too warm above that for me.

Just wear a reflective vest. For $5, it's more reflective than pretty much any jacket you're going to find, then you can wear whatever jacket you like instead of being limited to just those that are also reflective.

I have this jacket and love it,
http://www.bicycleclothing.com/Water...n-Jackets.html
I've had it several years, wearing it 100+ days a year (all winter with layers under) and it shows no sign of wear. It has a little reflective stuff on it, but I'm a real believer in the above advice.

I just got a C9 jacket from Target - I like it so far. Worn with a long sleeve jersey under it and I'm decent in 25 degrees, but 25 degrees to someone else might be really cold or warm.

Michael

I just wear a reflective vest. My cold weather jacket is a Mountain Hardware fleece with goretex (windproof). It is fine for any weather, I just layer more under it the colder it gets.

I would not focus too much on the brightness of the coat. I bought a Performance Illuminite vest and it is bright hi-viz lime-yellow. IT is excellent to be seen in low light conditions. The Illuminite stuff does reflect, but when my wife rode behind me one night she told me that almost nothing was in the back to reflect. I then added my $10 ANSI Class 2 reflective vest over top and now I practically GLOW for anyone coming up behind me with headlights on (actually visability is excellent from any direction).

My favorite coat is the EVap coat from www.foxwear.net. Lou will make a coat to your specific needs. The fleece he uses is almost 100% wind tight and yet allows lots of moisture to pass through. My Illuminite vest is made of "breathable" material and also has a flap along the back, but I still get a sweaty back. With the EVap coat I don't feel sweaty.

I just add my www.alertshirt.com ANSI Class 2 vest any time I need to be seen in the dark. In the Summer it may be on over my T shirt. In the Winter I put it over my coat. This works very well for visability, is government proven visability, and is inexpensive.

Happy riding,
André

I've got the Performance Century II Jacket. My morning commute is in the dark.
Man does thing cut the wind!
It has reflective piping on the back, around the arms on on the front. Zipper pocket in the back.

http://media.rei.com/media/tt/236fb4...8dcb411ada.jpg

I wear this from here and it works well with just one or two compression shirts under it @ 22 farenheit.

Comfortable, moisture goes out, windproof.

Rain is not much an issue here in the high desert.

Nevertheless ... I have a rain jacket that fits on top of that.

+1 No jacket can touch this vest for night time visibility.

picked up a reflective vest from harbor freight for $5. its still coming in the mail, along with some torque wrenches. its the only thing i'm missing for my build!

Harbor Freight vest:
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=94701

Photos:
http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=378850

The Nashbar vest looks like the same thing with a little more reflective stuff, and 3x the price. Plus shipping, but I have a HF store nearby so no shipping.

The big X on my back is worth the extra cost...but only because I can't find one with a bulls eye pattern. :D

I use the Performance Commuter jacket, hi-vis yellow, and add a reflective vest over that for good measure and sometimes a little extra insulation... It's Illuminite, and shows up well in headlights, though the black parts sometimes want to fade into the shadows when you don't quite have that biker-in-the-headlights look...

just get a reflective sash, you can wear it with anything

I would go with this: http://www.illuminite.com/Catalog/Cycling/81706.htm

I saw that Alertshirt also has jackets and windbreakers with lots of reflective material on the torso AND sleeves. Practically a Class Three Coat. ~$35.00

I got a Pearl Izumi Gavia jacket in the Screaming Yellow color last winter and it works great. It is highly visible, wind and water resistant, and breathes reasonably well for a warm jacket. It tends to get too hot when temps rise above 50 F, but it's great for cold days. My coldest ride last winter was 18 F, and the Gavia kept me comfortable with a long-sleeve UnderArmor base layer. For rides in the 40s and 50s, I usually wear a PI Kodiak Light jersey with base layer and a vest over that. The PI Zepphyr vests in screaming yellow are highly visible and very useful under a range of conditions. Plus they are easy to take off and stow in a back pocket if the weather warms up.

I've used a MEC (canadian Mountain Equipment Co-op) Super Microfit jacket as a great windbreaker/light showers coat for the last 10 years or so, and just picked up a winter 2008 Castelli Goccia for a raincoat.

check out the 'flecco' on the Castelli raincoat!!!

Oooo, them's fightin' words! :D

http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/f...-on_tape_1.jpg

Note how the jacket has a ton of reflective tape right across my behind. The lower it is, the stronger it's hit by low-beam headlights, and the more directly it faces traffic.

http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/f...-on_tape_2.jpg

http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/f...-on_tape_3.jpg

Jacket plus ANSI Class II vest. With the reflective stripes down the sleeves, I feel a lot more confidence that my arm signals are seen from across an intersection in the dark.



As a side note, satin-finish reflective tape is noted for losing a lot of reflectivity when wet. That's one reason I double up and use my reflective vest over my customized jacket... the vest's tape is high-quality glossy reflective tape that sheds water and thus retains most of its reflectivity.

illuminite overpromises and underdelivers, folks. avoid or supplement with ANSI vests or custom flecco like Mechbgon.

I have one of these and I'm just about ready to start wearing it on the rides home...good for temperatures less than 50F in my opinion (I've never ridden in anything less than about 30). Great for visibility when using arms as turn signals.
http://us.st12.yimg.com/us.st.yimg.c..._2022_13607781
http://www.bostonindustrial.com/hiviwirestcl.html

So what kind of jacket is that? Did you make it yourself or are you trying to keep it a secret?

Who are you talking to tarwheel? If you're talking about the jacket i posted you can buy it at bostonindustrial for less than $20 lol

Here's one I'd like to try—or hear reviews http://www.cyclite.com/images/Produc...rd_product.jpg
http://www.cyclite.com/

I wear this flashing LED vest personally, though, and love it:
http://dl.ledtronics.com/ImagesAll/vst1004_back.gif
http://www.ledtronics.com/products/P...px?WP=C352K648

+1