Castelli Alpha Ros 2 Review

At Westbrook Cycles, we stock an excellent range of Castelli clothing & jackets, with one of the most popular with our staff and customers being the Castelli Alpha Ros 2 Cycling Jacket. The Alpha Ros 2 jacket is Castelli’s answer to cycling in very cold and wintry conditions - it’s a jacket which is designed to provide maximum weather protection for those riders heading out, whatever the weather is doing outside.

We expected great things from this jacket, as Castelli have traditionally always done well in the design and manufacture of winter cycling jackets. Here in the shop, we see this jacket as the only road cycling winter jacket that anybody would ever need.

Having researched temperature and weather conditions for their range of clothing, Castelli have stated this jacket is to be used between -5 degrees celsius and 10 degrees celsius above. The Ros 2 has what Castelli calls their Alpha Construction - which is a two layered system. The first, inner layer is attached to the outer jacket with two vertical seams at the back of the shoulders, which leaves the rest of the fleece inner to sit freely, and very comfortably. The jacket is full of features which work when out on the roads, the string on the zip for example - is easily grabbed and used, meaning unzipping and zipping this jacket is no problem for gloved hands. This means the jacket can also be unzipped when riding to release heat & moisture during challenging rides.

The internal jacket is made from insulated fabric, which has a square mesh design. It’s a soft layer and is great at locking in warmth, without becoming too warm as the temperature rises. The outer jacket is made from Goretex Infinium material, which used to be known as Goretex Windstopper. This material has been used across the range with great effect, and does a great job of keeping out both wind and rain.

At the back of the jacket, you can expect a number of pockets - all of which have drainage holes to drain away water. There’s also extra features such as a security pocket on the left hand side of the jacket - which protects your contents with windstopper material and a waterproof jacket.

Fit wise, this jacket has a silicone dropped tail back, which does stay in place and the silicone is so grippy - we did not find that this jacket moved much at all, even with full pockets.

The collar of the jacket is higher at the front than the rear, and at the rear there is also a fleecy layer which is added to the inside of the collar to add extra warmth and comfort. There are two flaps at the shoulders which let heat out, without letting water into the jacket. The cuffs on the Alpha Ros 2 jacket are another highlight for us - they are double layered and extend up the lower arm, more than covering the wrist. These cuffs work well with any type of cycling gloves, and the overlap means that no cold air goes up the arm.

Although we have spoken about the technical features of the jacket at length, it’s also worth noting that this jacket looks fantastic - it’s available in five different colours, and you can rightly expect to see the famous Scorpion logo on the upper arms, as well as the middle of the dropped tail of the jacket.

The team here have had plenty of hands on use of this jacket - and we have found it wears incredibly well - and provides plenty of comfort and warmth, especially on easier rides. We wore this jacket, on top of a single lightweight base layer and found it warm enough on all winter days.

We have worked hard to knock a huge amount of money off the Alpha Ros 2 jacket, dropping it from it’s original retail price of £300 down to just £175 - making this a great investment for the winter road rider.