Café du Cycliste Loulou Rain arm warmers review
We've tested Café du Cycliste's Loulou Rain armwarmers. They're fleece lined and water resistant.

Quality armwarmers with a good fit and water resistant surface treatment
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Curved fit reduces bunching
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Water resistant
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Long reflective on forearm
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Not as pocketable as some
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French brand Café du Cycliste is based in Nice and makes a range of kit to deal that city's Mediterranean climate. As well as being very hot during the summer months, the inland areas can get cold in winter and a ride in from the coast is likely to include a variety of temperatures as well as potentially an encounter with rain.
>>> Buyer's guide to armwarmers
So although armwarmers may not be the most obvious accessory, they're nevertheless as useful in Nice as in Sheffield.
Café du Cycliste has made its arm warmers with shaped structure to reflect the bend in the arm when riding. The Loulou Rains have a non-flatlocked seam running along the base of the warmer and a second flatlocked seam which coils around the arm. This gives them a pronounced curvature which works well to avoid bunching and keep them comfortable when cycling. The outer forearm also has a long reflective tape sewn into the seam for really pronounced low light visibility.
Watch: buyer's guide to overshoes
The fabric is fleece lined thermoroubaix, so there’s a lot of warmth and wind resistance on offer. This is coupled to a wide, stretchy cuff at the wrist and a silicone band top gripper.
>>> Buyer's guide to leg and knee warmers
Café du Cycliste has topped this off by surface treating the Loulou Rain warmers, so that water beads off the fabric. Their water repellency has lasted well through multiple washing cycles. Although not as compact and pocketable as some warmers, they fold up well too, but they will take up most of a jersey pocket if you decide to take them off completely rather than just to roll them down. With their technical features, they should be a good option to take you through into autumn.
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Paul started writing for Cycling Weekly in 2015, covering cycling tech, new bikes and product testing. Since then, he’s reviewed hundreds of bikes and thousands of other pieces of cycling equipment for the magazine and the Cycling Weekly website.
He’s been cycling for a lot longer than that though and his travels by bike have taken him all around Europe and to California. He’s been riding gravel since before gravel bikes existed too, riding a cyclocross bike through the Chilterns and along the South Downs.
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