Morvelo Plan B jacket review

At 78 grams, the Morvelo Plan B jacket is ultralight and packable. We’ve been wearing it and carrying it through the spring

Morvelo Plan B jacket
(Image credit: mike prior)
Cycling Weekly Verdict

The Morvelo Plan B jacket is a good option to have with you for cold starts or changeable conditions. It’s very compact and lightweight but also a bit fragile.

Reasons to buy
  • +

    Very compact and light

  • +

    Plenty of reflective details

  • +

    Can see race numbers through the fabric

  • +

    Little windflap

  • +

    Well priced for an ultralight technical jacket

  • +

Reasons to avoid
  • -

    Fragile

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When the weather looks dodgy, it’s useful to have a packable jacket with you just in case. The Morvelo Plan B jacket fits the bill well: it’s very light at 78 grams and folds into its own zipped rear pocket when you don’t need it. The folded jacket is compact and being sausage-shaped id easy to carry: at around 15cm long by 8cm across, it will fit into a jersey pocket with room to spare.

Morvelo Plan B jacket

The Plan B jacket is a close fit and sheer
(Image credit: mike prior)

In use, shell jackets can get a bit sweaty, but I’ve not found this with the Plan B. The fabric is breathable and there are covered vents mid-back to help with air circulation. The upper back is two layered, with a baselayer-like inner fabric sewn in to help stop dampness.

The jacket folds into its own zipped rear pocket
(Image credit: mike prior)

The stretchy fabric, coupled to the close fit means that there’s minimal windflap when riding. It’s comfortably windproof too, so I’ve been using the Morvelo Plan B jacket as an extra layer over summer weight kit for cold starts, packing it away once it begins to warm up.

There’s adequate rain protection for a shower, although the fabric does wet out eventually. The Morvelo Plan B jacket's tail is cut longer to prevent wheelspray while the collar is high and close to stop trickle-down from the top. And Morvelo has sewn reflective tape into the jacket’s bottom hem, cuffs and the pocket’s edging for increased visibility.

Morvelo Plan B jacket

Reflective taping extends around the waistband and into the cuffs
(Image credit: mike prior)

For an ultralight technical jacket, the Morvelo Plan B jacket is not expensive. Its fabric is quite sheer, so you can see a race number through it. But it’s also fragile. Some of the seams look stretched and I’ve picked up a few small tears in the sleeves. These are probably from riding, but it’s worth being careful when packing the Plan B to avoid snagging in the zip.

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Paul Norman

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.