KOO EDGE GOGGLES
£110 clear / £129 mirrored lens
SPECIFICATION Weight: 190g • Colours: Black, White/red • Contact: kooworld.cc
Italian brand Koo only offers one mtb goggle; this high-end Edge using lenses made by German optical giant, Zeiss.
You buy the Edge with either a mirrored finish or clear lens, with the latter being the obvious choice for dark and damp UK conditions. Mirrored lenses have an anti-scratch, anti-drop and anti-reflection treatment, whereas the clear model has a special anti-fog coating called Dfog with the finishes reflecting the kind of conditions you’re likely to use each lens type in. Replacement lenses are pretty expensive at £65 for mirror and £49 for clear, so it’s a good job they resist scratching much better than most.
Koo’s goggles are a bit floppy without the lens installed, which makes it slightly tricky to line up the J-shaped hooks when changing or re-installing a lens. Luckily it’s not something you’ll need to do often. The foam backing on the frame is a bit soft and floppy too, and I needed to cinch the strap a bit tighter around my helmet to stabilise the goggles on my face compared to other brands.
The Zeiss lens is really crisp and sharp, and being pre-curved means distortion is minimal and there are also no weird reflections or light halos when riding directly into a low winter sun. Koo’s Dfog treatment is reasonably effective, but the lens occasionally gets misted up when the weather is foggy and damp – no more so than other lenses, but the coating does seem a bit slower to clear than some other brands.
I have a hunch that lining all the holes in the goggle frame with foam is the main reason why the Edge takes longer to de-mist – my plan is to peel off these internal foam strips to see if that helps. As the holes aren’t big enough to allow loam chunks or bugs through, I can’t see too many drawbacks.
The Edge is a decent goggle with good optics and a wide-viewing window, but it’s expensive compared to rivals like the Smith Squad, particularly as it comes with two lenses – mirror and clear - for £90.
SCOTT TRAIL STORM INSULOFT AL JACKET £134.99
SPECIFICATION Weight: 303g • Sizes: S-XXL • Colours: Black, grey, yellow • Contact: scott-sports.com
Polartec’s Alpha insulation has been finding itself in more and more cycling garments recently, and has already won a place in our hearts for its impressive warmth and breathability. One of the latest jackets to feature the material is Scott’s Trail Storm Insulated AL, available in both men’s and women’s versions. Although, inexplicably the women’s version is £1 more expensive than the men’s – so much for equality.
Polartec is used to line all of the panels on the jacket except for the flanks, which have a polyester/elastane mix with a four-way stretch. The tops of the arms are also insulated with the fluffy Alpha fabric, with the sleeves capped by extended Lycra cuffs.
There’s a regular fit that’s mtb-specific according to Scott. I’d describe it as slim without being roadie-tight. While very much not intended as a waterproof jacket, Scott has added a very subtle drop tail to help protect against splashes, and an eco-friendly DWR coating, but neither are very effective. Rain soon penetrated the outer shell, and the lack of a hood means this is really a jacket for frigid dry days rather than wet ones.
On a practical level there’s a single pocket at the lower back, which I’m not a fan of as it's fiddly to get things in and out of. But, my sample jacket is last year’s model – hence the old colour – and Scott has helpfully added dual hip pockets on the latest version.
Compared to my other Polartec Alpha jacket –
Fohn’s Hybrid – the Scott is less waterproof and less breathable.
It doesn’t rustle around when you’re wearing it like the Fohn, but it’s also more expensive – and you can pick up the Fohn for around £40 online.