Rain Pants

[Ed Deas]

I need some rain pants. Any recommendations? Just looking for something durable, breathable, and fairly inexpensive.

[staehpj1]

I need some rain pants. Any recommendations? Just looking for something durable, breathable, and fairly inexpensive.

My advice is to forget the breathable requirement.  You will be wet when it rains either with rain or with sweat.  Goretex and other breathable fabrics just don't work very well in my experience.

I like the fairly inexpensive coated nylon stuff like the Sierra Designs ones that pack in a tiny sack.  I got mine at REI.  I typically only wear the pants in camp.  On the bike I am warm enough with just leg warmers until sub freezing temperatures.  I do wear the jacket on the bike quite a bit.

[dombrosk]

For me, rain pants are more about staying warm than staying dry.  I've had good experiences with Marmot Precip rain pants... they make a full-zip version which is very bulky and not useful for biking.  I like the lighter version that unzips just enough to go over my bike shoes.  Some stores only stock the full-zip version, so you might have to hunt around a bit.

[pptouring]

This past May/June we were traveling through Czech and the weather was horrible. We planned on rain and temps in the 60s, not nearly freezing (upper 30s) rain! Anyways... it was much worse than we had planned for, so all we had were our rain jackets. Luckily on our 3rd day and just before we pulled the plug we found an outdoor store and a bike store.  At the outdoor store we found some light weight snow boarding pants and they worked great and at the bike store we found some waterproof shoe covers and I highly recommend them too. After picking up these two items the next 3 weeks of touring was great! 

[cyclocamping]

I believe rain pants should keep you warm AND dry. I find it extremely uncomfortable to cycle with a wet pair of pants and once you are wet if it close to impossible to stay warm. This is a law of physics: in the process of drying, water within the fabric has to pull out heat to evaporate; this is why the Bedouin wrap their water container in wet canvas to keep the water cool.

I personally had good experience with Gore-Tex Paclite - very efficient, light and extremely compact. Durability varies by manufacturer as Goretex (or event) is just a layer within the apparel. My wife and I used Gore Bike Wear Gore-Tex pants it during our 5-year tour around the world and I still use it 10 years after purchasing it. It is breathable, waterproof, VERY durable but not inexpensive.

That being said there is no breathable fabrics that are 100% waterproof. From my personal experience, Gore-Tex kept me dry as long I was not overheated and sweaty (going long uphill) because then you start to sweat and this is when the fabric start to not be waterproof anymore. So if you tend to sweat easily the Gore-Tex might not be as efficient as it was for me. But it definitely kept my wife and I dry for many many rainy days.

As I said Gore Bike Wear it is a bit expensive, Marmot has some Paclite Gore-Tex pants that are also very durable and more affordable. The advantage of Gore Bike wear is that they are Designed for cyclist (stretchable fabric over the knees, Reinforced seat, long side zipper at the bottom of the legs, Rear pocket etc). CycloCamping.com has very competitive prices.

The newer fabric event has also very good reviews. According to some recent studies by the US army, overall Gore-Tex appears to be more waterproof while event is more breathable.

Hope this helps!

Happy Tailwind,

Stephane

[johnsondasw]

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I like the fairly inexpensive coated nylon stuff like the Sierra Designs ones that pack in a tiny sack.  I got mine at REI.  I typically only wear the pants in camp.  On the bike I am warm enough with just leg warmers until sub freezing temperatures.  I do wear the jacket on the bike quite a bit.
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That has been my experience for over 30 years.  In the summer, I just get wet and don't even put on rain pants.