A Poor Apparel Purchase

When I started cycling not long ago, I was riding a six-speed, bright red, tricycle with wide rear wheels and a large basket.  (Balance problems, since overcome.)  I generally wore high visibility clothing, but I didn’t think about being seen quite as much as I do now.  Everybody, it appears, loves a red tricycle, and we were a spectacle. Rather than run me off the road, people tended to grin and wave when they saw me.

Riding a bicycle is a different matter entirely.  I bought this Cannondale jacket during my trike year.  It’s very clever; the sleeves and the yoke joining them to the jacket body are held to the vest with magnets, so it’s super easy to toss the sleeves on or off without any effort.  That’s a fantastic feature.

But most of the back of the jacket is white. When the sleeves are removed, the mesh under the yoke isn’t high vis, it’s white.  White that just seems to disappear when view from any distance at all.  There is minimal “high vis” to this high vis jacket, especially when the sleeves are removed.  That means its use, in my world, is pretty much limited to trails. Also:  White? Seriously?  For sports clothes? This isn’t tennis, fellas!

This jacket is also too short —  not only in front, but the drop tail in back is hardly more than a faint gesture toward the idea that  one might prefer one’s rear to be covered.  If it’s short  on me, on a taller woman, this jacket must hit the midriff area.  Worse, after very limited use, the zipper coils have begun to separate from the metal tab at the end, making it difficult to join the two sides of the jacket and zip them up.

I’m sorry I own it now; it’s slated to be replaced in the next month or two. With more cycling experience, I’ve got a better idea of what I need and want in terms of gear, and a different set of parameters to consider.

Mr. Diarist owns the men’s version.  The accents on his are black; a notable improvement.  There’s a lot more screaming yellow on his jacket/vest, and his is appropriately long.  His was a good buy; mine was not.

Can I mention how annoyed I am that there seems to be way too much women’s cycling gear that is a pale imitation of more functional, better-designed, men’s gear?  I’d wear that stuff, but I drown even in the smaller men’s sizes, and, needless to say, the men’s gear isn’t exactly form-fitting on most women’s bodies.