Originally Posted by
Bekologist
a jacket that weighs about a pound and a quarter
Hm.
The Velez Light weighs 600g.
A hooded, reasonable quality - Epic shell weighs 400-500g.
The Velez replaces a mid-layer and the Epic shell - and a decent rainproof hat. So the weigh advantage is likely to lie very strongly with the Velez. You also lose the weight of the rucksack that you'd carry a shell in, because the Velez breathes well enough so that once you hit its temperate range you wear it all the time.
The Velez functions all the way from mild autumn conditions to (with the addition of a mid-layer at the colder end of the range)
literally Arctic ones.
The Velez wicks sweat. The Epic not only doesn't wick sweat, it's much less breathable that modern versions of Goretex, which are far behind Event, which is
far behind the Velez's fabric:
Epic is a cheap substitute for Goretex Paclite and Event. Paramo is just something else again - you go from trying to minimize the degree to which you get soaked by your own sweat to a clothing system that actually dries you. So that if you do get soaked by, oh, riding an MTB off the end of a pier (I know someone who thinks this is really amusing to do) you'll be dry again before you get hypothermia. That's pretty serious capability - more than you need for any degree of cycle commuting, but it demonstrates that sweat build up just isn't a problem at all. Because the jacket damn well pumps moisture away from your body.
By comparison:
http://www.prolitegear.com/site/xdpy...034/index.html
you'll find that both eVENT and EPIC bivies will exhibit condensation on their inner surfaces. However, the tricot lining of an eVENT fabric greatly helps to disperse liquid moisture across the inner side of the fabric, providing a greater surface area for evaporation that drives the moisture through the fabric. Consequently, it's been our experience that bivy sacks made with eVENT fabric perform better in most conditions than bivy sacks made with EPIC fabrics.
Here's the kicker: as moisture passes through EPIC (because EPIC is permeable to liquid moisture), it blocks the pores that allow it to breathe. Thus, as EPIC gets wet (from dew, condensation, etc.), its breathability decreases dramatically, compounding the condensation problem.
There's a hell of a difference between a fabric that will dry a soaked wearer out and one that will lose breathability from mere condensation!
I honestly don't know why you have so much emotionally invested in a jacket.