Momentum 50

Jamie, the baffles are spaced 5 inches apart. As to the specs… I weigh 139 lbs… so I am kinda narrow. I am also a sound back sleeper, so I don't thrash or roll in the night.

I'm waiting for some colder nights here in the high desert to test out the hood and quilt with the down inner jacket… it was a nice sunny 70 here in Joshua tree today… no complaints ;)

I received my M50 on 12/3 and started working on making a jacket immediately. I am still new to sewing, this is was my fourth jacket. I have been gaining confidence working with RS and sil nylon. Each jacket I make comes out better than the last. The M50 was tough to work with. The material is very slippery. I especially had trouble getting the collar lined up properly. In my opinion 1.3oz sil nylon is much easier to work with. The material weighed in at 180g for the 5 yards I purchased. If my math is correct that is .76oz per yard. That is right on the claimed weight.

The finished jacket weighs 53g (1.8oz) using a waterproof zipper (.5g heavier than a standard #3) and stretch lycra on the wrists and waist. This is for a size medium modified with a narrower torso and wider neck. I have not weighed sections of stretch lycra yet, but I suspect they may be heavier than shockcord.

For comparison I have other Liberty Ridge jackets made in 1.1 RS nylon weighing 65g (2.3oz) and 1.3oz sil nylon 85g (2.99oz) with an extended zipper.

I just finished making the jacket a few minutes ago but will wear it tomorrow and report back on performance. Nobody is awake to take my picture, I'll try to get a couple better photos tomorrow.

Good Job Brian! Looks good to me!

This looks awesome! How much does it cost you to make it?

Great job Brian!

"The material weighed in at 180g for the 5 yards I purchased. If my math is correct that is .76oz per yard. That is right on the claimed weight."

180g is 6.35oz (180/28.35). Momentum 50 is sold on a 56" wide roll and you bought 5 yards (180"), so I believe you got a 180" by 56" piece. 180" x 56" equates to 7.78 square yards of material. With a known weight of 6.35oz that equals 0.82oz/yd2 if my math is correct.

With that said, the piece of fabric may be slightly wider than 56" or longer than 180" (more likely).

I just cut a 36"x36" piece of M50 to weigh. It is 21.7g (.76oz). The cost of the jacket was a little under $35. I used around 1.5yards of M50, a little under a foot of the waterproof zipper, and several feet of stretch lycra. For comparison a jacket from ripstop nylon weighs 2.3oz and cost under $15.

I just weighed stretch lycra vs 1/16" shockcord and was amazed. The lyrca for the waist weighed 10g! While the thin shockcord is just 2g.

So 25% weight of the M50 jacket is the stretch lycra. Unacceptable!

Brian,
Very impressive! That looks like it was professionally made. I'm jealous. ;)

Brian, Incredible job with the jacket. Its looks great. Thanks for jumping on this and providing us such quick feedback. I must say I was hoping the fabric came in a bit close to .70, but I can live with .76. I use 1.05 weight for Momentum 90. I must say I was initially hesitant to buy becuase of the orange color, but I must say I really like the way the color looks in a jacket and down booties. I'm more of a black or gray guy so I will most likely weight until Spring before I invest more money beyond the quilt kit.

Jamie

@Brian – great looking jacket, even with the lycra ;)

@Steve – How is the bivy coming? My best guess, based on reverse engineering your M90 model is 2.38 oz. final weight.

Aaron, I am just testing out some construction techniques on the material right now. I think (hope) it will be even lighter as this one is going to have a bathtub floor with essentially the same dimensions, so I will use even less momentum than on my original bivy. Hopefully have it done in the next few days if it goes smoothly. This stuff is super slippery to work with.

I have one question for you guys who have used the M50. How can you tell which side should face out? I have looked as hard as I can and although I had originally that i could tell the difference, it appears both sides are the same. Is this stuff like M90 in that it should be used with a certain side facing the elements? Thanks for any help.

Thanks for the compliments everybody. I'll post on the performance after another couple days. So far I am happy.

Steve, I emailed Paul @ thru-hiker with the same question. His reply: "Actually the slightly duller side is the "right" side, but in this particular case it doesn't make much difference." It is tough to tell, but one side is definitely shinier than the other. I don't have any tricks to tell the difference other than tilting the fabric at an angle in light.

