Finally! Montane Spektr Smock- Preview

Well. I have finally got around to deciding about a running jacket with a membrane. I was debating whether I should go for the OMM Cypher, Rab Demand or Montane Spektr smock.

Spektr smock next to a normal Mars and Snack size Snickers

All 3 of them are made with eVent fabric, and are various ridiculously light weights, down to about 210g for the Montane. The OMM and the Rab seem like excellent jackets, and I would have loved to do a comparison piece on them vs each other and the Montane. However, blagging one of each jacket was not really an option, in fact blagging just one of them was beyond me, so I resorted to buying one instead. (Actually, I got it as a belated birthday present, but its much of a muchness).

So, I decided not to go for the Rab or the OMM as there already seem to be a few reviews out there of fairly active oudoorsy type people, also, as jackets they are of fairly generic design, and the radical nature of the Spektr Smock has been beckoning me for quite some time.
No pockets, no hood peak, no cuff adjusters, no excess material to flap around, and, most obviously and excitingly, no zip.

I know this is a first generation kind of thing, and its a bit of a gimmik. I suspect that it might not be the best type of closure in the world, and that it may well have been a better jacket with a zip instead of the "tornado roll" closure, however, its interesting, its new, and it has to be tried. Hence why I decided on the jacket.

Tornado closure when open

Velcro from the tornado closure system closed

And the whole thing totally closed up

Also, every other review I ever seem to see of the Spektr smock is done by a walker who wants an Ultralight top and goes on to complain about the sizing of the jacket.
Yes, you CAN use it in that capacity, but it is designed for fast moving, running, climbing, and generally highly active people who need a lightweight "waterproof" layer that doesn't flap around like 10 yards of sail cloth.

No adjustment on the cuffs

The medium fits me perfectly (though to be fair, I am normally a small in most other jackets), and I cannot wait to try it out in some murky, gnarly weather.

Taping in the hood, and the velcro cap retainer

I would have gone out today, but am racing tomorrow, so I'm kind of hoping for horrible weather then as well.

Thoughts on running jacket drying times

So I was out in the mist and rain for the past 2 days. Not much to choose between them for nastiness, one outing was over to Hope and the other was a 14km round trip on Bleaklow.

The first one I wore the MHW Dragon Jacket, and on the second I wore my Montane H2O Jacket.
To be honest, I was as comfortable in one as the other. As long as the pace was kept up and warmth was maintained, they were fine. The Dragon jacket was warmer- as it needed more venting, neither of them kept me dry in any way shape or form, but that was to be expected. If it was any nastier, yes, I probably would have worn a full on Proshell Goretex jacket, however, I'm about to get to the point.

The Dragon jacket was worn on Saturday, during the run, the H2O jacket was in my bag as an "emergency, emergency" top, and it got soaked. They both got hung up on Saturday night when I went to bed, and in the afternoon on the Sunday when I was invited to go out "for a quick trot around the hills", the Dragon Jacket was still sopping wet, but the H2O was pretty dry.
Came back, soaked to the skin, hung up the H2O. Its now Monday afternoon, and its dry again. The Dragon Jacket, by contrast still feels like I've just been standing outside in the (now pretty constant) rain.
Yes, the Dragon Jacket is made with Windstopper and the face fabric isn't as water repellant as Proshells, and yes it has an internal scrim, and yes, it may be fabulous for "dry, cold days", but it takes a hellishly long time to dry out, and when you're heading out on a day to day or at least every other day basis- and you KNOW that no matter what you're going to wear, you're going to get wet- it seems that the H2O is a pretty decent choice.

(having said that, I did get a mail from someone saying they had a thoroughly miserable experience on the hill on Sat in an H2O- maybe he wasn't going fast enough?)

