There is no kind of wetness quite like a cycling wetness. On a bike, the rain seems to get in everywhere. It seems colder and more fierce when you’re hurtling down a mountain pass and even in summer, something more serious is often called for than a walking jacket. Enter the Ciclo Light. This is Páramo’s cycling specific jacket, and on long days testing it out in the saddle we can vouch for its performance and warmth.
Páramo do things differently to everyone else, eschewing normal waterproof membranes in favour of the Directional Fabric Technology made by their sister company Nikwax. This features a series of layers that move the water away – whether that’s rain on the outside or sweat from the inside – as a liquid, rather than it being evaporated away by body heat.
The idea is that Páramo’s waterproof garments don’t wait until your body is hot enough to evaporate sweat before moving the water away, thus having the additional benefit of keeping you warmer. There’s a DWR treatment that allows rain to bead off the outside of the jacket, but this uses Nikwax’s PFC-free treatment.
It’s a system designed to regulate temperature very well. Bikepacking involves long days on the bike broken up frequent stops to enjoy the scenery (that’s what bikepacking is all about right?). This makes staying warm harder, but our testers found the Ciclo Light Jacket maintained temperature particularly well over the full day.
