I had been wearing 11-ounce rain pants several years ago. Too heavy. By last year when I went to Alaska, I had sewn my own rain pants that came out at 4.5 ounces. Just within the last week, I purchased a kit from Thru-Hiker, the Liberty Ridge Pants kit in black Momentum 90 fabric. I finished sewing those last night, and they came out at 2.45 ounces. I had hoped for them to be closer to 2.0 ounces, so I must have used some pretty heavy thread. I think they will be substantially heavier for taller people.

--B.G.--

Bob -- do they work?

Do they work? In what respect?

I don't know. I just got them sewn up late last night. They haven't been in the rain yet, nor even the home shower.

As a kit, it seems decent. The fabric seems OK. Momentum 90 should be fairly rain resistant. However, I don't think that I would want fabric that is much lighter than this. Side zips work.

I suppose that if I were in Scotland or some god-forsaken place where it rains a lot, I would want something more substantial. However, I operate mostly in California in the summer. So, I need a little rain and wind protection.

--B.G.--

This sounds pretty tempting to try. My rain pants are at 280g, so dropping to 70 would be great (I thought BPL was going metric). I want to make insulated pants, but this looks like a good place to start.

OK, metric.

Mine weigh 69.8 grams, but that is for my smaller size. I would think that big ones are a whopping 75 grams or more. That extra 5 grams might be a real back-breaker.

--B.G.--

momentum isn't waterproof

-Tim

Tim, I don't think that anybody claimed that Momentum 90 was waterproof.

The phrase that I used was "rain resistant."

--B.G.--

It's good to hear about others experience w/ the thru-hiker kits. I recently made a pair of wind shell pants using the same kit but w/ 1.1 oz silnylon. They weigh 2.5 oz for a size large but I didn't use the waist detail, just used a simple seam with a 1/16th in drawcord. They are great in the wind but they did wet out after hiking for an hour in a storm last week. Has anyone tried these using 0.51 oz/sqyd cuben?

Using material that doesn't breathe seems counterproductive to me. You'll just sweat them out.

That's why nonbreathable fabrics are made into kilts and chaps, as you know.

Edited by jshann on 04/02/2011 05:32:04 MDT.

"Using material that doesn't breathe seems counterproductive to me."

What fabric did you have in mind?

I've had coated nylon rain pants, and they didn't breathe at all, as you would expect. That is OK for a low activity level, like sitting outside in a cold stadium.

I've had Goretex rain pants, and they breathed so-so. OK in real cold.

I've had uncoated nylon rain pants, and they did breathe some. That is OK when I am cross country skiing.

--B.G.--

"What fabric did you have in mind?"

I was replying to Andrew regarding cuben rain pants. I'm sure they're fine for standing around camp, but hiking in them wouldn't work well. I'm actually planning to make a silnylon rain wrap where breathability isn't a concern.