Gear thoughts for winter

So I'm arriving at a dilemma.
We're coming into autumn, and then into winter, living in the Peak district and running a lot is going to be quite amusing. I have plenty of walking kit and warm stuff for slow moving activities, and a good lot of kit for mountainous activities.
Not a whole lot of gear for the fast paced running that I'm planning on doing. As long as the weather stays nice, it will be fine. However, as soon as it gets nasty and claggy, things could well get interesting. I'm certainly not going to sit at home sipping cups of tea just because it happens to be a bit wet outside.

However. Neither do I particularly want Hypothermia.
At present my base layers are fine, I have no issue with them, except that they may even be too warm. A couple of long sleeved t-shirts might come in handy.

Waterproof top- needs to be incredibly breathable, and water proof.
Pertex works to a point, and my Montane velo H2O jacket has been brilliant for the past couple of years. The delamination is really starting to spread across the jacket. Its good to a point, but it just isn't breathable in the slightest. I want something a little more heavy duty and much much more breathable.
I appear to have a couple of choices.

OMM Cypher smock. Which seems pretty good. eVent fabric, breathes really well, very weatherproof, not a "rustley" fabric, close cut, very lightweight and generally an excellent choice.
I did see a relatively recent review of it which seemed to indicate that it melted when worn with a rucksac, in much the same way as my Montane featherlite.
Hmmm. I don't particularly want a jacket that melts on me when I run, especially if I'm paying more than £100 for it.

Montane Spektr smock- again eVent fabric, a close cut and hyperlightweight mountain running jacket, with a design that means there are no zips. Rolls up small, seems to be pretty good, though its a bit of a leap to get a jacket with no zip as the ventilation which you might end up needing might not be so good. The hood doesn't have a peak, but its designed to be used with a hat. Interesting.
Hmmm

Rab demand pull on. Again, eVent, a smock, and well designed. Cheaper than the other two, but more designed for mountainous use rather than high paced running, or so I am led to believe. Still, it looks like quite a contender. The hood is apparently pretty good too.
They all pack away ridiculously small, all breathe very well, and all have a look in. Anyone have any strong thoughts for or against any, or have experience with them melting when used with rucksacks? That would be very annoying indeed.

Waterproof trousers- this is an interesting one- I was looking at the Montane featherlite pants, just as something to keep in the pack- but I actually want something that is going to be waterproof when I put it on, not just a windproof. I'm not looking for something that will get me through a kit check, I want something that is going to work for me on the hill.
The OMM Kamelika pants look pretty good- softshell, apparently very runnable in, waterproof and stretchy.
I'm pretty sure that Montane are releasing the Minumus pant early next year, or maybe even this year. I've heard excellent things about the Minimus Jacket, and Im pretty sure that the pants will be just as good. Not sure how nice they will be to run in, but we shall have to see.
Other than that I'm a bit stuck on the gear front. Really, I don't expect to be running in them, they'll be there for emergency only. Lynne has a pair of Paclite pants that would work up to a point, but they are a tad bulky for the current bum bag.
Maybe I need to re think the pants.

Bumbag, 2 litre Inov8 one seems to be going well, but I really miss the water when Im out for a longer run. The 3 litre one might work quite well as it has a waterbottle integral to the design. More gear space, more water. Could be good.
The OMM 4litre bumbag is also tempting, but maybe I should just stick with the 5litre osprey talon that I reviewed here. (apart from the minor fact that it is also Lynnes...)

I run in shorts all the time, and in winter adventure races in the past have used CWX tights. Those, and salomon x-trail tights, which are 3/4 length ones. Both pairs I have are old and another winter is, I suspect, going to see the end of them. I've tried a pair of Montane Mountain Fury tights and they just don't fit in the slightest. I seem to be the wrong proportions for them to stay up as I run, they just fall down, which is really annoying as they seem to be pretty well made.
I might have to look into 2CXU, which seem to be the triathletes brand of choice. As long as they stay up, I don't really care.
(Might need to get some new shorts too. White for preference, and just above knee length!)

