Pactimo Cascade Jacket

Pactimo's Cascade jacket is a good quality top for dry winter rides, keeping you nice and toasty even when it's proper cold out. It works well paired with a long sleeve base layer but equally it's plenty comfortable enough to use on its own.

The Cascade is a three-layer affair. On the outside there's a fairly weighty polyester, and the inside is a stretchy fleece that "removes moisture efficiently and has superior breathing ability" according to its makers, Milano. In between the two – but only on the leading edges of the jacket, so the chest and the front of the arms – that's a Climabloc™ windproof membrane to keep you from getting chilly. A high collar and shaped cuffs, designed to "make a seamless connection to your gloves", keep the chills out.

At the back there's a single waterproof pocket for stashing stuff in, and a pronounced drop tail to cover you up when you're tucking in to avoid a chilly winter headwind. There isn't masses of reflective but what there is is well-placed: on the shoulders, a flash on the sleeve that can be seen from the front or the rear when you're signalling, and some details on the lower back.

The full fleece lining makes this a comfy top to wear next to the skin, and the lining does a pretty decent job of wicking sweat away from your skin. It does seem to work better with a base layer, though, and realistically if you're dragging this jacket out of the cupboard it's cold enough to warrant one. When you're out on the bike the windproofing is pretty effective, although sticking a thin gilet over the top makes things noticeably warmer, so some chilly air is probably getting in round the unprotected sides. The fit is very good and sizing is sensible; the large sample was a snug fit on my 93kg frame. Sizes up to 3XL are available.

If you're out and it's cold and dry, then the Cascade is a very good training jacket. On its own it served me well down to about 8°C and below that a baselayer underneath kept me plenty warm on faster rides. Adding a race gilet over the top means it can cope with even colder weather. Pactimo rate it to just below freezing and that's probably about its limit, even with a base layer underneath and vest on top. The neck keeps out most chilly gusts and the cuffs, although they feel a bit scratchy at first due to their laser-cut edge, work very well.

It's not a top designed for long, wet rides and to be honest it suffers in prolonged rain. The fleece lining and the windstopper panels help to keep you warm but the Cascade quickly gets wet and because there's a lot of fabric it tends to stay that way. If it was cold with the possibility of rain you could wear it and sling a waterproof shell on over the top, but one issue with the Cascade is that there's just a single pocket at the rear. It's a fairly big pocket, but not as big as three proper jersey pockets and you struggle to get a phone, tools, tube and a packable jacket in there. Also, you can't organise your stuff. Having said that, pairing it with a thin showerproof gilet will get you through most rides, and there's room for that out back.

It's a durable jacket and the tough outer layer is wearing and washing well; Pactimo recommend a hand wash but I only noticed that after it'd been through the machine about four times on a cool cycle, with no ill effects. The fleece does a better job than some synthetics of resisting odours, too, so it's not a top you necessarily have to wash after every ride if you're commuting in it.

Overall this is a good quality winter layer. Being designed in Colorado, with its reasonably stable and predictable climate, it's not surprising that the Cascade is best for cold, settled winter days. When the weather gets a bit more changeable then it's not quite as useful on its own, and the limited storage space makes it more difficult to pair it with a waterproof outer layer. If you're likely to be dodging the rain over winter then it's an excellent choice as a training or general riding jacket.

Verdict

Good cold-weather jersey for dry rides, could do with a bit more pocket space