Chapeau Cafe Jersey

You know bamboo, right? Thin, strong and very long (or was that Andrex?). Well, Chapeau has used bamboo to make the new version of its casual Cafe jersey – 64% of the fabric here is bamboo, with the balance being mostly polyester and a smidge of elastane. I've not tried a bamboo jersey before and any concern that it might be, y'know, a bit rigid was quickly dispersed. It's very comfortable. It does have another characteristic in common with the raw material, though, which is length. This is a very long jersey. Probably too long, unless you are very tall.

In some ways the Café jersey falls somewhere between a typical cycling jersey and a polo shirt. The collar and cuffs owe more than a bit to the latter, but the feel of the fabric used for the body is more like a T-shirt: soft and very comfortable against the skin. The bamboo/polyester fabric doesn't hold as much moisture as a cotton T-shirt, though, and I found it stayed very comfortable either worn as a single layer or underneath a jacket.

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The jersey is available in a range of colours, with thin strips as here, and in a version with two broader stripes across the chest. We reviewed an earlier version a few years ago, which was a similar looking design but with 100 per cent less bamboo in it – it used a 90/10 polyester-cotton blend.

As I alluded to above, there is a bit of an issue in the sizing. I was originally sent a medium, which was comfortably loose around the chest but very long. So long that I'd repeatedly sit on the contents of the pockets at the rear, even without loading them heavily. Chapeau sent me a small size which is not too tight around my chest – I think I prefer the fit here – but it's still longer than most jerseys I own.

I think the longer cut is an attempt to make it more like a casual top you'd wear to the pub. If you look, for example, at the Bontrager Classique jersey, it's so short at the front as to expose the uppers of the bibs, which wouldn't be a great look off the bike. No such issues here, that's for sure.

In the small size, I didn't sit on the pockets, but they still hung fairly low. If you struggle getting your arm around to fish things out of higher-set pockets, you'll like this jersey. The lower hem has a cycling cut, with a pronounced drop at the rear and silicone dots on the inside to keep it in place. If I stretched it out such that those dots sit against my shorts, the rear hem was only just above the saddle. Bearing in mind this is a small size and I'm 6ft 2in, you have to wonder what kind of a giant would wear the XXL, apparently 4 inches longer top to bottom.

Chapeau has added a note on its website suggesting you may want to size down, and I'd certainly agree with this. In fact, if you're not fairly sizeable, I think you'll probably want to look elsewhere. Which is a shame, as it's otherwise a likeable jersey. I like the subtle reflectivity in the sewn-on badge at the rear and I love the custom zip pull on that pocket with a Chapeau! exclamation mark on it.

> Check out our guide to the best short sleeve summer jerseys

One other oddity to note. The advertised water-resistant lining on that zipped pocket was absent on both the samples I had. In case it was some sort of invisible nano-protection, I bunged a load of water in there, which of course came straight back out again. It has a water-resistant zip, which seems sadly of no use at all.

Chapeau's range contains some nice gear, but I think the designers might need to go back to the cutting board on this one.

Verdict

Comfortable casual jersey that's sized for giants; those of average height or shorter may want to look elsewhere