Shoes, shoes, shoes, shoes. X-talons? might be a bit cold, but very light and awesomely sticky. Mudclaw 333? Crazy good grip, though I have heard stories of studs coming off- not sure if that particular problem has been fixed yet. O-rocs- originally an orienteering shoe, but has retractable steel studs, might be good on ice... though according to Baba, not so great at contouring.
Anyone know if Inov8 have fixed the mudclaw problem? Montrail no longer do the highlander, and the sportiva ones look pretty tame.
The only other one that I might think about is the new Salomon fellcross, but at £120, thats quite an outlay. If Im shrewd I might even get 2 pairs of old season inov8s for that, which would mean dry shoes on each outing...

Ah, gear decisions. I tell you what, I'm glad Im not a serious mountainbiker or I'd be paralysed by the sheer amount of possible kit I could buy, let alone by the amount of kit in the house, I'd never leave the house for fear I've taken the wrong tyre/ wheels/ bike/ etc. At least with running I just pick up my gear and go.

So. Anyone have any thoughts on the gear? Any experiences? Or better suggestions or ideas? Even better, anyone got some they can lend me, I promise not to break it, just try it and see if I like it...

cragging in a Windy place- clothing options

First time climbing outside for what seems like (and is in fact) ages.
After a somewhat fabulous evening meal of Honeyed Lamb, (which featured rather a lot of Cayenne), we headed out over to Windgather rocks to meet some friends.

It was an easy evening, just getting back into the swing of things, and the hardest thing that was lead was a Severe. I ended up doing 6 routes, but there were a couple of interesting things.

The first was my choice of clothing- I was wearing a Helly Ice top- the one with Merino wool, a cheap craghoppers fleece and my Montane H2O velo top. And I was Toasty.
It was great because as you can imagine from the name, Windgather rocks does indeed somewhat gather the wind, making it a pretty chilly place to stand around waiting for either the leader to get the damn thing led, and a belay sorted, or for you second to get his shoes on/ fiddle with getting gear out.
The combination of climbing in the fleece, and then having a totally windproof top dangling off the back of the harness just to throw on over the top was brilliant. If it rained, it would have provided a modicum of waterproofing, but given the situation, we would have just wandered back to the car.

So that combination on a chilly evening is a winner. I believe that this is the kind of combo that vapourize and the Mountain Equipment lightweight something or other jacket (I need to look that up) have in mind. However, they don't have the option of removing the fleece. Its there, laminated to the outer windproof fabric.

So, until I manage to get hold of a Vaporise top, the fleece and Montane windproof will do just fine! It also means that I can take one or the other layer off - which you can't do with the Rab... maybe you don't need to.
Any thoughts anyone?

Montane lightspeed H2O jacket

After entering a race and realising that I needed a taped waterproof jacket with a hood, and knowing that the featherlite just wouldnt do, I cast around for another lightweight jacket that would do the job.
Where else to look, but Montane who made the featherlite smock which had done me so well in previous races.
The Lightspeed is crazy lightweight, has taped seams and a hood. Perfect. What more could I need? I didnt actually need it to "work", I just needed it as a tick on my kit list.





It stuffs into its own stuffsac- about the size of a large orange- which has a velcro wrap on it. The idea of this is so that you can wear the thing on your arm as you run around, and should you need it, you just open the pouch, rip the top out and put it on, without even stopping running. Excellent idea, but I find it a bit bulky to wear strapped on the arm- it puts off the balance as I run. It generally gets stowed in the rucksac.

During the first race I used it in, it was indeed, used. 24 hours of not the nicest weather. I took it for granted that it was going to be waterproof, the first thing that was pretty cool was the reflective strips. The entire front zip piping is reflective, and there is a portion of piping on the wrists of each arm- to be seen as you signal on a bike.
Its cut quite long- so the tail easily sits over the butt as you hoon around on a bike, and the cut is a lot less "bag like" than the smock- a virtue of it being a full length zip top rather than a smock.

