I noticed Zpacks has a new jacket out made with the new(ish) waterproof/breathable cuben fiber. They also sell the material. Does anyone have any real world experience with this stuff? What are the breathability and waterproof numbers like? Just curious if this might be a good material to make a winter bivy out of.

Mine posted yesterday, I will get some photos up when in comes in.

suluk46 is making a bivy with it,

http://www.suluk46.com/products%20%20-%20P10%20CC%20Bivy.html

he may be one of the few people who know how it performs.

S,

You asked what are the breathability and waterproof numbers for this material. I tested and posted that information about 6 months ago (submissions 46 & 47) at http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/forums/thread_display.html?forum_thread_id=45026&skip_to_post=396949

Well, naturally they offer a new fabric, because I just took delivery of one of their non-breathable cuben fibre jackets! This is very interesting of course, but Zpacks' description of the waterproofness and breathability as "pretty good" is rather vague. I'd love to hear from someone with real world experience.

Not so breathable according to Richard's numbers.

Unsurprising considering it's a PU smear.

I posted about this in the MYOG forums, but I'll post here also.

There seem to be mixed results from the WPB cuben. Richard's testing didn't show a lot of promise for it, but anecdotal impressions have indicated "pretty good" breathability, which yeah, is vague.

The only things I made with the material when I had some included panels of 3-layer eVent, which could be explaining the reason why they seem to be working out fine.

I decided to stop bothering with the stuff as it was just too hard to nail down it's performance, coupled with a pretty huge price tag, poor test results, and less than concise data from cubic regarding the specs. However, afaik, they were working on refining it, so this material could have changed significantly, or not at all.

Nice to see the WP/B cuben story continuing to develop. Hopefully this product will mean WP/B cuben gets in more hikers hands and we can all learn more about it.

It would be nice if they offered more sizes.

I was wondering when this item was going to hit BPL :)

Cuben Tech has had a pretty unfortunate history when it comes to WP/B cuben fiber. Their last attempt failed pretty bad. I know that (at minimum) ZPacks, Suluk46 and Black Rock Gear got batches of their previous WP/B cuben fiber - ZPacks and BRG refused to release products made with them (I asked them both for gear back than and both said they would not) and while Suluk46 offers his bivy he clearly indicated to me that it was far from being waterproof based on his usage and tests. There was a UK company that got a hold of some too and ended up pulling their products that were using it.

So Cuben Tech went back to the drawing board and gave it another shot. Everything I have heard so far has indicated that they have fixed the problems. It will be really great to start seeing some real-word testing done on this new material, other than just relying on Cuben Tech saying they have fixed it. Evan from Black Rock Gear seems to be indicating he is actually going to use it - as referenced from his yet-to-be-released overmitts. And now with Joe from ZPacks releasing their new rain jacket with it - and the material by itself, thank you Joe/Sheryl, perhaps this is a good indication that the issues have been fixed.

ZPacks indicates on their website that "The jackets are breathable enough to sleep in..." - I can only hope that Joe actually tried that before making the statement, and if he did actually try it, and it actually does work, well, that will just be beyond awesome!

At 1.42 oz/sqyd it is not exactly the lightest cuben fiber out there, but for a few very amazing application (thinking jackets, bivy sacks, wet weather tarps/tents to help beat condensation, etc) this stuff could be a serious bit of competition to eVENT!

Below are some pics of the new jacket. I have only worn it around town so far and it hasn't rained since I received it so can't comment there but seems pretty snazzy.

Comes in at 130g, though this one is sized a bit longer

I will post some more thoughts when I have tried it out some more.

Cheers,

J.

Very nice....maybe once they get a few more sizes online and a few more people can vouch for this material I'll order one. Mine would have no hood though. I much prefer using a rain hat (OR Seattle Sombrero) as it's not so stuffy and I can hear better than with a hood.

Only 25 grams lighter than the Triumph and Litespeed H2O. Nonetheless good to see the envelope being pushed.

ditto ... my helium is about 50g heavier ... but can be had for ~80$ or so and is a proven jacket

i wonder if the cuben is more durable ... hmmmmm

This fabric actually feels like it is a similar strength to maybe 1oz/yard cuben (much stronger than the other kind of wpb cuben in my mitts). It is a fairly 'creasy' fabric though and my girlfriend at first thought it was second hand.

Edited by jeremy089786 on 10/20/2011 22:39:19 MDT.

I'm assuming you are waiting for your CF sheets to come in? =) Joking.

What is the warranty on the jacket? Any clue?

Edited by rps76 on 10/21/2011 13:54:19 MDT.

Wow. $225?!?!?!

WP/B cuben is about twice the price of the other, more popular varieties.

Ron Bell had a good post about this material on the MLD facebook page.