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I have seen the jacket around £125 on wiggle
Leckies in Falkirk £40
Am fair made up with my bargain.
Nice and red. Tight fitting so only for days where I cycle to work and then change. Very hot despite breathability but good side vents. Wee chest pocket, big two directional zip no back pocket. Internal iPod holder I will put phone in. No idea how waterproof
Well worth the trip to Falkirk and I didn't. Even have to go as a kind friend picked it up for me.
Thats an astonishing price, good on you.
Only half a review though - Can you please jump in the shower to test the waterproofing !
Might make a call tomorrow.
Softshell so I am guessing ok for showers. However will dry quickly. Close to falkirk grahamston station 18 Melville St. Possible short cut through the hole in the wall if you know it. I would phone first to check sizes,it is figure hugging. 01324 621942
Sounds like a steal!
How is it for reflectives on the rear? Photos don't make it look like it has much. Trading more on the red showing up against tarmac etc?
Not hugely reflective, it has seven bits of trim, five are wee mentchies on wrist neck, tail and side.
Main bits are stripes on shoulders at front and from hips to back
I went for red as hope more visible. Also blue and black versions.
Fair-dos. Did they have much in stock then? (I realise you didn't go in to collect). I bought a Shutt VR jacket from their ebay page but it's really too big for me (plus it's black so I'd need reflective vest over it in the dark). The Varium could be a suitable alternative but I've never seen one before.
I've also never been to Leckie's. I'm guessing they buy in bulk, maybe end of line, just trying to judge from their website?
Yes they buy in bulk and often from companies in liquidation? Also some suggestion they buy container loads as they have room to store. Sizes can be restricted. I have an array of cut price icebreaker merino wool tops all in medium and all have a wee label saying sample.
The shop is all boxes piled up but staff know where the stuff is.
Cheers, thanks for the info :-)
gembo, you should see their 'warehouse/stock room' ! A friend of mine was in there to collect donations for a charity a few years back and described a mix of Aladdins cave and chaos combined with a few weird, homemade, 'inventions' to make things like answering the door bell easier. Brilliant place for bargains though!
Yes in fact the jacket is £39
I was also given a City of Copenhagen Rubber bike poncho last week. Possible two further apart rain tops you could not find?
I bought one of these today. It promises to be a really good winter jacket for weekend rides. Reasonably softshelly-type warm and said to be waterproof and highly breathable so I am hoping it will do long high intensity rides.
They were selling very quickly today and I saw loads of cyclists in the store. Be prepared for nearly all cyclists in Scotland being identically dressed.
Yes Mr Leckie said he was selling seventy a day.
I caved and joined "the club" today!
Needed to get some fresh air after an awful day yesterday, so I took the MTB out to Winchburgh and joined the canal there. A few hairy moments when my Specialized Nimbus slick tyres disagreed with deep muddy puddles (including nearly ending up in the water on the way home!) but for the most part a pleasant trip. It's not often I've done even close to the 61 miles I covered today on that bike. The pace wasn't exactly hectic due to the conditions but it was a lovely mild day. I soon had my Altura Night Vision Flite and Castelli thermal jersey wide open on the way out, with my One Ten base layer providing enough warmth.
I got to Leckies at 16:45 and the stock outside was being taken in. I asked if I had time to try a jacket and was welcomed in, "Plenty time" (even though closing time was 17:00). The guys were very friendly and I asked if the stock was end of line or liquidated stock but no, it was "ordered direct from Altura" (presumably Zyro, the UK distributor). Goodness knows how they got them at a price to allow them to undersell everyone else, even in bulk! He did mention a forum promoting them, and whilst I know CycleChat has done so too, I reckon it's us he was referring to. They are selling them across the UK.
Much as I was tempted, I didn't want to wear it on the way home, not with the muddy state of the canal path. Other than the aforementioned near dunking, I was disappointed that of the two riders who came towards me with blinding lights, neither dipped them even though I had my C&B Seen clone on low (and further dipped as soon as I saw them). One of them even said hello as I was trying to ask if he could dip his lights so he obviously had no comprehension of the problem he was causing. Worse still, he had an equally dazzling helmet light too. It was virtually pitch black by then but one light would have been sufficient. I only went full beam on a couple of sections.
A couple of peds had me confused too. Both times I thought they were bikes approaching. The first had an LED torch and when he pulled over to my side of the path it totally threw me until I could make out his outline. The second had a highly reflective square on the sleeve of an otherwise black jacket. It looked like a headlight too and when he stepped off I thought he had switched his light out. Cue a moment of panic.
A quick stop in Linlithgow for chocolate and an energy drink and it was back on the canal path to Shandon and home by 21:15.
