Santini Coral 2.0 jacket and bib tights review

We all have our go to cycling apparel, and while brands may like to steer us towards matching our tops and bottoms, we all know what that mixing and matching, especially in winter has it benefits. However, Santini Coral's latest winter collection has made us get on board with the matchy matchy look. 

As the only twinset to make it in to the 2017 Editors Choice, we loved how well the winter jacket and bib tights complimented each other, and they're just both really nice pieces of kit that we just had to include as a pair.

Winter on a bike can go one of two ways: either the best most memorable riding you’ll do all year or the most miserable. This 50/50 riding experience will, more than likely, be down to the clothing you wear. Get it right and you can conquer even the coldest of days but get it wrong and you’ll be whimpering to go home within the first mile. So when the we pulled on the matching Santini Coral 2.0 jacket and bib tights with the warmth to keep us on the bike all winter, they immediately went on our lust list.

As with all things Santini, the winter jacket and bib tights are beautifully made. The jacket uses  the much-respected Gore Fuga fabric, providing complete wind stoppage, water resistance, as well as warmth. The wind-stopping properties of Gore’s multi-layer fabric system are well known and trusted and are often considered the market’s gold standard, with many cycling clothing brands using Gore’s technical fabric.

Using the GORE Fuga allows the jacket to still remain low profile, and snug fitting, with the torso fitting really well, and the thanks to a stretchy breathable fabric at the back and sides, preventing excess fabric from flapping in the wind so giving the overall women’s-specific cut a race fit. Compared to other jackets on the market, it does come up shorter than average in the arms and torso, making it perfect for riders who find themselves drowning in excess fabric length.

The bib tights use a Thermofleece, a soft, super stretchy and super dense fabric that's   perfect for temperatures ranging from 0-15°C. It's  incredibly wearable stuff, even at its most taut, impenetrable, offering reasonable wind resistance to the fabric once out and rolling along, but does mean a compromise on a total wind block and water resistance.

But we loved the way the Thermofleece is continued throughout the bib and part way at the front too, warming the torso nicely, while the inclusion of a much lighter and breathable mesh at the front negates the base layer dilemma that some high-fronted bib tights create by effectively doubling up on layers, allowing you to dress the tights up or down according to the temperature.  It's this mesh that totally sold the Coral twin-set to us too, who doesn't want to look so incredibly pro in the cafe that unzipping your jacket allow's you to show off rather than be embarrassed by the somewhat uncool look of bib tight braces over a uncoordinated base layer.

At £234.99 for the Santini Coral pair (£134.99 for the jacket and £99.00 for the bib tights) the price falls very firmly in to the very reasonable bracket for winter kit too. So really what is there not to like about these technical, superbly made, comfortable, practical and without a doubt excellent looking top and bottoms? To put it bluntly we love 'em.