TL;DR

I’m three rides in and so far I have only good things to say about the pants. Seems like a solid piece of gear with a single caveat: when worn in heavy rain, waterproof shoes with a high cuff are a must (more on that in the ride impressions).

Holy Capitalism, Batman! 300+ bucks for waterproof pants?

Yeah, that was my reaction when I first saw reports on a few cycling websites I read. The bad thing is that I was in the market for a new pair of waterproof pants because I had lost enough mass over the past few months that my Vaude pants simply didn’t fit anymore.

What I set out to find were pants that wouldn’t be used over jeans or chinos, allowing for a tighter fit suitable for foul weather road and off-road cycling and without a zippered leg cuff if possible.

After some research the contenders were the Raphas I ended up buying, the Q36.5 Rain Overpants, and the Fox Defend 3-Layer Water Pants. The Q36.5 were not advertised as off-road-worthy so despite the nice looks, I opted to order the Rapha and Fox pants because both were discounted around Black Friday.

I was honestly hoping that the Fox would come out on top because really, I didn’t see enough of a difference in quality of construction to justify the Rapha pants being more than 2× the price but … nope, that typical Fox cut that works so well for me in fair weather pants and shorts ended up a mixture of sagging on the back, constricting beneath my belly. The almost customary lack of a crotch zipper felt stupid on pants that are supposed to be waterproof. Oh and I quickly found that the elastic cuff of the Fox Defend 3L pants was tight enough to not fit over the cuff of my Shimano SH-MW702 waterproof shoes.

Fit

Pretty darn good.

Imagine a well-fitting straight cut jeans crossed with contoured MTB pants and a fabric feel like your typical high-quality 3-layer laminated membrane.

The fastening system works very well; it can be adjusted both very easily and precisely. The slightly elongated back is also a welcome design choice, reducing the chances of rain and wet, sloppy dirt from your back tire making its way up your spine.

The legs are quite long and while that may seem an odd choice at first, it makes sense the second you get on the bike and start pedaling because it ensures that cuff can rest on or barely above your shoes when pedaling or moving around on the bike.
Even only three rides in, this is something I really appreciate because my posterior tibial arteries were always covered, reducing the chances of me feeling cold in strong winds and rain.

Ride impressions

On each of the rides I did with the pants I tried testing something else. Two were done on my road bike, one on the MTB.

Mixed-surface ride, road bike, 5-ish°C, dry but windy AF

Wore the Raphas over a my padded summer MTB bib shorts and full-length merino tights. I had mid-weight below-the-calf merino socks on my feet and my go-to cycling shoes, the Specialized S-Works Recon Lace combined with a wind-proof toe cover.

I typically suffer from my lower back and the sides of my butt becoming uncomfortably cool even in supposedly wind-proof bib tights. Not this time. The combination of merino mid-layer and properly wind-proof outer layer worked super well on this pretty long ride. The long leg meant no wind was cooling out my ankles and that added to the comfort.

Road ride, road bike, 0°C average temps, rain and snow + wet roads

I paired the pants with my padded summer MTB bib shorts, long, unpadded and insulated Assos bib longs, and knee-high merino winter socks, as well as the Shimano MW-702 shoes.

The pants flowed well over the slick surface of the Assos tights and the aforementioned long legs meant that the pants stayed put over the cuff of my winter cycling shoes.

Throughout the ride I felt properly warm and didn’t overheat even on the hardest climbs of the route I chose despite a good amount of rain blocking evaporation on the membrane. Sure, I was sweaty when I got home but not wet from rain, snow, or road spray.

Off-road + trail ride, MTB, 10°C, windy and later the heavens opened up

This time I wore regular and slightly warmer padded bib shorts, no tights, some crew height mid-weight merino socks, my S-Works Recon Lace shoes + wind-proof toe cover. It was going to be a lot of climbing and sweating up the hills here and I also wanted to find out how the fabric of the pants felt on my skin and it wasn’t bad but also not as nice as with flowy non-membrane fabrics.

It was supposed to rain that day but only later in the afternoon and that’s why I didn’t wear my waterproof shoes. Well, halfway up and not even halfway into the route it started to rain and then it poured.

This is where I get back to the caveat I mentioned at the very beginning: when there’s rain, high-cuffed waterproof shoes are a must. The well-fitting elastic cuff of the pants funneled all of the rain, spray, and dirt into my shoes. Within minutes my cycling shoes were full of water and I was starting to get cold.

Even so: my legs stayed dry and comfortable and I got home in a good state, my feet being the exception. I rinsed off my waterproof jacket and pants in the shower and was glad that all of the muck and rain didn’t penetrate.

Here’s to more rides

The mixed surface ride and this very mucky trail ride covered the pants in dust and wet dirt and I’m happy that there’s no sign of abrasion so far. I’d be seriously alarmed if it were the case for a piece of gear so expensive but you never know.

The great fit is inviting and I’ll be wearing them often this winter.

🚲 Just read a review of the Lauf Úthald road bike on Bikerumor. The editor talked at length about the novel approach to slacker head angles that Lauf is using to make their road bike fast and less twitchy. Tyler Benedict praised the bike for not just feeling fast because of it but being confident and stable at speed thanks to this geometry.

