New jacket

Normally my rain wear consists of a Marmot Precip jacket. It's light but it's only marginally better than wearing a Hefty bag. I've gotten by with it for years now but I've never liked it and I really was disappointed in it after hiking out of Rocky Mountain Nat'l Park this past fall. I was soaked when I made it out. I have been looking at jackets for about 2 years now. For the last several months I have been looking really hard at one by Gore Bike Wear that retails for $280. I had heard amazing things about it and I knew that something made of Gore Tex would be in a completely different league than the Precip but I could not find one to try on. In fact, I could only find one in the UK. 

So yesterday I happened to be down at Colorado Cyclist and had previously seen this new jacket from Mavic. It's the Stratos H2O. I had never tried it on because of the price tag but decided to yesterday. I liked it. Then I weighed it. My Precip weighed 13 ounces and the Mavic was almost an even 16. I looked back at the price tag and dry heaved a bit. $400. One of the fellas was talking to me about it and I said I'd think about it as it was more than I was planning to pay. He walks away and comes back with, "I can help you out a bit with it at $340." Ruh roh. That's a good chunk of change. After doing several laps around the store, I decided to get it. I figured that wasn't much more than the Gore jacket and I would have payed international shipping from the UK and then I would be damn close to this one. 

It's got a super nice, adjustable cuffs, a serious hood that is removable, fresh air vents in the front and back to channel cooler air in and hotter air out, fully welded seams, a clever little clear window on the left cuff that easily shows your watch, and an off-center front zipper that doesn't rub on my chin or get caught up in my beard (when I have one). 

Unfortunately, I probably will not need this thing for a bit here as the drought continues but I'll be sure to report back on it after I've used it because I could not find one single review on the internet.