This is not a jacket in my opinion. This is a jersey. A rather fancy jersey. A three hundred and sixty flipping quid jersey. Is it any good?
- Brand: Castelli
- Product: Alpha 150 Jacket
- Price: £360.00
- From: Saddleback
- Tested by: Benji for 6 months
Pros
- Supremely well designed and fabricated
- Lovely colour
- Easily – and massively – adjustable on-the-fly, versatile
Cons
- Three hundred
- And sixty
- Quid
Our rating
Made principallly from windproof, water-repellent and highly breathable Polartec Air Core softshell material. What’s to like about this garment, aside from the Deep Bordeaux colour? Big collar. Draft excluder cuffs. Rear pockets. Very handy key/multitool pocket on front-left.
The inner ‘waistcoat’ is made from super cute ‘n’ cosy Polartec Alpha. It’s PFC-free, has high recycled content and is made in Europe, for those who care about such things.
I’m partial to a close-fitting softshell during autumn/winter, for use as a midlayer with a thin shell or gilet over the top. There’s no denying that roadie brands do midlayers better than mountain bike brands. MTB mid-layers are just too casually cut or just somehow… wrong. I can count the number of good MTB midlayers on no fingers of no hands.
At £360 the Alpha 150 needs to be something special to explain its price tag. Spoiler alert: this garment is not “worth the money” – you are definitely playing a premium because it’s got Castelli written on it – but it is still an excellent piece of kit. Both things can be true.
Perhaps the one vague economic argument for this garment is that it stops you spending (wasting) money on an expensive waterproof jacket (which won’t work after a year of UK mountain biking). Pair this Alpha 150 with the £100 lightweight shell jacket of your choice and I reckon you’re set for at least half of the UK year.
The Alpha 150 acts like multiple layers at once. With both the full length zips done up (waistcoat and outer) it is winter warm. And by partly/fully opening the zips as things heat up, you can tailor things as you go. And there is something to be said for Castelli’s mastery of on-the-fly adjustability; there’s no snagging or faffing or biting things with your teeth, things just glide open/close without much effort or faff.
Essentially it’s like a base layer, a mid layer, a gilet and a Buff all in one. Have everything zipped up for maximum cosy/protection. Unzip stuff as you go along and the ride and/or weather changes. It’s easy to post-purchase convince yourself that this garment was worth the money. It is genuinely impressive how Castelli can pack in so much function and yet totally avoid the complexity, discomfort and general faff that usually goes with such a feature-fest garment.
Overall
The Alpha 150 feels like an investment that you’ll have for many years, not a frustrating folly that goes in the bin after 18 months. Looks great, works great. Function and fabrication: 5 stars. Value..? Hmm yeah, £360 is still bonkers money. Wait for the sales. Big sales.
If you needed a mid layer/winter jersey like this, whats the alternative/nearest thing without the mega non-affordable price tag?
Wait for the sale
My short sleeve perfetto is probably my most worn cycling kit! It’s good for such a wide range of conditions, somehow coping with quite surprisingly warm windy days while also being enough with a base and jersey under it for really grim days.
and Merlin have long sleeve ones in all sizes at £110 (down from £250), so I’m off to buy another one. In bright orange.
They all look a bit ‘roadie’ sized.
What size do we buy if we’re average proportioned human – 75kg/178cm
large or xlarge I’d say I’m 187cm 77kg and wear XL in Castelli
Sport Pursuit have the Alpha Flight version for £145 (I think it’s a lighter weight version of the Alpha, I have one but use it as a jacket for 8-12c-ish riding but Z2/cafe pace rather than riding hard, the Castelli stated temp ranges are based on you actually training at a reasonable intensity not pootling about)
7Mesh Tantalus is a similar insulating mid/outer jersey but without the semi-separate waistcoat layer.
I think the Albion primaloft bodywarmer + jacket makes a bit more sense than the Flight as it’s more versatile (assuming you can stash the reasonably packable bodywarmer)
The same thing at 50% off bought in the middle of summer.
I bought a perffeto then a alpha ros- an older version of this. Both 50% off. I’m large in most things and XXL in castelli.
They are both awesome bits of kit. The alpha ros has me happy down to 0C. I only wear them on the road as the thought of trashing them on bramble/ MTB is too much even bought on sale.
OK, so if I don’t want the perfetto or any other roadie shaped gear, are their any other choices that are not as tight, or do they need that to work properly?
I’m not bothered about the image, I can get into roadie shaped clothes, I just don’t want to.
The alpha ros is down to £190 on sports pursuit now
The last Perfetto I bought was for normal shaped humans – more square than tubular. I was a bit disappointed as I’m more tubular than square and bought it mail order (as we called it in the olden days) same size as my other Perfettos.
For the OP’s jersey, I’d buy a Perfetto or Galibier do one similar for fewer £’s. I’d then vary the base layer/gilet combo depending on how chilly things are.
The Alpha might be warm enough when it gets really cold but those days a few and far between in Cambs and you’re better off with a more flexible, layered approach.