Reading this is all made sense and I believe we‘re going to see more of it but when I arrived at the geometry table, the values seemed familiar. I opened the Van Nicholas home page, found the Yukon Disc and wouldn’t you know it: my bike has highly comparable values. So this audax bike, this long-distance endurance bike that’s been around for years and where the geometry hasn’t changed much over time is actually cutting edge. 😏

And hey, I can confirm Tyler‘s findings: a slightly slacker head angle and more fork rake makes for a very stable ride even at speed without letting the bike feel sluggish or unresponsive.

The WTB Exposure 30 I had been running on Swift Wind (my titanium Van Nicholas Yukon Disc) have finally worn down to the point they needed replacing. I really liked these tires: they punch far above their weight and lasted a long time.

The type of rubber I wanted to go with next needed to be lighter, faster, potentially narrower (for those all-important and marginal Aero Gains™) but still robust enough to survive excursions onto field and forest roads that I enjoy on my rides

The Specialized S-Works Mondo piqued my interest when I saw the announcement and after reading a review on Rennrad News and a first look on Bikerumor, I decided to give them a try.

Mounting

I bought the 700×28c version planning on running them with Schwalbe Aerothan tubes. Road tubeless may work for some people, for me it’s been nothing but frustrating, whereas the Aerothan tubes are no fuss and give me a similar ride feel.

I’m using a DT Swiss GRC 1600 wheel set (think: GRC 1400 rims but with 350-series hubs instead of 240). The rims are hookless with an inner width of 24 mm and an outer width of 32 mm.

Getting the tires onto these rims was an absolute pain in the butt.

Conti GP 5000 are tough to install on my other DT Swiss rims, these Mondos were an exercise in patience and persistence.

Once installed and inflated, they measured 29.86 mm, which is a smidge below the 30 mm minimum tire width DT Swiss specified for the rims but that’s fine. Specialized helpfully have a rim width/tire compatibility table on the packaging of the Mondos and not only is it within spec, the width came out almost exactly where Specialized projected it to be.

I read in a blog post somewhere that DT Swiss had tested these rims for road use and found that the best aerodynamic advantages are achieved with a 28 to 30 mm tire because that leaves the broadest part of the rim wider than the rubber.

First ride

I used the Silca tire pressure calculator to arrive at a recommended 70 psi for the front and 72 psi for the back and went for one of my regular training routes on road surfaces of varying smoothness, age, and quality. Weather was cold (around freezing) and road conditions were mostly wet.

First impressions are the following:

• This 29.86 mm tire (effective) is more supple than I expected it to be. I was jostled around only a little bit more than with the WTB Exposure 30 which blow up to 33 mm on these rims.
• They feel fast! Acceleration is excellent and they have plenty of grip in a straight line but don’t feel like they glue me to the surface.
• Cornering grip is impressive both in the wet and dry. I did a few corners on this route at a much higher speed in the wet than I would’ve typically done in the dry with the previous tires.

Russ Roca posted a video on his channel: “The DARK SIDE of Electronic Shifting No One Talks About”

He makes a couple of good points about compatibility, ease of performing modifications, and cost of upgrades and repairs but I still have problems agreeing with the doom and gloom situation he presents.

I’m really of a split opinion here. I have four bikes: a titanium road bike with Shimano Di2 and Shimano hydraulic brakes, a titanium MTB with mechanical SRAM Eagle shifting and Hope hydros, an e-bike with mechanical SRAM Eagle and Magura hydros, and a Trek retro-mod with mechanical SRAM Eagle and … Magura hydro rim brakes.

Both Magura and Shimano hydros are so ridiculously easy for me to service and even on tours I’m not worried because essentially every bike shop can do it. The advantages and lack of maintenance of those over most cable-actuated brakes simply outweigh the negatives for me.

A bit further into the video Russ talks about electronic shifting being the “death of freedom” but he also says,

Here’s the thing: humans are complex, there are certain aspects of my life where, you know, I’ll go for that simplicity. For example: video editing, I’m an Apple fanboy all day long. I just want things to work and in that instance I’m willing to give up, you know, certain levels of customization and control.

And that is the thing: with shifting I perceive Di2 similarly to my Apple gear: they’re both golden cages but very big and comfortable ones. When these products work and fit your needs, they are utterly perfect and effortless. When they don’t, they can be incredibly annoying.
Di2 shifting has been nothing but great for me. Setup and maintenance are simple and easy, the components long-lived (bought mine used). I have the gearing I want for this bike (48/32 + 11-32) and there’s even room to go 11-40 on that system with a Wolftooth Goat Link (as Jom from Gravel Cyclist confirmed).

That said: the frame I’m running Di2 on is a Van Nicholas Yukon disc with internal routing that is also fully compatible with wired shifting (even wired braking) if I ever want to go that route. It was important to me when I bought it because I did not want to get locked into electronic shifting systems.

All in all, I had expected something more profound from the video. Russ and Laura make good content but this felt more like a rant about something he doesn’t like because it doesn’t fit his needs.