HG Voyage jacket

[ogden]

I've had a Heinz Gherkin Cruise GTX suit for three or four years now, and it's served me astonishingly well, especially for the money - courtesy of the end-of-line sale I managed to pick it up for 330 quid which seemed llike reasonable value at the time but in hindsight was an absolute bargain.

It's always had a few niggles - the velcro is rubbish, zips on the cuffs have a tendency to unzip of their own accord, and you don't want to be inside it all zipped up on a really hot day - but other than that it's been fantastic. It's only let water in once, on the way to Glastonbury last year, in the most horrendous downpour I've ever ridden in, and even then it was just a damp spot on my front. In all other weather, be it Baden-Baden to Verdun in torrential rain, or four hours of riding through the Alps in a storm, it's come up trumps. In short, it's a brilliant bit of kit.

But over time, with daily use, the zips have started to let go - first the slider tabs on the wrists, then the sliders themselves - so I found myself in need of a 15 quid repair job. Or, to put it another way, I found myself with the perfect excuse to go and buy a new jacket while the old one goes off for repair.

HG have just launched their new range, and the current equivalent of the Cruise is the Summit, which is 490 quid. That seems hilarious until you see Infinity want over a grand for the Rukka Armas jacket which I'm sure is lovely but should come with a season ticket to a "Model" in an upstairs flat just off Brewer Street for that kind of money. But 490 quid is 490 quid, and the human body only contains so much zinc, so I had a quick look online and they were selling off the last of last year's range, including the jacket that came between the Cruise II and the Summit, the Voyage.

If you're a 50 or 56, you might want to stop reading this now, head straight over to the HG web site, and pick up the steal of the century, because instead of 490 quid for a lovely jacket you can get something pretty much the same for 240 quid delivered. Stop reading now and go. GO!

Anyway, a quick review. It's mostly the same as the Cruise, a Cordura outer shell with a Goretex Performance Shell liner. That's the classic three-layer version that keeps water out and farts in. Yeah, really, it does - I get to work every morning bone dry but the moment I unzip it half the office goes into a coma. Anyway...

It has two pockets on the outside which claim to be waterproof, though a tag on the inside says HG won't accept liability for anything that gets wet in those pockets unless it's in a watertight plastic bag, so your mileage may vary. I can say from experience that the equivalent pockets on the Cruise really do keep things dry, though you may want to keep your phone on the inside, just in case. Whereas the cruise has them up at chest height, where they're handy to reach, don't get crushed against the tank and it's easy to check in the mirrors whether they're closed, the Voyage has them on the waist where none of the above applies. Still, you can't have everything and there's no point getting nostalgic about the old days.

The cuff zips are two-way - you can open them up, or have the cuffs closed but the vents open, and they're traditional zips rather than that Vislon nonsense on the Cruise, so they seem rather less inclined to unzip of their own accord. And it still has the storm cuffs for anyone who can bothered making some kind of wrist-based lasagna with their jacket and gloves, which is lovely. I've never bothered and I've generally lived to tell the tale.

The main zip has three parts - an inner zip, then a flap to keep the water out, and then an outer zip. This is in contrast to the Cruise which had a single zip and a flap with poppers on the outside. It's definitely better because it has two zips, not one, and poppers belong up my nose or in a bar on Old Compton Street. So there.

It has a storm collar, just like the Cruise, and anyone thinking of buying an all-weather jacket without one is a fool. Not just a fool, an idiot. It's the difference between having a torrent of water down your neck and being bone dry, so take note.

Finally, it's thinner than the Cruise. The Summit is the same - it's basically the same jacket, doing the same job, but it's far, far less bulky than its ancestor. Which is super-handy if you're into that kind of thing, which you will be if you try and stuff it in a tailpack with all your kit while you go off to spend five days in a swamp. I did, it was great, especially Primal Scream.

So, basically, last year's model is great, at least on a par with the equivalent before the one before last, and an absolute steal if you can get it in the end-of-line sale which is still on at the time of writing. If not, the Summit is probably also an excellent piece of kit and if it seems a bit steep, have a browse through the Rukka range. Once you've stopped laughing you'll be straight down to HG to make a purchase.

As for the model near Berwick Street, she looks just like the photo, apparently. And she has both O-levels and A-levels. Unusual for a Bulgarian...