BILT Typhoon Jacket

I purchased a BILT Typhoon Jacket from Cycle Gear back in 2011 and really put it through the meat grinder. I wore it on several adventure challenges including rides in Texas (the inaugural Texas Adventure Challenge, for example), Utah and British Columbia, plus a few other places. I even did a 12,500 mile trip to Alaska and back with the BILT Typhoon.

The Typhoon Jacket has a heavy denier outer shell and a non-detachable waterproof liner. It also has a detachable thick quilted liner.

The jacket had plenty of straps to real it in tightly, the zippers always worked fine and the waterproof liner did a good job keeping the wet out.

It's pouring and 35 degrees in this photo below taken on my way up to Tok, Alaska (in July 2012) and ultimately up to Deadhorse. Yes, I had a couple layers under there, but the jacket held the rain out and kept me warm enough for the trip. I believe Typhoon came in a pant also, but I didn't have that; the pant below is a triple-layer Alpinestar bibbed Drystar in textile and boots are Alpinestar fully waterproof Adventure Boots.

Anyway, the only problem with the Typhoon Jacket was that over a couple years, virtually all the snaps on the pockets and sleeves broke (ripped right out of the material), plus it obviously looked pretty rough (although in a kewl sorta way). Big dilemma. It wasn't quite a toss out, but it was a little too rough to use regularly.

Then recently I was in Cycle Gear getting a helmet replaced and told them about the jacket and how well it did and how much I liked it. When I told them the snaps all broke, they told me to bring it in and they'd replace it under the 5 year warranty, even though it's not even in stock any more. So that's what I did! And they replaced it with a brand new jacket that I picked up today! Woohooo, right as we go into the Fall/Winter riding season I've got a fresh new jacket!

I've got to hand it to Cycle Gear. Sometimes their stuff isn't the best, but it always seems to get the job done and when it doesn't they stand behind the stuff with their guarantee.