baleaf Cycling Rain Jacket Review
Cut for a rider on the drops rather than someone standing upright, which changes where the water goes.
The verdictThe right shape for the job. A dropped tail and long sleeves matter more in rain than any membrane rating.
A hiking shell rides up at the back the moment you get low, which puts the wettest part of the road directly onto your lower back. A cycling cut has a dropped tail and longer sleeves for exactly that reason, and on a wet day it is a bigger difference than the fabric.
Packability is the other half. A rain shell that does not compress into a jersey pocket or a top tube bag gets left behind, and the ones that get left behind are the ones you needed. This packs down to roughly the size of a water bottle.
The reservations are the usual ones for a newer listing. Nineteen owner reports is not enough to know how the coating ages, and no hydrostatic head figure is published, so "waterproof" here means shower-resistant until proven otherwise over a long wet day.
Fit runs slim, which suits the intended use on a bike and catches out anyone planning to layer a fleece underneath it on a cold morning. Sizing up is the sensible move if you ride cold, or if you expect to wear this over anything more substantial than a jersey and a base layer.
What works
- Cycling cut with a dropped tail
- Long sleeves that stay put on the drops
- Packs small enough for a frame bag
What doesn't
- Few owner reports so far
- Waterproofing is not rated to a published figure
- Fit runs slim
Buy it if
Riders who want a proper cycling cut rather than a repurposed hiking shell
Skip it if
You want the cheapest waterproof layer that will do
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