As is usual with X-Bionic gear, this expensive high-tech Italian-made garment comes with a plethora of jargon – 3D Bionic-Sphere System, 6-dimensional elasticity, Diffuser, RodTypePaddings. What all this means is that the garment is designed to allow moisture to escape and to keep you cool when working hard and warm when stationary. To do so it has small, thick, ribbed panels on the chest, collar and centre of the hood and a large such panel on the back. These are meant to allow hot, moist air to escape and be replaced by cooler, drier air. The rest of the garments is made up of brushed stretch fleece similar to Polartec Power Stretch. Does it work? Yes, when sweating really hard while cycling or running it stays a bit drier than other fleeces. Walking, it’s much like a Power Stretch top. For the warmth it’s quite heavy and it’s very expensive. I don’t think it adds enough in performance to justify the cost.
X-Bionic Outdoor Beaver
Chris Townsend reviews a range of fleeces
Specifications
Details
MATERIALS: 86% polyamide/14% elastane HOOD: yes FRONT CLOSURE: full-length zip, internal flap POCKETS: no CUFFS: elasticised, thumb loops SIZES: S-XL WEIGHT: 490g COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: Italy PRICE: Ј130 WEBSITE: x-bionic.com