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Travelcountry has Marmot Chinooks for sale if you are a medium or small. This is similar to the Ion but with polyester fabric instead of nylon. The review on BPL was positive.

Also, I think you are right about wanting too much. I think Running / biking would generate way too much sweat even for eVent, and eVent is going to be more bulky if you’re carrying it in a pocket for rain insurance. I think you’d be better off buying a couple jackets and keeping the cost reasonable by going a little heavier / bulkier for sports where the weight / bulk isn’t as important as backpacking or cycling.

Also, what about an acrylic coated “mostly waterproof” windshirt for high-output activities in the rain? Some of these are under 4 oz.

back in the 70’s i lived in Orlando for a couple of yrs. unless something has changed, the kinds of windshirts that we’ve been talking about (e.g. Ion & Aero) won’t keep the heavy afternoon rains from penetrating. the regular afternoon storms were of shorter durations as cp. to New England rains, but could get quite heavy at times.

something made from Epic fabric would work pretty well (check out Wild Things – they make windshirts from Epic fabric ), but they are not quite as breathable as the Pertex Quantum windshirts that have been suggested (Ion & Aero).

Ivo– For running and biking, in terms of breathibility, nothing is going to come close to the UL windshirts. I strongly reccommend a full zip and a hood for maximum versatility ( hoods though, you won’t use biking). The Chinook is excellent as are the Montbell UL wind jacket and the Patagonia Houdini. All of these will shed lighter rains for 30 min. to an hour or so.

One shell w/b solutions for highly aerobic sports do not work well—you will sweat like a pig in them and you will, I assure you, in the new upcoming Sierra Design jackets. Paul has a good suggestion about the Epic fabric shells, they breathe pretty well and will keep out all but the worst torrential downpours. They are as heavy as the lighter eVENT jackets, say 9 oz. in a size Large for the Wild Things jacket or the new Epic jacket from Big Sky which is fully featured with pit zips and the like–
http://www.bigskyproducts.com/Warm-n-Cozy/Warm-n-CozyEpicJacketdetails.htm

I personally was using a Chinook for early a.m. trail runs last Spring and Summer in Oregon and used a combo of the Chinook and a no longer made Feathered Friends Epic Jacket for backpacks until recently. I however, don’t use them in Florida ( I’m in the Pacific NW) and that can only make things tougher — but I think you will be best served by having both a dedicated windshell and a seperate hardshell.

thanks for the responses.

I have decided that I will go for a 2 top solution (already have a relatively light PacLite for dedicated rain shell)

The other (wind-mostly) top would have to be highly breathable, not sure about the need for pit zips… Pertex (Quantum or Microlite) seem to be the fabric of choice for now.

However, I am thinking to wait a bit to see what is coming on the market. The reason is that today I used the PacLite over a wool top biking (in “real feel” 50 something F with 20 mph wind) and due to its good venting options did not overheat, so maybe I don’t need a windshirt in the immediate future. Granted, I was taking it easy… but if you’re going hard you are always going to sweat, no matter what