Old 12-23-13 | 04:23 PM
  #32  
MichaelW
Senior Member
20 Anniversary
 
Joined: Feb 2001
Posts: 12,948
Likes: 9
From: England
Cycling and hoods is a vexed question.
They reduce your peripheral vision and you will probably overheat. A waterproofed helmet is more effective in the winter. Hoods are useful off the bike, esp if you go touring or mix cycling a hiking or want a multi-purpose waterproof for utility riding.
Hoodless-ness in the design of cycling jackets is a badge or signifyer saying "This is a cycling jacket", much like those little zipped back pockets which are useless.
Lightweight multi-activity jackets now ALL have built-in fixed hoods with a roll-up velcro tab. This is seen as an essential feature because Mountain Marathon rules demand a fixed hood and velcro rollup reduces weight. Rollup hoods are not comfortable or useful on the bike.

If you are a cyclist and want a hood for off-bike use, the sensible options are a removable hood OR a hood that folds into the collar. Neither of these are widely available because they fail the signifyer test. A hooded cycling jacket is not for serious cyclists or for serious mountain-runners and everyone has to be serious. The magazine reviewer mark a M/A jacket with removable hood as lacking features and a hood folding into the collar as a heavyweight.

The only model I could find was Vaude and the cut is really weird with the arms being too long for my long gibbon arms
MichaelW is offline  
Reply