A rain cape, for the rare occassions you get caught in a shower, is a bicycle-babe wardrobe essential!
But finding the perfect rain cape is harder than avoiding rain storms!
In all my years of the bicycle life I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve been caught in a down pour.
It just so happens that one of those rare occassions was last week while testing out the US-made rain cape – Cleverhood
I had high hopes for a cape named Cleverhood and it lived up to all of them, with the exception of two.
I’ll get to the two exceptions in a moment, they are critical, but first what I love about it:
THE GOOD
1. Light weight – you don’t need anything weighing down your bicycle wings!
2. It folds up small – it packs down perfectly to fit in your front basket or a side pocket so you can carry it at all times.
3. Thumb loops – place your thumbs through the loops so that the cape is held snugly over the handle bars – no wet jeans with this baby!
4. Reflective fabric – so you are bright as a firefly at night.
5. Long back – so that it covers your seat.
THE BAD
And now for the not so bicycle babelicious part:
1. Arm slits – the cape has two arm slits in the front which are great until you get caught in a storm. Despite being well constructed the arm slits couldn’t hold up to the water pressure and they sprung a leak!
2. Hood – The problem of hoods obscuring your side vision, when you want to turn, is yet to be solved so that’s not unique to Cleverhood. This hood has no draw cord so it gets blown back in the bicycle breeze.
THE UGLY
The Cleverhood is super chic and mod, there is nothing ugly about this rain cape. It will go with jeans and heels, or your best little black dress.
BICYCLE BABE RATING
We hope the good people at Cleverhood bring out a Cape2.0 with either no arm slits (the cape is wide enough to use your arms under it) or with sealable arm slits.
Either way the Cleverhood, with modifications, will be a bicyle babe winner!
We rate it 7/10
WHERE TO BUY
Cleverhood retails for $249USD
Cleverhood ship worldwide, or find a stockist in your city. In Melbourne you will find them at Five Boroughs.
What do you think?