Drogue Short:

The Drogues are kind of hard to classify. They aren't pure performance, but they aren't pure casual either. You can wear em riding, or wear them out to the pub. They aren't heavyweight, but they aren't paper thin either. The Drogues are made from "Woven stretch fabric: 94% nylon, 1% polyester, and 5% spandex" which is the fancy way of saying they are breathable and a bit stretchy. Its the stretchiness that really makes them work as well as they do, as it lets the shorts move with you for an unconstrained feel while riding. It also allows you to be more selective with the size you choose, since the waist will stretch out a fair bit. This means you can choose a size smaller for a tighter fit, or go bigger for a looser fit without worrying about the waist exploding. Fair warning though, the tighter fit will show off your junk a fair bit. Maybe thats what you want, I dunno.

Pocket wise, the Drogue shorts are pretty standard, although they do an excellent job of keeping items in your pocket from slapping around while you pedal. The rear pockets are low enough to not interfere with saddle positioning either.

Looks wise...well thats up to you. Me, I dig em.

Overall, these shorts are a winner for sure. The MSRP of $85 is pretty good too, especially since dealers sell for less. The Drogue shorts are a great bit of gear to have. They're comfy, they're breathable, they fit great, and so far they are durable. Can't think of what else you'd want.



Mirage Jersey

I cannot tell you how many people asked me if the reversable nature of the Mirage jersey meant you could wear it twice as long. I'm serious. People asked that. They assumed that by flipping it, it would magically be clean and unsmelly, and you could hold off washing it. Amazing really.

NO. Reversing a jersey doesn't allow you to wear it twice as long.

What it does do is give you two designs for the price of one, all in one well cut, well fiting jerseys. Its hard to write about a jersey, other then saying what its made of, how it fits and the technical gibberish, so here it is nice and fast.

The Mirage is polyester with silkscreened designs. It fits me bloody great. Wide shoulders, tight body cut. Its not too warm. It breathes. Even when flipped, the silkscreened stuff doesn't stick to you. The reversable bit means I have two designs to choose from, which is nice I guess. MSRP is $70, which is a bit high I think but its usually a fair bit less in stores. Overall though, its a killer jersey. Its subtle, its not annoying in any way, and it looks good.


Mirage Gloves.

These gloves are bizarre, and I don't understand them. They're thin, so they should have ripped to hell. But they didn't rip at all, not even a little. Other gloves did, much heavier duty gloves at that.

While fit is very much a personal thing and varies from person to person, I will say that the Mirage gloves fit me perfectly. They have a couple of nice features built into them too. The knuckles are slit for venting ont he fingers, but then reinforced to prevent ripping. The mixture of synthetic leather and more standard fabric means the gloves were breathable enough to not sweat your fingerprints off, but still resistant to outside nastyness. The velcro close strap on the wrist was perfect, and rarely popped open. If I had to complain, I'd say that the snot rag on the thumb is just too small, and thats a huge pet peeve of mine. The white is also...well not so hot anymore. While the leather-ish bits clean up easiliy enough, the other fabric parts (underside of the fingers, parl) get looking pretty ratty. Thankfully, the Mirage gloves come in black too which ought to look nicer a bit longer. That said, thats just aesthetic junk and doesn't affect how they perform at all, so its mostly just bitching.

At $39, the Mirage gloves fall right in line with the competition, and considering how well they've performed they are a great deal.

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