Galibier Liberté Insulated Packable Jacket

The Galibier Liberté Insulated Packable Jacket is an excellent lightweight layer with Primaloft-like insulation and a water-repellent finish. And at £82, it's comparatively inexpensive.

For more bad weather options, check out our guide to the best winter cycling jackets.

> Buy now: Galibier Liberté Insulated Packable Jacket for £82 from Galibier

The Liberté is made from a 100% nylon DWR-treated main fabric, insulated with 40 grams of 100% recycled polyester. Using recycled polyester rather than down makes sense for a packable layer on a bike, as it still works when it gets wet. It's also cheaper and easier to wash than down.

That 40g of insulation has in my opinion been judged just right; it's not so much that it doesn't pack down small enough, but it's enough to be the right kind of warm for riding.

This jacket is perfect for when temperatures are at or below zero degrees, with just a short sleeve jersey or baselayer underneath. Which of the two you wear underneath will probably be determined by what sort of bike ride you're on.

I've used it for zipping into town with just a T-shirt underneath in zero-ish temperatures. I live on top of a hill, so nipping down into town adds quite a lot of windchill, but it was plenty warm enough. Likewise, I've used it in the same sort of temperatures on longer rides on the road bike, and again it's been plenty warm enough.

If you're doing any kind of working on the bike, though, you're going to want to keep this jacket for freezing temperatures only.

Waterproofing

You wouldn't expect much in the way of waterproofing from a jacket like this, but this one is better than most. It stood up admirably to constant heavy drizzle/light rain on a just-under-an-hour ride in near zero degrees (according to my admittedly not very accurate Karoo temperature reading). With just a short-sleeve jersey underneath, it kept me warm, and it was only towards the end of the ride that I started noticing any kind of moisture starting to make its way through.

If you're going out in actual rain, a proper waterproof on top will work better. It would need to be quite cold out, though, to stop you overheating.

Pockets

The jacket has two zipped front pockets and nothing at the back. For short rides, nipping into town, that sort of thing, your keys and your phone can go in those front pockets, no problem.

If you're on an actual ride for riding's sake, you're not going to want your phone in there, but the lack of rear pockets is easily solved by wearing something underneath that has rear pockets.

In the hood

This jacket comes with a removable under-the-helmet type hood. This zips to the inside of the collar, and the zip lives inside a zipped pocket along the collar. You can store the hood zipped-on inside this pocket, or you can remove the hood and zip the pocket closed to stop zip-type irritation. The hood garage zip is a hidden type zip.

The hood itself is bare bones: no peak, no stiffener in the rim, and no drawcord adjustment. It all feels a bit loose if you put it on without a helmet; the hood can be blown off by the least bit of wind. With a helmet on over the top, though, it all makes sense. The lid keeps it on your head, and the helmet straps act as the drawcords.

I don't have much hair on top, and when it gets to the sort of temperatures that this jacket is best in, I normally wear two skullcaps under my helmet. This hood by itself is easily warm enough.

I like this hood arrangement.

Packability & weight

The jacket comes with a stuffsack. Without going crazy squashing it, the compressed stuffsack is an 11cm diameter cylinder around 13cm tall.

On my scales, the jacket with hood in the stuffsack weighs 275g (1g more than the office scales). Without the hood it's 244g, and if you want to go total weightweenie, you can shave another 10g off by not taking the stuffsack.

For me, the warmth-cost-packability balance has been judged perfectly; you can get jackets that pack down smaller for the same level of warmth, but you'd be paying a lot more. I could see this jacket being a stalwart member of my core bikepacking kit where it would be perfect for those last few miles from the pub to a suitable sleeping spot, or for getting going in the morning when you're not warmed up yet.

Fit and sizing

Although you can wear this jacket for non-cycling activities, it does have a cycling-specific cut: the back is dropped and the sleeves are long enough to cover your wrists in the drops.

It's figure hugging rather than tight, with enough space to fit a long sleeve jersey underneath, and it's small enough to fit under your not-super-tight waterproof.

At 178cm and 78kg, I'm almost always a medium, and, as the sizing chart suggested, the medium we have on test is the right size for me.

Galibier also publishes some handy extra measurements including shoulder width and the length of the front zip to help you decide, which is a nice touch.

Note, this is a unisex jacket; a specific women's cut is not available.

Value

It's not often I find myself writing this, but the Liberté is a bargain at £82, comparable with much more expensive jackets.

Endura's GV500 Insulated Jacket, for example, which off.road.cc reviewed in 2022, is now £159.99, and Albion's Insulated Jacket 3.0 is even more at £165 (though there doesn't seem to be a men's version available at the moment).

Looking outside of cycling-specific kit, my go-to brand for good value adventure kit, Alpkit, has a similar looking Primaloft insulated jacket, the Heiko, which has an rrp of £129.99, though it's currently reduced to £99.99.

Conclusion

The Liberté is another winner from Galibier. It's packable, warm, light and minimal without compromising functionality, with a great, practical fit for cycling and a price tag that doesn't make me cry out 'how much?!?'.

Verdict

Warm, packable layer that is perfect for riding in cold weather, at a great price