45NRTH Cobrafist vs Revelate Williwaw

I recently wrote about Pogies for the Comfort Oriented, which detailed how well the Cobrafist and Williwaw pogies would work for Jones bars and bar-ends and Ergon grips. Now, it's time to review them as pogies.

Ultimately, they're closely matched. Whichever one works best for you is going to be a matter of personal preference.

Features

The Cobrafist wins this round. The Cobrafist has a little interior pocket for storing stuff, and it has internal and external zippers for the two vents. The Williwaw has a single vent with an external zipper, and no pockets.

There's lots of extra space to put stuff in the Williwaw, but if you unzip the vent, it can fall out pretty easily. I wouldn't want to do anything rough or bumpy with snacks in the unzipped pogies.

Weight

As you might imagine, the less featureful Williwaw wins this one. The Williwaw pair weighs 480g with the Cobrafist at 680g. Are those features worth 200g to you?

Visibility

The Revelate wins here. The Cobrafist and Williwaw both have reflective accents, but the Revelate is much brighter and more visible.

guess which is which

Ease of Install/Removal

The Revelate wins here. Installing the handlebar plug doesn't require any tools, and the single front vent makes it very easy to see what you're doing as you install the pogie. It's easy to place the foam donut where you need it, strap it in place, and then cinch it down tight to provide insulation. 

In comparison, the 45NRTH requires a 5mm hex key to install or remove, and the foam donut is significantly more annoying to get into position. If you live in a climate that has wild weather swings (like Colorado) and your fat bike is your only mountain bike, this can be a dealbreaker for you.

Venting

The Cobrafist wins this one. In the test ride, the temperatures hovered around 30F degrees, with a good blend of climbing . With both vents opened, my hand was perfectly comfortable while climbing. It was easy to zip the vents from the inside when it got breezy, and the covered vents did a great job of keeping the wind out while allowing air and moisture to escape.

The two vents are well covered, and I don't expect it'd be easy for snowfall to get in to the pogie on either top or bottom.

In contrast, the vent on the Williwaw is much larger. It's not nearly as easy to open from the inside, and to fully close it, you need to get your other hand on the outside. On the same ride as the Cobrafist, the Williwaw was too warm - my hand was sweaty and got my grips a little slippery. The vent is large, and seems like snow could get in if left open. The larger vent also made the ventilation less predictable to wind - I'd find that I'd want to close it for descents and in a headwind, and immediately need to open it when that was done, while the Cobrafist venting seemed to be less finicky.

The Cobrafist having better 'warm weather' performance is good, because you can't easily take it off. Likewise, the Williwaw's easy removal makes it trivial to remove them when it's warm and put them on when it's cold.

Warmth

While we can say that the Williwaw doesn't vent as well, that could be because it is naturally a warmer pogie than the Cobrafist. The Williwaws are advertised for 0-25F, while the Cobrafists are rated 0-15F. Bikepacking.com expanded the Cobrafist's rating to -13 to 32F. I certainly believe that 32F upper bound, given my test ride.

Unfortunately, I don't have any data or experience on colder rides. I've been in 0-10 degree range while riding, and I coped with Seal Skinz Brecon gloves and (with lighter gloves) Bar Mitts, which did OK (but not great). Both of these pogies are rated for 0 degrees, and I don't have a reason to believe that either wouldn't handle that just fine. Throw on a medium sized glove and you're even further down.

For my purposes, both are going to be more than warm enough.

Conclusion:

Alright, so we've got six categories.
  • Features: 45NRTH
  • Weight: Revelate
  • Visibility: Revelate
  • Ease of install: Revelate
  • Venting: 45NRTH
  • Warmth: ???
The Revelates are lighter, more visible, and easier to use. But the 45NRTHs have better ventilation, storage pockets, and a higher maximum usable temperature. Which is right? Man I don't know.

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