Built to keep you riding through winter

You’ve planned the route, filled your bottles and dug out your lights. Outside, the air is cold, and the swaying trees and the flag snapping on its pole tell you the ride home will be into a headwind. It’s one of those mornings when getting out the door takes a little more. And one where you find out pretty quickly whether your kit is up to the job.

On the bike, your clothing needs to hold in warmth. But it also has to move with you and help shift the moisture that builds up once you start putting the power down. That balance is the starting point for the S3 Cycling Jacket and S3 Long Bib Tights.

Three layers behind the soft feel

Pull on the S3 Cycling Jacket and the first thing you notice is the soft fleece lining. It helps hold in body heat, but it’s only doing part of the job.

The jacket’s Italian fabric is built in three layers. On the outside is a fine circular knit that gives the material a soft, stretchy surface. Between that outer face and the fleece sits a stretch membrane that limits how much wind gets through and resists water penetration, while still letting water vapour from your body escape through the fabric.

That matters when you’re riding in winter. Your body is working, and you’re producing heat and sweat even when the air is cold. So the membrane works together with the jacket’s ventilating side panels to manage moisture and excess heat as you ride.

The membrane itself is tested to a hydrostatic head of at least 10,000 mm. That tells you something about the fabric’s resistance to water, but the S3 is not a rain jacket built for long rides in heavy rain. What it does mean is that you needn’t worry about a short shower halfway round, or the spray thrown up by the wheels in front of you on a group ride.

Soft fabric that still stands up to the miles

What sets the circular-knit fabric apart is the combination of suppleness and durability. The yarns and the tightly knitted construction have been chosen so the material can move with your body and withstand the repeated friction that comes with long hours in the saddle.

The fabric’s properties are documented through testing in our own test lab.

The jacket fabric has a documented abrasion resistance of at least 20,000 Martindale cycles at 9 kPa – a test in which the fabric is subjected to repeated friction. It also scored 4 out of 5 for pilling resistance after 7,000 cycles. In other words, this fabric has been put through its paces long before it reaches the cutting table. That’s what our material choices rest on. For you, it should simply feel like a jacket that’s comfortable to move in and made to be worn winter after winter.

A fit that makes sense once you’re on the bike

A cycling jacket has to suit your position on the bike. That’s why the S3 Cycling Jacket has a shorter front and extra length at the back, so your lower back stays covered when you’re riding. An elastic silicone gripper at the hem helps keep the jacket in place, while the stretch in the fabric gives you freedom through the shoulders and arms.

The three rear pockets keep food, phone and essentials close to your body. There’s a wind flap behind the YKK zip, and the soft collar helps move sweat away from your skin. Reinforced seam ends add durability at high-wear points.

Reflective details on the back, forearms and collarbone area, among other places, increase visibility when light hits them. Choose the orange jacket and you also get a colour that’s easier to pick out – especially in the cold winter months, when the sun sits low, daylight is short and being seen in traffic can be difficult.

On cold days, you can pair the jacket with our C3 Merino LS. How much warmth you need depends on the wind, your intensity and how easily you feel the cold.

Bring your favourite bibs through the winter

If you’ve found a pair of bib shorts that fit you just right, you’ll know how much that matters on a long ride. It’s the kind of saddle comfort we want you to take with you into winter.

That’s why the S3 Long Bib Tights come without a built-in chamois. You wear them over your favourite padded bib shorts. The shorts take care of contact with the saddle, while the S3 adds warmth and protection from the weather.

On the front of the legs, where the wind hits your thighs and knees, we’ve used a stretchy three-layer construction with a membrane. It shields against wind and light rain, while the fleece lining adds insulation. Stretchier panels at the back follow your pedal stroke and help move moisture away.

The bib straps and close fit keep the tights snug against your body, and the foot stirrups help keep the legs in place while you pedal. Reflective details on the lower legs add visibility when caught in light. The S3 Long Bib Tights are available in both women’s and men’s versions. Compared with our standard Long Bib Tights for transitional weather, the S3 puts more emphasis on warmth and weather protection. Try them on with the bib shorts you’ll wear underneath, so you can feel how the layers work together.

From fabric choices in Denmark to production in Lithuania

Work on the S3 begins with our product development team in Denmark. The fabrics are made in Italy, and the garments are sewn at our own factory in Lithuania. That connection is an important part of how we approach quality.

When development, material know-how and production are closely linked, what we learn can feed straight back into the product. That goes for the insight we gain through quality control, and for the feedback that comes from you and other riders who wear the kit out on the road.

The value lies in what we build into the product: the materials, the construction, the craftsmanship and the work of making every part function together. All of it shapes the jacket and bib tights you pull on for your next ride.

You should be able to see what’s behind it

Both products are certified to OEKO-TEX® STANDARD 100. That means every component has been tested for harmful substances in line with the standard’s requirements – including thread, elastics, labels and every other part that goes into the finished product.

Our production site in Lithuania is also OEKO-TEX® STeP certified. Here, the checks cover areas such as chemical management, environmental processes, health and safety, and social conditions. Together, the two certifications document the product’s components and the conditions at the production site respectively.

In each product’s Digital Product Passport, you can dig deeper into information on materials, origin and calculated carbon footprint. The footprint is calculated with Carbonfact using a life cycle assessment that covers everything from raw materials and manufacturing to transport, use and end of life. You’ll also find details of the method and the underlying data.

For us, that documentation is part of a properly thought-through product. You should be able to understand both how it works and the choices behind it.

For the rides you want to hold on to

Our S3 Cycling Jacket has a rating of more than 4.8 out of 5 stars in our reviews. Those of you who wear it day in, day out through the winter months describe it as warm, windproof and great at keeping the heat in. That’s something we’re really pleased about, because it confirms the jacket does exactly what we set out to make it do.

The S3 is made for riders who want to hold on to the Sunday ride, the commute or the hours on gravel when winter arrives. With warmth you can feel, freedom of movement and the saddle comfort you already know. Those are the rides we had in mind. And the ones we’d like to make it a little easier to get out the door for.