The next excellent feature I noticed was the comfort when cold, wet and hammering down a hill on a bike. We had just finished a fell running section, jumped on our bikes and headed off down hill, into a fairly windchilled area. In the smocks it would have been quite uncomfortable- not warm at all.

Did the lightspeed's zip up to the top, the hood wrapped up in the pouch behind the head enclosed around the neck, and. wow, it was like being in an armchair.
Well, not quite like that, but it was warm, comfortable, and didnt flap around like a kite as we descended.
And it still breathed. (Not crazy like, but for that price, and at that level, if I want it to breathe, I'll open the zip, or take it off).

Two minor issues, Ive had the jacket for just over a year, used it on about 5 races, and a few runs, stored it mostly out of its bag, and the taping is beginning to de-tape under the arms, and behind the neck, and there is a bit of delamming of the pertex on the back, under the arms and around the neck. These are quite high wear points, so Im not entirely surprised, and I have used this top in relatively extreme circumstances in comparison to day to day wear, but I might have expected it to last a bit longer before beginning to die.



Heres a quick pic of some detail of the delamming and seam de-taping that is going on.










Overall though, did what I needed it to do, and still does it, though a fair bit less waterproof than it was at the beginning.

If you want to geek out about numbers, the fabric is freeflow H2O....

• 43g/m² 30 denier Nylon mini rip-stop with Monolithic PU coating
• Waterproof to a minimum of 1,500mm (JIS L 1092)
• Breathable with a minimum MVTR of 6,000g/m²/24hrs (JIS L 1099 A-1)
• Spray rating 80 / 20 (JIS L 1092)

Montane Featherlite Smock

I needed a ridiculously lightweight water resistant windproof as a top which would get me through 8 hour adventure races- something without a hood- extraneous weight- something that was light- and packed down crazy small.

I saw the montane featherlite a few years ago- no hood, made of pertex microlite- at 52g per m squared.
its a smock, (less zip to weigh it down), drop tail for on the bike, and packs down to the size of a small squashy apple.

Ive used it on about 15 races now, its always in the pack, and is un-noticable in terms of weight, and pack size. I tend to wear it just over a helly- but only when it starts to get a bit nasty. If you're getting cold, youre not moving fast enough.

When running, I have noticed that because I cinch my pack down on my back massively- so that it just doesnt move, it has melted and deformed the back of the jacket. However, thats the heat from the friction, and really, nothing is going to stop that apart from not wearing a backpack.



This is an image of the bobbly melted patch on the back of the jacket... as you can see, a crease has been melted into it.







Limitations...
horrendous rain and gale force winds, races that demand hoods and taped seams.
The closest Ive come to hypothermia was with this jacket, in spring on Brighton Downs. I went out for a run, it was a lot colder than anticipated, and the rain really came in, and it got nasty.
Despite having this layer on, we bumbled through another 10 miles or so, getting colder, and more depressed, it wasnt nice, and I sat in a space blanket on the train on the way home. If I had a bigger, slightly more waterproof jacket, it might not have been so bad.
However, that was my own stupid fault- but at least I found the limits of the smock.

At £45 its done me well for about 3 years of wear, I use it for cycle commuting when it gets nasty and is generally the top layer in the depths of winter. Anything else would be too damn hot.

It doesnt breathe particularly well, do not expect to stay bone dry, but expect it to keep the worst away from you for a short time, be windproof and comfortable when dry, brilliant when commuting, an excellent emergency jacket, or a top layer for an 8 hour race- (but probably not overnight- get something a bit beefier for that).

Yays!
Light
windproof
good layer
excellent "just in case" smock for people who need light light light.

Nays
melts a bit on the back with friction
not waterproof
not crazy breathable (but what is?)
might not be enough in dire situations. (but at least better than nowt)

http://www.montane.co.uk/products/men/windproof/featherlite-smock/40