Rapha Kit

Crosshouses wrote:

My kit is mostly a mix of Aldi and vintage Flemish club jerseys off eBay, although I do have a Gabba jacket which is the best £100+ I've spent on bike clothing.

However, the regular mentions of Rapha have piqued my curiosity, so if I was to buy one Rapha item what should it be?

I guess people who own a good variety would point you to the classics kit - jersey and shorts. I don't have those. I do have the Rapha Focus pro-team shorts (I don't go for pro-team kit, but at £40 they were a steal) which are very good. The base layers are great too, as are the winter jerseys. When it's chucking it down outside, I have the Rapha Paul Smith city rain jacket which is really good, and looks good regardless of whether I'm on the bike or not.

However, I bought nearly all of this from end-of-line/sample sales - as an example the jacket was £50 as opposed to the £200+ RRP.

Classic Bibs.

CasperCCC wrote:

I've got a fair few bits of kit from Rapha, and it's all great. Comfortable, lasts well, and works well. It's expensive, yeah, but if you spend enough time on the bike you get your money's worth. And if you keep an eye on the sale then you can get it for a decent price. (Got a winter baselayer on the way - £40 for a merino baselayer isn't too bad in my book.)

To be honest, my biggest problem with Rapha is other people. There's a lot of people who have a real issue with it. It's so tied up with the whole Mamil, city-wanker thing that I feel really self-conscious wearing it.

Twice I've got snide comments from total strangers about wearing something by Rapha. (Both on the Dunwich Dynamo, as it goes.) No doubt that says more about them than me, but I wasn't in the mood for getting grief from a random guy at five in the morning...

I still wear it - it's too nice not to - but I wear it in spite of the fact it's from Rapha, rather than because it's from them. If I could buy a totally unbranded version then I reckon I'd own more of their kit than I do at the moment.

Ugh. I cannot get my head around people's seemingly uncontrollable need to pass judgement on others' kit, bike etc. These cretins are everywhere. https://patatechasseur.wordpress.com/2015/01/11/the-snobbery-complex/

Chasseur Patate wrote:

CasperCCC wrote:

I've got a fair few bits of kit from Rapha, and it's all great. Comfortable, lasts well, and works well. It's expensive, yeah, but if you spend enough time on the bike you get your money's worth. And if you keep an eye on the sale then you can get it for a decent price. (Got a winter baselayer on the way - £40 for a merino baselayer isn't too bad in my book.)

To be honest, my biggest problem with Rapha is other people. There's a lot of people who have a real issue with it. It's so tied up with the whole Mamil, city-wanker thing that I feel really self-conscious wearing it.

Twice I've got snide comments from total strangers about wearing something by Rapha. (Both on the Dunwich Dynamo, as it goes.) No doubt that says more about them than me, but I wasn't in the mood for getting grief from a random guy at five in the morning...

I still wear it - it's too nice not to - but I wear it in spite of the fact it's from Rapha, rather than because it's from them. If I could buy a totally unbranded version then I reckon I'd own more of their kit than I do at the moment.

Ugh. I cannot get my head around people's seemingly uncontrollable need to pass judgement on others' kit, bike etc. These cretins are everywhere. https://patatechasseur.wordpress.com/2015/01/11/the-snobbery-complex/

That was a good read. So much so that I told myself to f%&k off at the end of it. Which was oddly satisfying.

Quince wrote:

That was a good read. So much so that I told myself to f%&k off at the end of it. Which was oddly satisfying.

I give myself a daily 'F%&k off'. Keeps me right.

Chasseur Patate wrote:

Quince wrote:

That was a good read. So much so that I told myself to f%&k off at the end of it. Which was oddly satisfying.

I give myself a daily 'F%&k off'. Keeps me right.

It's great, isn't is? You get all the satisfaction of telling someone to 'F%&k off', with no need to worry about the consequences. Thoroughly recommended.

CasperCCC wrote:

I've got a fair few bits of kit from Rapha, and it's all great. Comfortable, lasts well, and works well. It's expensive, yeah, but if you spend enough time on the bike you get your money's worth. And if you keep an eye on the sale then you can get it for a decent price. (Got a winter baselayer on the way - £40 for a merino baselayer isn't too bad in my book.)

To be honest, my biggest problem with Rapha is other people. There's a lot of people who have a real issue with it. It's so tied up with the whole Mamil, city-wanker thing that I feel really self-conscious wearing it.

Twice I've got snide comments from total strangers about wearing something by Rapha. (Both on the Dunwich Dynamo, as it goes.) No doubt that says more about them than me, but I wasn't in the mood for getting grief from a random guy at five in the morning...

I still wear it - it's too nice not to - but I wear it in spite of the fact it's from Rapha, rather than because it's from them. If I could buy a totally unbranded version then I reckon I'd own more of their kit than I do at the moment.

Wow, I've not had anything like that. I don't even know how I would respond. What was said and how did you answer?

Interestingly, my most expensive item of cycling clothing isn't my Rapha stuff; it's from Castelli, but no-one ever reports snide comments for wearing that...

notfastenough wrote:

Wow, I've not had anything like that. I don't even know how I would respond. What was said and how did you answer?

The first time was at the Dynamo a few years ago. I'd taken along a musette that I'd got with a Rapha jersey - It's just handy, because you can fill it with food and then just stick it in your jersey pocket when you've eaten everything.

We were hanging about outside the food stop, and a few guys were making general piss-taking comments about Rapha behind us. Thought it was just a coincidence until they started on Rapha musettes. It wasn't malicious and, in fairness, they were pretty entertaining - I'd probably have laughed if I wasn't the target. Totally ignored it.

The second time was at last year's Dynamo. Was at one of the food stops that spring up after dawn. There was someone a few people ahead of me at the queue in a Rapha jersey, and another guy wandered through and said something like "Nice jersey - usually Rapha make shit clothes for wankers" to him, then nodded at me and added "No offense mate, but you know it's true". That was just a dick being a dick for the sake of it. I really don't get the point of it.

Anyway, what can you say? I think I just said something like "Thanks for the fashion tip" and carried on queing for my bacon sarnie.

notfastenough wrote:

Interestingly, my most expensive item of cycling clothing isn't my Rapha stuff; it's from Castelli, but no-one ever reports snide comments for wearing that...

Heh. I was going to say exactly the same thing in my first post, but thought I'd probably waffled on long enough.

It doesn't stop me from wearing Rapha - I reckon that I've got more use out of my gillet than I've got out of any other item of cycle clothing I've got, and my merino hat was my winter essential until my girlfriend "adopted" it. (That's girlfriend for "steal", obviously.) On offer for £15 at the moment, so I might give up all hope of getting it back and just buy another one.

gdmor10 wrote:

will take another look at morvelo - wont be needing them for a while anyway, still a bit chilly!

Sounds like you need some winter kit. Cycling in January can be quite nice (as long as the wind isn't too mental)!

gdmor10 wrote:

yeah open ended can generate the best discussion

I like the retro style of a lot of the rapha stuff and have in the past bought quote a few things from prendas as I like the old style jerseys, just looking for a high quality unfussy pair of black bib shorts to go with them.

I have experience with Rapha bibshorts. Classics and Pro-teams are excellent, the lightweights I had fell apart in minutes.

May I suggest Morvelo? They have a range of bibs from understated to outright nuts and are as comfortable and as good quality as any pair of rapha shorts I've owned.