SportHill Pursuit Tight and Pinnacle Jersey
By James Sharp

Winter riding is harsh. It’s harsh on the bike and harsh on the body. Aside from fenders, hanging up your bike is the only way to keep it out of the winters cold, wet grip… but where is the fun in that? If you are serious about riding year round, you need serious clothes--clothes that will keep you warm; clothes that will take the brunt of old man winters chilling breeze. SportHill thinks that they have just the thing.

SportHill has been around for a number of years, and are well known for their cross-country ski pants. In fact the founder, Jim Hill, started SportHill after being unable to find running pants that worked well in Oregon’s wet and cold winters. Their approach to clothing revolves around Zones. Zone 1 is 65 degrees Fahrenheit and up, Zone 2 is between 32 and 65 degrees Fahrenheit and Zone 3 is between zero and 40 degrees Fahrenheit. The Pursuit tight and Pinnacle top, reviewed here, are from Zone 3 and as such are meant to be single layer solutions to the problem of keeping warm in otherwise miserable conditions.

There are many clothing companies that produce well made, high-end, cycling apparel. What is it that sets one company apart from any other? Three things: fit, fabric and features. Fit is pretty subjective. What fits me well may not fit another cyclist of a different body profile. Suffice it to say that I found the SportHill clothes are very comfortable. They are cut to fit a little looser than your average tight and jersey, which I like. If you prefer a tighter fit, order one size smaller than you normally would.

The features on the Pursuit tight are along the lines of what you would expect for an $80 chamois-less tight. They feature an offset 12-inch zippered ankle with reflective piping, flat-locked seams, gripper elastic on the ankle, elastic on the waist (with drawstring) and windproof panels at the knees. As mentioned above the fit is looser, without being baggy.

The Pinnacle top is cut with cyclists and cross-country skiers in mind. The arms are lengthened so that they don’t ride up when reaching for the handlebars or ski poles. The rear of the jersey has a dropped tail so that the back doesn’t ride up when bending over. The Pinnacle also has a 12-inch front zipper with two zippered rear pockets. All zippers are hidden. This really brings me to my one complaint with the Pinnacle, the hidden zippers, while looking good, are difficult to operate with one hand and the zipper pulls are small enough to be near impossible to grab with gloved hands. Since this is a jersey meant for cold weather this seems to be a bit of an oversight. Like the tight, the Pinnacle is a looser fitting garment, though it is far from baggy.

With fit and features out of the way, we come to the real reason that, if you ride in the winter, you should purchase SportHill clothing: fabric. The tights and the front of the jersey are made of a proprietary fabric called 3SP. 3SP was developed to eliminate the need for layering, creating a single layer that can keep out the wind, breathe and wick moisture. Guess what… it works. The fabric is windproof to 35mph, it is soft and has 4-way stretch, it wicks moisture and it is abrasion resistant. I generally used a light wicking undershirt below the Pinnacle, not so much out of need, but rather out of habit and so if I unzipped the jersey while climbing I wasn’t exposing bare skin to the elements. The fabric was especially nice in the tights. While they are not waterproof, they handle light to moderate rain with aplomb maintaining their windproof behavior. This was helpful on wet trails where, whether it is raining or not, your legs are soaked. With the Pursuit tight, they are slightly drier than they would be, but your legs are still comfortable. The Pursuit tight also has an additional layer of SportHill’s Swift fabric in the knee. Swift is a soft wind blocking material that is also breathable. The back and sides of the Pinnacle top are made of DryLine. DryLine is a polyester fabric that draws moisture away from the skin to the outer surface of the garment, where it can evaporate. It still offers insulation, but it isn’t windproof like the 3SP. By placing it on the back and sides, SportHill helps control moisture due to perspiration while blocking the wind from the front.

Summary: At $100 for the Pinnacle top and $80 for the Pursuit tight, SportHill has priced their top-of-the-line clothes near the bottom of the high end. The fabric alone is worth the price of admission. Add to that the quality construction and features usually found at this price level and you come up with a winner. Are there other winter clothes out there? Sure, but with a good set of chamoised Lycra shorts under the Pursuit tight and you have as good tight for harsh winter conditions as is made. (As long as the temp doesn't dip below 0.) The Pinnacle top is well made and, again, the fabric alone makes this jersey worth every penny. It isn’t heavy, fits closely without being too tight and is windproof, but breathable. If the pockets were easier to access this would be a home run. I recommend both the tight and the jersey for mountain and road biking, as well as cross-country skiing.

James Sharp is a contributing editor for GearReview.com specializing in mountain biking.

For more information, contact:
SportHill
725 McKinley Street
Eugene, OR 97402
Phone: 800-622-8444
www.sporthill.com