Brian,
Thanks for the info. I think the lights in my house are all dim. I went into the bathroom and used my girlfriends makeup light to see the shiny side, I think I see it…I think. :)

I have finally started to work on the M50 quilt. The design phase took much longer than anticipated as I didn't want to make a mistake with this fabric. I estimated the 2 panels should weigh 4.16 oz. I was pleased to find that my scale weighed them in at 4.15 oz. I used .71 oz/sq yd for the clacs so I would say this weight is pretty close to actual. I estimate the final quilt with cords, velcro and down to weigh 10.7 oz. I will let you know how it turns out. Not bad for a quilt I plan to use in 40+ temps and can be laid out flat.

Interesting note…I laid the fabric out on my hardwood floor. I marked the panels and cut them out. Afterwards my wife asked me why the floor was so slippery. I thought she was just looking for another reason to complain about my crazy projects so I checked it. Sure enough the exact area I was using to lay out the fabric was noticably slicker than the rest of the floor. It is possible the water repellant coating made the floor slick? I know this sounds crazy, but even my daughter noticed it.

Jamie

I would love to be able to buy M50 and similar fabrics without the DWR finish. I personally prefer my quilts to be extremely breathable and I'm always in a bivy so don't need any water repellent finish. Am I missing something though because all the lightest uncoated fabric seems to be the 1.1oz stuff?

M50 without DWR is 10D nylon ripstop. I don’t know where to get it though. I didn’t see any 10D on the normal outdoor fabric sites. The kite materials site may have it, but they describe their fabric in a way that I’m not used to….they also have something that sounds like cuben fiber, except with polyester fibers.

The unique aspect of Orcon plastic film is the inclusion of a ripstop grid or scrim of very fine nylon threads. This makes Orcon extremely strong and durable compared to its weight and thinness! It is a great material for making fighter kite skins. Orcon’s surface is NOT perfectly smooth. The ripstop grid can be felt and seen as tiny ridges in the fabric. Unlike other plastic and mylar-like films, Orcon will not continue to tear once a small nick or tear begins!!

Sorry for thread drift.

Eugene,

I made a tarp out of that material…see here…

It might be OK for a couple still nights with moderate chance of rain, but I decided I couldn’t rely on the material holding up.

if you want another 10D (i want 5D) you need to bug the other suppliers to get one. Thru-Hiker is the only guy really leading the way with the light stuff. OWFinc and Quest have light stuff but that isn't their focus. If you want lighter fabrics i'd pester OWFinc (they did get that nice 20D stuff for us) to see if they would try and get some 5-10D stuff. I talked to her and she told me she didn't know where m50 came from. I don't want her to find m50 and sell it i want her to find something else, something lighter, or send me the samples and i'll pick. I want them to lead and not always follow but it seems with lightweight fabrics thru-hiker will always be in front until we push the other guys to try something new. if 1 or 2 other suppliers also worried about finding lighter weight high quality materials it would keep the costs lower for us and our options would be much bigger. PESTER PESTER PESTER

-Tim

If DWR just makes the fibers hydrophobic, then maybe it wouldn't affect breathability

5D would be even nicer. I'd be up for it if it didn't resemble the momentum pricing structure. I wouldn't care about DWR. Downproof would be nice, but can a fabric that thin be calendared?

Can M50 be still be bought? I can't seem to find it anywhere.

Thanks

Derrick

Paul said he has some, just ask, problems with supplier right now

These german guys have some excellent products, you will pay a premium for them however. I bought some 7D Ripstop (like ye olde M55 but better quality IMO) from them (http://www.extremtextil.de/catalog/Ripstop-Nylon-downproof-ultralight-7den-22g-sqm::1974.html). Amazing stuff. They also have a 10D version…
I tried M50 and found it has a clammy, almost sticky feel to it.

I didn't go back through this whole thread to see if this has been mentioned already: Titanium Goat also sells two ultralight nylon fabrics that you could consider: Nobul1 and Nobul2. Nobul1 is 0.67 oz/yd. The 7D stuff from Extremtextil, which is 0.65 oz/yd, is about $35 USD for a 1 x 1.45m piece. A piece of Nobul1 of the same size is $9 (and much cheaper shipping). I had Joe at Zpacks make a down quilt for me using Nobul1 inside and out, and I'm very happy with it. Negligible down leakage and it is extremely soft and silky (not plasticky like M50).

I used nobul1 for 850 FP down. Quite a bit of leakage. Maybe some batches are better and some worse.

I use the rest of the nobul1 for other stuff and it's great