Ashmei Men's Softshell Cycle Jacket

The Ashmei Cycle Softshell Jacket is a very high-quality top that's particularly suited to spring and autumn days, and it comes with a multitude of excellent features. It's an incredibly well designed piece of kit.

This is the first article from Ashmei that we've reviewed on road.cc, part of their initial cycling range after expanding out of the running market. Check out our article from last November to find out more about the brand. It's a hugely impressive start.

The front of the jacket, the shoulders, the tops of the arms and the pockets, are made from a lightweight polyester/polyurethane that Ashmei say has been developed especially for them. The fabric is described as wind and water resistant, although it pretty much stops both.

The rest of the jacket – the centre of the back and the underside of the arms – is made from a mix of merino wool, nylon and Spandex (elastane). These are the less exposed areas when you're cycling so they don't need to shut the weather out in the same way. These panels add extra breathability, allowing moist air out, and the loose inner weave helps wick damp away from your base layer so you can stay comfortable across a wide range of temperatures.

The yoke is stitched down only in the centre so you get ventilation there, and generously long pit zips provide more climate control. You can open the front zip from either the top or the bottom – or both – to let more air in.

That zip is water resistant and comes with a baffle behind it so there's no chance of wind getting through, and it's offset to minimise the chance of it irritating your chin. There's a chinguard at the top too, and a similar fold at the bottom to stop the zip damaging your Lycra.

The cut is slim enough to avoid flapping and there's stretch in both fabrics, especially the merino one, so you won't feel constricted if you're anything other than stick thin.

In typical cycling style, the rear is cut longer than the front to keep your covered up when you're down on the drops, and there's also a mudflap back there that you can drop down in wet conditions. Little magnets hold it out of the way when it's not needed.

Rather than three standard issue cargo pockets at the back, you get four, all differently sized, one designed to take a mini pump. (We have a pre-production sample here; they'll actually be slightly deeper in real life, and some more bar tacks are being added to add more strength). There are two more zipped and water resistant pockets back there too for things like your mobile phone, one of them with an exit port for an earphone lead. There's a tiny pocket tucked away in the baffle of the front zip too, just large enough to take a key for your front door or bike lock.

Other features include a silicone gripper inside the bottom hem and inner cuffs that you can either leave tucked inside or (I'm not sure if they're designed for this) pull down and wear inside the cuffs of your gloves to prevent draughty wrists. Reflective trim on both the back and at the front of the shoulders and broad white stripes on the chest and rear add lots of visibility.

Phew! There's a whole lot going on here, but his jacket doesn't feel at all cluttered. In fact, it's only now that I come to write everything down that I realise how many different features there are because they're all really well integrated.

Thanks to the wind resistance, you get a whole lot of warmth considering the jacket's light weight (it's a lot lighter than Rapha's Classic Softshell, for example, if you happen to know that jacket). I've been using it in temperatures down to about 9°C although some people will be happy in colder weather than that.

All in all, this is really, really well-designed with plenty of genuinely useful features. Looks are always a matter of personal taste but I reckon it's really stylish too. A great jacket.

Verdict

High-quality wind and water resistant jacket that's packed with genuinely useful features