pricey! but are they all dat?
i dig wool over synthetics. no stinkums.
this schmatte any good?

I bought their crit gloves + epic hat. I'm currently putting them through hell. I'll give 'em another month of heavy use before I evaluate (already at 2 months), and let you guys know.

So far, both items are awesome - by far the best cycling apparel I've ever used.

Aren't they synthetic?

i've got a pair of their shants on the way (bonus-burning-a-hole-in-my-pocket kind of purchase, because jeebus is their gear expensive). as soon as they get here i'll take some pictures and post first impressions.

I won their softshell jacket in the Dublin out of towners alleycat. Holy ******* **** Sweet ****** Jumping Jesus it's amazing. Easily the best made, best designed, most versatile piece of cycling clothing I own and even better, it still looks damned good off the bike. I would have never spent the money on this jacket myself however now that I own a piece I'm way more inclined to save up my cash and go back to Rapha for future purchases because yes, it is that good.

yeah, I'm bummed they don't make clothing for women.

Or fat guys.

Aw dammit! They gave out Rapha crap at the race the other night?!

I knew I should have gone!

what stores actually carry their stuff in england? only london, or other places too?

I dig the shants, but at $160 they're more designer dress-up clothes than clothes I'd actually want to put through abuse.

I really want some of those gloves. The white ones, to match my non-white belt.

i'm in the market for a jacket that would be used for cool mornings and nights from now until winter. i guess i'm trying to get an idea for how comfortable it would be up into the high 60's (21C)

So, you'd rather be rough on clothes that aren't designed to take it than to use your $160 piece of clothing like it was meant to be used? That makes no sense.

anywhere ya can get their ***** here in the states?

Rapha has a US store...but when I went to their website, it was cheaper to get it shipped from England (This may not be the case now). The US store also didn't carry the crit gloves that I wanted.

Shipping was very quick, and packaging was beyond belief. They were also running a deal where if you signed a buddy up for their email list, you got 20% off.

I have the softshell jacket and really like it. Light, breathable, water resistant and cla$$y. I ordered it from the UK site and it showed up in san francisco in about 4 days. Recommended.

What's the web address for the US store?

Pics?

sorry about the blurriness. I already had this picture on my computer, didnt wanna take another.

Nice. I think I'll end up with some of their stuff eventually.

Rapha is total yuppieware. What bike messenger has 160 US bucks to spend on a pair of 3/4 pants?

I also find it especially nausiating where they have the audacity to have these sections throughout the website where they inform us of cycling feats throughout history, as it somehow attempting to align themselves with them. That's the worst form of marketing - stealing your image from the past. They even tout their logo t-shirt as "Inspired by the glory years of road racing, these T-shirts celebrate famous teams of the 1960s and 1970s." What, because you used red and green? Gimme a break!

I could come at the prices if they were using organic cotton in their t-shirts, or had any mention of where the goods were made and what the labour practices were, but all we get is yuppie hipster retro graphics, and 'you should buy our Sportwool jersey because Eddy rode wool back in the day.'

Yup, I'm in one of those moods.

Awww don't be a sad panda Thylacine. Their **** looks good cause it looks old. So what if they weren't around to sponsor Mercx's TdF victory? Do you have the money for Molteni? I don't. Like I said, Rapha sponsors alleycats fairly regularly (how I came into my jacket) and I know 2 messengers/bike shop employee former messengers who are currently designing for them. Although word, I'll definitely support that their **** is overpriced. Even by LDN standards.
As for sers, the softshell is perfect for that kind of stuff although in the high 60s why would you want to wear a jacket anyways?

As for master halco: my sh*t made it through the a week of touring in Italy by myself with a bag and decent load, and as an everyday jacket for the last month and a half just fine. This thing was designed for abuse.

I hate sounding like a fanboy and I still don't own anything else by them, I'm just horny for this jacket. Dublin crew you rule for hookin me up.

whoa there bro! ya sayin' that jus' cause dudes want a li'l quality they're yuppies? it's not cliche or justification to say that quality is cheaper in the long-run. and the "organic cotton" thing i guess you're referrin' to is fatagonia (or patagucci if you like). i've rocked a fair amount of their gear over the years (from the time before they were patagonia and were just chouinard--which shows how old i am ), but find it now to be too baggy an' ***** for me. seems they gave up and are makin' their duds for the "average" (read "fat") american. whatever. and most all their ***** is made in third world countries to boot.

as for "What bike messenger has 160 US bucks to spend on a pair of 3/4 pants?"--they sure have enough (a lot of 'em at least seems to me) cake for tats and cheap beer!

thylacine! duder! i just checked out your website! sweet bikes an' all! for real! but what you talkin' 'bout??!! i hope you ain't waitin' for poor bike messengers to come up with the dough for your gear!! you'll go tits up double-quick!!

dude. believe me when i tell ya this. discretionary income is good. it is not wrong.

Yep, nice looking stuff. I'm more comfortable knowing the answers to these questions too. When you take into account how many people these days like to be (or try to be) responsible consumer, esp. when paying topdollar, it raises alarms when an endeavor marketed specifically at an intelligent, skeptical crowd like this one has absolutely no info available on the subject at POP. Usually it means bad news & bad answers to hard questions, like Brooklyn Industries wiping their site clean of any reference to labour practices or product origins. They did it when they started buying from offshore manufactureres in places with problems, yet they raised prices.

For me, top dollar means I'm getting a nice design made with nice materials by well-treated, properly paid workers. Good Materials = Easy. Sweet Design = Dime a dozen. Workers paid well & treated right = Expensive and a fine reason to charge more. Many times the quality of the manufacture and these issues are directly intertwined in such a way that if you solve one you solve them both. Odd for a company to say nothing when it's well known that many, many western consumers think about these things and are learning to try to live as responsibly as possible in a consumer society. It's not easy to do, so info on a companies website should be a given...if not?