CASTELLI Wet Gear – part 1.

By Richard Pestes – PezCyclingNews.com. If you live where I do, the last month has been perfect for testing the wet weather gear, so here’s a look some innovative items from Castelli to help stay dry: Nanoflex arms & knee warmers, Pave Bibtight, SuperNano gloves, and the Pioggia 2 shoecovers.

November has been a particularly wet month on Canada’s west coast – and that’s normal. What’s not normal though, is the amount of dry miles I logged thanks to some of the best wet weather riding gear I’ve ever seen – period. Okay – maybe I’m a tad over-excited about Castelli’s Nanoflex material – but how can you blame me – this stuff looks, acts, and feels like a snugly, warm, fleece lined fabric – and does double duty repelling rain and wet better than anything I’ve seen that’s not a dedicated water-proof rain stopper.

The folks in charge of the Castelli brand have made a real effort in recent years to regain the glory of this once revered marque. Better tailoring, creative use of multiple fabrics, and development of proprietary fabrics are some of the reasons we’ve seen them back at the highest level of pro racing on the backs of Cervelo Test Team riders. The best part is consumers have access to the same gear the pros get, so whether you’re racing or not, battling the elements stands to get a littler easier for us ‘regular Joes’.

There were so many items in the box that I’m going to focus on the wet weather gear in this review, and cover the colder weather kit separately. Let’s get started with their Nanoflex fabric – used to make arm warmers, knee warmers, bib tights and some more as well.

The Nanoflex Arm & Knee warmers look just like you’d expect, and both feature a one seam construction, which offers the best balance of tapered fit and reducing entry points for water (like at seams).

NANOFLEX Arms & Knees
Made from Castelli’s proprietary ‘Nanoflex’, I first learned about this wunder-material from their website back in the Spring, and have been wanting to see these for myself ever since. Castelli has developed a highly water-resistant fleece-lined fabric and wisely sewn it into things like arm warmers, knee warmers, leg warmers and full bibshorts. Living on a rainy coast, my only option for staying dry in winter has been using dedicated rain jackets and those bulky and dorky rain pants – until now.

The BIG Demo
How water repellent are they? Here’s a cool test you can try at home. I ran the armwarmer under the tap of high pressure water for a few seconds, then used paper towel to blot for any water that had penetrated the material. I’ll admit it’s not exactly real-world riding conditions, but just try this with any other standard material arm warmer and see how fast the water soaks through.

[youtube width=”462″ height=”282″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TcsTo0wk5L4[/youtube[/youtube]

The Fit • I found both arms and knees to be a snug fit – snugger to pull on than other arms and knees I’ve tried, but once on they never felt too tight, and I kept me both warm and dry. This speaks to Castelli’s legacy as a racer’s brand, which I like.

Construction • The standout feature here is the fabric – Castelli’s proprietary ‘Nanoflex’ material – which starts as stretchy, warm, breathable Thermaflex, and then gets treated 5 times – by 3 different vendors, to effectively turn it into a highly water repellant garment. Castelli designed their own process of adding silicon nano fibres to the fabric that prevent the water from penetrating. And they do it Secret Squirrel-like so no vendor knows the others are involved – which keeps their secret a secret.

The top gripper on both arms & legs features a stretchy silicon on both the inside & outside: inside to keep it from sliding down against your skin, and outside to prevent jersey sleeves or bibshort legs from slipping or riding up. Inside each is the warm Thermoflex fleece which holds in the warmth while breathing as you’d expect from a topline warmer.

Performance • They work like I expect a top line arm & knee warmer should – only way better in the wet. (In case you missed it – watch that video just up the page.) I can see getting a lot more wear from these in the Spring.

I had more chance to test the Pave Bib tights in wetter conditions, so let’s check those in Castelli Wet Gear – part 2.

By Richard Pestes – PEZcycling.com

Visit Nano Flex Arm Warmer product page, click here >>

Visit Nano Flex Knee Warmer product page, click here >>

Visit  Nano Flex Leg Warmer product page, click here >>