Back in May, 2022, as I was planning my cross-country Ural expedition, I realized that I was lacking a very important piece of equipment—rain gear. See, I never really bothered with proper rain gear because I didn't do a lot of long-distance riding. Ninety percent of my saddle time is within a 50-mile radius of my house, and my bad weather riding options were either A: don't ride, B: Hole up for a couple minutes until the weather changes, or C: get wet. I knew I wouldn't have the luxury of those choices while I was on the road, so I went looking for something to keep me dry.
As someone who'd never bothered with rain gear, I wasn't sure where to start. Oh, I knew what I wanted—a comfortable, good-looking, armored rain jacket that was easy to get in and out of—but I didn't really know what my options were. After digging around for a while, and trying on some things at a local Cycle Gear store, I finally struck gold with Spidi and the Allroad H2Out jacket.
The Basics
The Allroad is a three-in-one jacket that combines an armored textile shell with two removable liners—a waterproof liner using Spidi's proprietary H2Out technology and a quilted thermal liner. The various layers can be worn together or separately, mixed and matched to fit a rider's specific needs based on weather and climate. There's a lot going on with this jacket, so I've broken down this review into three general sections outlining each layer with my final thoughts at the end. If you want to get into the real nitty-gritty of the Allroad and read about armor ratings and waterproof pockets, read on. If you just want to hear how the Allroad saved my bacon out on the road and how I ended up with a pocket full of rainwater in Montana, go ahead and skip to the end.
Outer Shell
The Allroad's outer shell, or main chassis as Spidi calls it, is made of laminated abrasion- and puncture-resistant polyamide Tenax mesh, nylon 6.6, and polyurethane-coated polyester. It's cut in a classic ADV style that would look great on any Africa Twin, Ténéré, or R 1250 GS—or, I must say, a Ural—and comes in four colors—black and gray, high-viz yellow fluo, all-black, and ice/red. Reflective panels on the front and back of the shoulders and on the arms just above the elbows provide extra visibility and safety for night riding.
The main zipper is weatherproof, and the jacket is equipped with two waterproof front pockets with snap-fastened flaps, two smaller external zipper pockets that are not waterproof, a large zipper pocket in the lower back, and an inner zip-up Napoleon pocket in the left breast. Velcro and snap-fastened flaps cover the collar and base of the zipper, providing even more environmental protection.
The jacket comes in sizes up to 4XL, but being a Spidi product and therefore designed and built for svelte Europeans, the sizes run a bit snug. The jacket's fit can be further adjusted with various straps and flaps located at the waist, lower back, biceps, cuffs, and forearms along with a drawstring in the hem. Spidi calls all this adjustability the Ergofit system, and it provides a great amount of fine tailoring to individual riders, a real godsend if you're going to be wearing this jacket for hours at a time.
While the shell breathes pretty well all buttoned up, additional ventilation is provided by two massive front-mounted vents, a back vent, and forearm vents. The front-mounted vents are two panels on either side of the main zipper fastened by two vertical zippers and a Velcro closure at the top. This allows the vents to be opened just slightly by zipping down one of the zippers, or fully opened by unzipping the whole flap, detaching it from the velcro, and rolling it down to expose the inner mesh.
By opening the back-mounted vent, which uses the same dual-zipper and Velcro flap closure, you can really get the air flowing through the jacket, making for a very comfortable ride in even the hottest weather. I should note here that these vents really only work well when you're wearing the outer shell without the liners installed. The H2Out liner tends to stop the wind dead, and using the thermal layer with the vents open kind of defeats that layer's whole purpose. With both liners installed you can barely feel any ventilation at all, but that's a setup you'd use for when it's both cold and wet, so why would you have the vents open in the first place?
For safety, along with the shell's abrasion- and puncture-resistant construction, the Allroad comes equipped with armor at the shoulders and elbows. These ForceTech protectors are removable and adjustable and provide CE level 2 protection. In addition, the jacket has pockets and connections for back protectors, chest protectors, and Spidi's Thorax Warrior armor. The jacket can even connect to a pair of properly equipped riding pants with a stout zipper located in the lower back to keep it from riding up in a crash and exposing the rider's torso.