One downer though. A low-hanging thorny branch made a 5mm slit in the arm of my Flite. Not happy. No wondering how to patch it without spoiling the look of the jacket.
There is a seamstress at Macmerry who repairs tech kit. String here somewhere
Leckies only maybe make four quid off each jacket but ? But maybe have 10000 of them? Again this new found business insight I am developing has no basis in reality?
@Focus try http://www.scottishmountaingear.com/ in Musselburgh
Yeah I ordered one in red the other day. It's being sent out.
I passed through Polmont yesterday so I suppose I could detoured to buy one in person, but it would have messed up the timing on my DIY 200 audax ride...
Update: jacket arrived in the post, very quick service. I see what folk mean about a 'race fit'! Quite like the cut of it though, especially the long sleeves. Also wee details like the phone/MP3 pocket.
Reckon it's more of a spring/autumn weight of jacket than a winter one. Can't fit too many layers under what is a snug jacket. Mind you given the spring like temperatures just now it seems ideal!
I found mine to run quite hot - I guess due to the waterproofing. For me it will work better in cold weather. I was cycling (mainly uphill) in 5 degrees with just a medium base layer under it and was pretty hot.
Thanks for the repair tips. I was so annoyed when I heard the "vipp" sound It was almost like my Flite took umbrage that I was buying a new Altura jacket it had to share ride time with :-(
As for the Varium's fit, it's definitely aimed more at the road market than, say, commuters (not that there are hard and fast rules). I was suitably impressed by the long arms, and the black cuffs can be tucked into the sleeves to act as storm cuffs if you don't need the length.
My Samsung Galaxy S3 would only fit in the mp3 pocket with no case on and that would leave it subsceptible to condensation issues so I wont use it in that way, but as my headcam is a two-piece I could have the recorder unit in the main pocket (too bulky for the mp3 one, and feed the cables into the mp3 pocket and through the headphone outlet.
Could use more reflectives on the rear IMO. I'm not sure why manufacturers seem to deem front reflectives a higher priority when you are more likely to be hunched forward and obscuring them compared to the rear ones. Particularly odd when Altura have their Night Vision range that they skimp on rear reflectivity.
I would reckon that with a baselayer underneath, and perhaps a Windstopper gilet (or waterproof like my Flite) on top, it would make a decent enough winter jacket too, depending on your temperature threshold.
Aye, I'd expect to get hot on climbs too, almost regardless of the weather and what I'm wearing. Might give the jacket a road test in the next week, I'll see how I'm doing timewise and what the weather is like.
We should all wear them to peters yard 20/12/13
Tried mine out tonight, riding the mountain bike to the RIE and back, just over 16 miles in total. I had Oneten baselayer on underneath, a thin (Cycling Plus) buff and the mesh hi-viz running tabard over the top. The buff was more to fill the gap between collar and neck.
About 2.5 miles in, I opened the side vents and shortly after, unzipped the collar region. But I was comfortable throughout. On the return leg, I did find my shoulders and upper back feeling a bit clammy, but it was the cold clamminess associated with slightly damp clothing rather than feeling too hot. I put that down to sitting in a hospital ward for 10 minutes and the baselayer not having time to acclimatise. But although I felt colder in that area, I didn't feel uncomfortably cold as the jacket was insulating me from windchill. Supporting this, the inside of the jacket was dry when I took it off at home, well apar from the size label which is obviously not as breathable as the jacket! So with either a fresh baselayer or simply without the indoor stop, I thin things would have been fine. Definitely a good buy so far.
@amir " I was cycling (mainly uphill)"
I hate when that happens.
@cyclingmollie it happens too often. I can't remember any downhills on last Sunday's ride
There is a short route from my house (admittedly that is starting from fairly high up) but it is nearly all downhill.
You go up Harlaw Road towards the reservoir. Tis is the only actual climb and is quite gentle. You follow the top road until beyond currie kirk brae. The Tarmac ends at the farm but the track goes round behind the farm cottages. It is a road but quite rough terrain . From here there is an excellent cycle round to torphin reservoir, lovely descent, quite alpine in feel. You end up at Bonaly, all downhill really, slight slopes only on the uphill front. From Bonaly quite steep descent on main road back to colinton and the WoL path. From there a very gradual climb you hardly notice back to Balerno. We have mentioned this route before but as the only other all downhill circular route Inhave come across is the miller lite advert in San Francisco I thought I would post again.
I want to part of the gang so I placed an order for one this morning - looks like they only have mediums left in black (don't know about other sizes)
Funny how 7 of the 8 Variums currently available on eBay are in Falkirk (none of them on Leckie's page)! (4 of the last 11 completed listings too)
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