Rapha, nice but a bit pricey?

The Rapha merino is much better quality than endura, and both are similarly priced.

Rapha: £45 (Rapha/Condor)
Endura: £26.99 (Chainreactioncycles)

http://www.hellyhansen.com/product/baselayerHHDry/LSCrew/48833/view/635 Beats Merion Wool any day in my opinion, i've got 4 of them that have lasted nearly two years of paintballing, cycling, and snowboarding, better than any rapha crap......whatever that is.

Helly Hansens are warm enough, but after one day's usage they smell and need to be washed. A merino wool baselayer will be good for a week of wear before it needs to be washed.

How difficult is to wash a base layer? I worked in an outdoor adventure shop
(think Blacks + Millets combined with high end ski stuff) for several years, and yes lots of people said exactly the same thing, you don't need to wash it as much, but the HH base layers are far superior when it comes to wicking capabilities, and really when it comes to washing, nikwax basewash, a sink, and about ten minutes or so of your time!
I've owned some expensive exotic merino layers which I got cheap, probably better quality than rapha, if the fact that retail at nearly double suggests anything. Firstly, durability sucks, the HH stuff lasts much longer and is tougher, and it just does not wick as well as the decent synthetic stuff, secondly fit, its easier to make decent stretchy synthetic stuff that stays stretchy over time, not possible with merino, it sags over long periods of time. It is good, it is better than a t-shirt, but not a patch on HH stuff or high end synthetics in my opinion and many others.

p.s. I wouldn't really judge them on warmth as I wear them to stay dry when snowboarding etc, but generally speaking I only wear a base layer under my jacket and nothing else, apart from occasionally a back protector when boarding.

I cycle to work 4 or 5 days a week and ride at the weekends. I'd need at least 4 HH baselayers to deal with this. I own two merino wool ones. They are far superior for cycling in my opinion.

if a trade off in performance for the sake of convenience is what you value in a base layer, then fair enough, personally, I would rather stay dryer whilst I am doing my chosen activity and have to wash one extra base layer, have you tried HH baselayers yet?

Yes. I owned one for years. It ended up stinking no matter how much I washed it so it got binned.

Get something with silver somewhere in the mix if you want maximum non smellyness.

It's been a while...

I've heard that it's jolly expensive

Cheap shit, mate.

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Theres a lot of hatred inside that dot.

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sometimes mate, you just go way too far.

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Theres a lot of hatred inside that dot.

funniness right there.

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Good point; well made.

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are you guys trying to register your hatred ?

because its more than likely that these threads sell more rapha products than no threads about it

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