Fox Racing Men's Ranger 3l Water Pant Ranger 3L Water Pant

Product Information

through the worst trail conditions, they are constructed with a fully seam-sealed interior and use a lightweight, Fox has constructed the Rangers from a relatively stretchy, light fabric. At just 270g (for the size small), the Rangers are certainly light, but the fabric doesn’t feel delicate or fragile, and it has proven to be durable throughout testing. If you’re looking for a waterproof riding trouser that offers meaningful extra warmth, Altura’s Ridge Thermal is a really effective solution. It’s warm and dry, so you can’t argue with the functionality and it’s also really stretchy and easy to move about in.

A ratchet strap provides reliable and secure waist adjustment and stops the trousers falling down once wet. They didn’t soak through during testing, keeping us totally dry after hours of torturous wet-weather riding, even once they were covered in mud. Manufacturers describe their garments as having two or three layers, but what does this mean? A two-layer fabric is made up of an outer face fabric bonded to the waterproof membrane. Inside may be a hanging mesh liner to protect the inner membrane. On a 2.5 layer, the mesh liner is replaced with a micro (or half) layer, which is either bonded or printed onto the membrane. While the double loop lies almost perfectly flat and sits really close to the trousers, I found it fiddlier and less convenient to use. That said, once you’ve adjusted it to your preference, you can soon forget about it (unless you need to make some adjustments after a particularly big meal). Fox Ranger pants performance

Fit: The Ion pants fit, but the cut was a bit awkward for me. The leg length was good, and the overall fit was okay; but I found that even with the waist cinched down all the way, the pants didn't stay up well . I should note that I don't have a whole lotta junk in the trunk, so this problem has cropped up before; it just depends on the pant. Also the cut of the fabric around the knee area causes the excess fabric to bunch above the kneepads, which felt funny, but didn't inhibit pedaling. For comparison's sake, I did try on the size small, and while the waist fit was better, they were too tight on my legs. One nice feature of the Shelter Pant is the lower leg zipper, which allows you to pull the pants on over shoes or to put on kneepads after you've put on your pants—something I've come to really like as I sometimes forget to grab knee pads before putting on my pants.

The Alpkit Parallax trousers deal with sweat well, the inside only getting wet on very slow climbs. Once damp (we’ll come on to waterproof performance), they were still comfortable against our skin and didn’t cause knee pads to fall down. Far from the usual crinkly, tissue paper fabric found on most waterproof trousers, the Fox Ranger 3L Water is soft and supple against the skin. There’s a four-way stretch to the fabric to ensure it doesn’t restrict movement, and the fully taped seams and quality Durable Water Repellent coating keeps you cool and dry. With the Ranger 3L, Fox gives you form and function. Choosing performance bike outerwear can be confusing and full of jargon, which is why Fox organises its outerwear range into clear and understandable categories, using three overarching category names: Water, Fire and Wind. Even without explaining any further, it’s easy to work out what each category focuses on. Water is for rainy and wet weather. Fire is for cold temperatures. Wind is for, yep… you guessed it, windy conditions. Pants are never going to be as breezy as shorts, but the Burner Lite comes closer to any I’ve tried thanks to the lightweight material that feels breezy, and never clammy. There are also laser cut holes galore, with a score or more either side of the knee to draw in air. I’m happy in the Burner Lite up to 20°C or so, which means I’ve been wearing them all this summer without problems.

Know your mountain bike trousers:

You might not be able to tell from the pictures but the Fox Ranger 3L Water Pant doesn’t have that typical nylon trouser construction, it’s more of a soft shell. The face fabric contains a high percentage of Spandex, which means it has a four-way stretch ability, is less noisy and, in our opinion, way more comfortable. While Rapha might be a brand more often associated with road cycling, its trail mountain bike range is impressive, and we found these offered comparable performance to the Troy Lee Skyline trousers during testing.