These types of threads are good for throwing out options that might have been missed.
Had a look at the Spada Turin jacket & pants on the Feridax website - Milan doesn't appeal to me. I had seen the Circuit jacket & liked the look of that. But that Turin suit looks
really good IMO, and would probably be ahead of the Bering stuff in my potentials list at this time.
I guess when you're buying clothing claimed to be "waterproof", you have to assume it's "as described" (ie:
actually "100% waterproof"), and "fit for intended purpose for a reasonable length of time" (ie:
actually "100% waterproof"). I wouldn't be shy about returning for replacement or refund any garment that suffered a lack of waterproofing if it had been sold to me as a "100% waterproof" garment.
So, if you take as given that any claimed-waterproof clothing is actually waterproof, choice then comes down to whether the style appeals, whether the garments fit well, and cost.
I like the look of various jackets & pants: some are what I would consider affordable, some are what I would consider unaffordable (seen the Spidi H2Out Gran Tourismo jacket? TASTY!). I'm not saying cheap/expensive, or over-priced/great value - just either affordable or unaffordable, from my perspective.
In these days of predominantly web-based purchasing (in my experience), we rarely get to try products before we've spent our money. Luckily, most sellers (again, in my experience) do facilitate try-and-return practice, so it's not a disaster if what you've bought doesn't fit in the living room - just return & exchange it for another size or product.
It's crap that it's only after we've spent our money & used the gear that we discover the products are not as they were described. Wasn't that a marvellous moment when Ewan was wringing water out of the sleeve of his "waterproof" jacket? Preserved forever on film for generations to observe & ask, "what jacket was that that leaked on Ewan McGregor? I must make sure I never buy one of those."
Actually, out of interest, what gear are those guys wearing this time?
I frequent other websites & forums pertinent to my other hobbies - fishing, music (I play in a band), and I still have an interest in diving, though it's years since I dived and would be a very rare activity for me now.
All of these activities are well represented online with review sites or review sections on forums. You name the piece of gear you're curious about and you'll probably find a user review of it - guitars, instruments & musical equipment, fishing tackle, fishing waterproofs, cars (Parker's, Honest John, What Car?, etc). But I've yet to come accross a site or forum that provides such a comprehensive review resource for bikes and particularly biking gear - am I missing something?
Model-specific bike forums are obviously great and probably the way to go - even better than a review site. This is a particularly good one, but how many newbies considering buying a GS have come on with their first post asking if there's such a thing as a used GS buyer's guide? Hmmm, I'm digressing and I might post a separate thread on this topic. Sorry.
A lot of people just write these incidences off as losses. I'm not a tight-wad, but nor am I financially-wealthy, and I do have a mortgage, wife & 3 kids all vying for a slice of my income, so I have no problem refusing any product that fails it marketing claims - not in the past and not now.
But I'll say it again - short of a lotto win, Rukka ain't ever gonna be on my shopping list!
Mark
EDIT:Bmwbikeruk - you were posting as I was typing. Your comments on the Cruise GTX jacket really interest me - the upper-arm adjuster in particular looks to me like a great place for water to get in. This is one aspect of the Spada Turin that I'd be curious about - lots of zips & adjusters, specially on the pants: water ingress points? The Bering stuff is designed much cleaner - bugger all zips & stuff.