Stolen Goat Orkaan 3/4 Length Bib Tights

The Stolen Goat Orkaan 3/4 Length Bib Tights are really very good – incredibly comfortable, warm, weather resistant, snug fitting and fine for any length ride.

The 3/4 bib tight is probably my favourite and most worn piece of cycling clothing, perfect for far too much of the year in the temperate part of the globe in which I live, and with my delicate ageing knees, so a good pair will instantly become a garment of much love and a poor pair will be disproportionally disappointing. The Stolen Goats are lovely. Phew.

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I'm usually a medium in shorts and 3/4s, and these Stolen Goats in medium were spot on. I'm at the thinner end of the size range and they were still taut; they're designed to have a slightly compressive feel and they were definitely that – snug but without being overly tight anywhere. The layout and cut of the panels meant there was no bunching of material or baggy bits anywhere, just the tiniest bit loose round the knee on me but then I'm very bony there.

The Orkaan 3/4s are made from a Tempest fabric that's reassuringly thick and fluffy inside with a Roubaix lining to keep you warm on those autumn to spring days. In addition to that the material is also wind and water-resistant, which helps towards them being an impressive barrier to the elements.

Stolen Goat says the Orkaans are suitable to be worn between about 8 and 16 degrees, which fits in perfectly with my experience with when you'd want to wear 3/4 tights, although seeing people ride around in shorts on single-digit temperature days suggest this is open to personal interpretation.

Both the wind and water resistance works well, the latter meaning that moisture dropping from above or splashing from below beads up nicely, and as the water resistance is manufactured into the garment, Stolen Goat claims that no amount of washing will remove or lessen the effect. It hasn't washed or rubbed away yet, although it has to be said that I've never felt the need for water resistance in a leg garment where pumping muscles are doing a good job of keeping you warm.

The chamois looks quite basic, with none of the sculpted padded islands and fancy contours you might find in the nether regions of other cycling shorts, with just a proprietary dimple technology to keep you comfortable all day long and anti-bacterial properties mentioned in the notes. It doesn't even have a fancy name, but Stolen Goat says its pad has been developed in Belgium alongside top-level pro riders, so that's got to be good, right?

There's a stamped Bioracer logo in the chamois and the tag says the shorts are made by this respected cycle clothing manufacturer, which gives these 3/4s their race-bred provenance.

Despite a lack of technical buzzwords it works perfectly well and, more importantly, comfortably. It's encouragingly supportive which is a delight after several shorts and 3/4s of the same size from different brands that are just a bit baggy 'down there', and it holds everything in place without any separation or shuffling around that can lead to annoyance and discomfort over a ride, and keeps those padded bits where they're designed to be.

Stolen Goat suggests the Orkaan 3/4s are good for rides of two hours and over and I'd agree: these were ridden from a quick couple of hours up to what would be considered a day at the office and there was no drop off in comfort or time limit in the saddle.

The straps of the Orkaans eschew the mesh of other shorts and are made of the same Roubaix material as the rest of the 3/4s. They're wide, comfortable and stretchy enough to not dig in. The rear of the bib extends well up the back, almost to the shoulder blades, which offers a welcome extra layer of warmth for those brisker days…

…and the front is cut about level with a belly button; it's low enough and with a fabric stretchy enough to make it easy for a gentleman's comfort break.

There's a large reflective panel on the rear that starts immediately above the chamois and extends up the lower back. It's an interesting detail and could be a handy safety feature on the kind of dreary and darker days these tights might be worn on. Reports from behind indicate that it does work remarkably well, although its efficacy is directly proportional to how much of it might be covered with jerseys and jackets. It's not something I've ever thought necessary on a pair of tights and I could probably live without it, or would prefer just some reflective tags on the back of the calves, where constant movement would also make them more noticeable.

The leg hem of the Orkaan 3/4s is a wide strip of fabric, about 2 1/2 inches deep, shunning the silicone gripper that's commonly found in shorts. I find it far more comfortable – it keeps the end of the leg in the right place and doesn't pull at the skin while doing it. It also doesn't leave a welt if you're sensitive to such things.

The tights extend further down the leg than other 3/4s, well towards the mid point of the tibia, which is no bad thing in the conditions these are designed for, and – sock length dependent – exposes little shin to the wind.

Compared to Stolen Goat's range of colourful tops, the Orkaan 3/4s are refreshingly devoid of graphics with just the company logo appearing subtly front and back on the leg gripper. That means they'll go with anything, which isn't something you can say about Stolen Goat's tops.

The price of the Orkaan 3/4s is about my go-to spend for this sort of piece of kit, surfing the sweet spot between annoying niggles of cheaper garments and laws of diminishing returns of something more pricey, sitting somewhere between other people's 'I'm fine with these £35 ones I got from the European supermarket in between the tinned tomatoes and rosti' and 'I struggle after ten miles if I'm not cosseted by the finest and most technically saturated fabrics known to man' opinion, and in that price bracket they're right on the money.

They're in the same area as the Pearl Izumi Attack 3/4 Bib Tights but are made of a thicker and warmer material, which extends their use into and out of winter, but they're almost double the price of the dhb Classic Thermal 3/4 Bib Tights, although the Stolen Goat's pad might be more suited to longer rides and the warmer back panel might make all the difference to you.

> Spring cycling clothing guide: how to choose and use the best gear to ride through the most unpredictable season

The cheaper and similarity themed Endura FS260-Pro Thermo Bibknickers are also warm and have a waterproofing element, but the slack cuffs leading to baggy knee issues might bother you, something that isn't present on the Goats.

The Stolen Goat Orkaan 3/4s are a workmanlike piece of kit, of the sort you can rely on ride after ride, chilly season to next chilly season. They're not overtly fancy, but the fit is great, the chamois is comfortable and the thick and fluffy material is perfect for their intended temperature range. The only debatable feature is the reflective rear panel, but that doesn't detract from performance. As an item of clothing that I spend an awful lot of time in and so can be hyper-critical of any foibles, these ones are a keeper.

Verdict

These are really rather good: multi-hour comfortable, single-digit-temperature warm, weather resistant and reassuringly snug fitting