All this safety and materials science adds up to a PPE certification of Class AA. Thankfully, I didn't have any opportunities to test the safety features out, but the jacket is sturdy and the fit and finish feel great, so I reckon it would have kept me pretty safe in a fall or slide.
H2Out Liner
The first of the Allroad's removable liners is a thin, water and windproof jacket made from Spidi's proprietary, breathable H2Out textiles. It's a basic piece of kit in black with a reflective patch on the back and SPIDI splashed across the shoulders. It has a tall collar with a snap-fastened flap to keep out the wind, a waterproof zipper, and no pockets. It connects to the Allroad's outer shell via a series of snap-fastened loops and Velcro fasteners at the cuffs. While you can wear the H2Out liner as a standalone jacket, its utility is kind of limited by its lack of pockets.
The H2Out liner is part of what Spidi calls the INSIDEOUT System. During light showers or short storms, the liner can be worn inside the outer shell as usual. If it's really coming down, or you have a long ride in the rain, you can wear the liner over the outer shell like a raincoat. When wearing the liner over the shell, there's an extra two-inch flap around the hem that can be folded down to completely cover the jacket, and the cuffs can be adjusted with Velcro fasteners to keep the rain out.
While I was on the road, I didn't realize that you could wear the H2Out liner over the jacket, so I never did. I got caught in some bad storms on my trip, including an eight-hour stretch in the pouring rain from Minneapolis, MN, to Madison, WI, and even with the liner worn on the inside, the Allroad kept me bone dry and comfortable the entire time.
Thermal Liner
The Allroad's second, inner liner is a thin thermal jacket designed to keep you toasty warm even in low double-digit temperatures. Handier and handsomer than the H2Out liner, the thermal liner is a slightly puffy quilted jacket in black with a gray pattern reminiscent of digital camouflage. It has a single interior pocket with two separate compartments, a sturdy zipper with a bright red pull, and no collar to speak of. It connects to either the outer shell or the inside of the H2Out liner with an array of snap-fastened tabs.
Once I got out of the Rockies and down into the flatlands, I stopped wearing the thermal liner and it ended up acting as padding for the extra helmet I had banging around in the Ural's trunk (my wife's Bell 500). When I was using it, however, I was surprised by how comfortable it was and just how warm it kept me. With just a thin thermal base layer under a t-shirt, the Allroad with the thermal liner installed kept me nice and warm at speed with temps in the low 40s on Fahrenheit's thermometer.
Final Thoughts
I went with an Ice/Red jacket in XL size based on the handy sizing chart found on Spidi's website. It's fine with one of the two liners installed, but with both liners installed, it's uncomfortably tight and restrictive on my broad-chested Slavic frame. I probably should have gone with a 2XL, so that's on me. I also should have gotten the accessory hydration bladder that Spidi sells for the jacket, but alas.
The jacket (and the simple pullover rain pants that Spidi provided me with, but that I promptly lost on a press ride when I got home) kept me warm and dry through some pretty frightful storms in Oregon, Montana, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan. The only real troubles I had with the jacket were caused by user error.
In Montana, I ended up with a pocket full of rainwater when I left one of the waterproof pockets unsecured during a particularly violent downpour, which soaked my wallet and destroyed some receipts. Obviously, that's not Spidi's fault but it is, in hindsight, pretty funny. It's also easy, when wearing all three layers, to zip one to the other if you're not careful. I zipped one half of the outer shell to both the H2Out liner and the inner thermal liner at least a dozen times. The zippers are close enough in size to mostly fit, but they will get stuck and you'll end up struggling to get them apart. Just a heads up.
All told, I was impressed with Spidi's Allroad jacket. It's stylish, comfortable, and endlessly versatile. That latter fact was the most important thing to me on the trip, because the various configurations of liners, vents, straps, and buckles let me customize the jacket quickly and easily to stand up to all the weird weather phenomena, altitude changes, and temperature fluctuations I ran into over 3,800 miles.
Now, after four months of living with it and wearing it in all kinds of conditions, I can definitely, in good conscience, recommend Spidi's Allroad H2Out jacket. You should pick one up if you're in the market for a new, extremely versatile, all-weather riding coat.
The Spidi Allroad H2Out jacket goes for $699.90 Yankee dollars and is available at Spidi's website or wherever you get your gear.
Gallery: Spidi Allroad Jacket Review
