Assos Equipe RS Rain Jacket Targa review

As a protective jacket against the heaviest rain, the Assos Equipe RS Rain Jacket Targa is mightily impressive.

It uses a proprietary three-layer material called Schloss Tex, which does a brilliant job of keeping water out, while the overall slim cut and details such as the neckline, wrist cuffs and waist hems are all well designed.

However, the jacket’s practicality in the real world is less impressive, while those spending £300 ($400 / €345) on a jacket might reasonably expect it to breathe better than it does.

Assos Equipe RS Rain Jacket Targa details and specifications

The Assos Equipe RS Rain Jacket Targa (or, Equipe RS Targa, for short) comes from Assos’ racier line of garments.

The Swiss brand says the jacket is “superlight [and] packable”, and exhibits a slim cut, reflective of its general purpose as a jacket for “training and racing”.

Up top, the collar is slightly tapered to sit relatively snugly around the neckline, with a tab taking the place of an ordinary zip garage.

The zip itself is chunkier than average, with quite hefty metal Assos-branded pull tabs. These are designed to make it easier to zip up and down on the move with one hand.

The wrist cuffs are partially elasticated at the inside of the wrist, while the waist hem is fully elasticated, with dot-silicone grippers applied around the full circumference.

The fabric is Assos’ own Schloss Tex. This is a three-layer fabric, with a sandwiched waterproof membrane – practically identical in approach to the kind of three-layer fabrics you might find from Gore, Polartec and Pertex.

Assos says the membrane – which is black, in between the orange outer and grey inner layers – has been tweaked for this third generation of the Equipe RS Targa, with the aim of boosting water resistance and durability.

Inside, taped seams are employed to block water ingress.

Incidentally, the brand says the fabric is designed as an 'ultrathin softshell' as opposed to a hardshell waterproof jacket, although in reality it feels just like a lightweight hardshell waterproof – six of which I tested recently.

The back plays host to a perforated reflective strip down the middle, while the outer of the waist hem has a slightly reflective band.

Assos also offers the jacket in a black colourway, and in seven sizes (XS-XL, plus even larger ‘XLG’ and ‘TIR’ sizes).

I tested a size large, which fitted my 100cm chest and 85cm waist well. Assos’ own size calculator suggests I’d have best fitted a size medium, but because the large fitted me nigh-on perfectly, those recommendations might be a little optimistic.

Assos Equipe RS Rain Jacket Targa performance

On a ride with prolonged heavy rain, the Equipe RS Targa jacket’s Schloss Tex fabric performs brilliantly. It shields just as well as Gore-Tex Active, which in my experience is about as good as it gets for a multi-layer fabric.

The slim cut and design features at the neckline, wrist cuff and waistline offer a sense of enclosure – most welcome when the weather is terrible and you want to feel protected.

The length, even on my relatively long and broad body and arms, is well-considered, with no instances of tension across the upper back or pulling up at the lower back or sleeves when in a typical road bike position.

Like many of the best waterproof jackets, water didn’t sneak into gaps to any great extent, and all the extremities sat flatly on my skin or bib tights.

The zip is notably easy to pull up and down, helping to adjust airflow through the jacket (your only way of doing this, given there are no zippable vents on the jacket).

This is just as well, because I was struck by how damp the inside of the jacket became on dry rides –even at lower effort levels.

I could feel cool air against my skin when riding, indicating that the jacket fabric was breathing – exchanging cool air for the warm air inside. However, the amount of condensation left behind – and the wetness of my jersey and baselayer underneath – indicated water vapour wasn’t passing outwards as easily.

Although conditions are never identical from one ride to the next, compared to jackets such as the Gore Torrent, Rapha Men's Pro Team Gore-Tex Rain Jacket and Castelli Tempesta, I felt damper on average at the end of my rides wearing the Equipe RS Targa.

This is a shame, especially given it’s £70 ($70 / €115) more expensive than the Torrent, and £50 ($100 / €60) dearer than the Rapha Pro Team.

There are also no pockets on the Equipe RS Targa, nor an access flap to jersey pockets underneath, an omission any rider ought to bear in mind.

Discounting the possibility of carrying a bento box or bar bag on your bike to hold easily reachable food, keys and your phone, you’ll need to rely on your jersey underneath to carry these things.

Wearing a cycling jersey under a waterproof jacket isn’t uncommon, but nevertheless, accessing the pockets means stopping by the side of the road, rather than being able to reach behind you on the move.

The jacket is packable, but only just. I found I needed to roll it up tightly, newspaper-style, for it to fit into my jersey pockets – leaving plenty sticking out of the top of the pocket.

That said, this is par for the course with many three-layer fabric jackets. The Gore and Rapha jackets already mentioned fall into this category, while the Castelli jacket is thinner and packs down more easily.

Assos Equipe RS Rain Jacket Targa bottom line

The Assos Equipe RS Rain Jacket Targa impresses with its core functionality – it’s great at keeping you protected from the elements, and has a well thought-out cut and fit.

It certainly feels like a premium waterproof jacket should, and it’s been a brilliant companion on recent sub-90 minute wet rides, where I haven’t had to eat solid food on the way round.

That said, in the dry it didn’t breathe quite as well as some competitor jackets, while the lack of pockets or jersey pocket access is a design problem many rightfully won’t be willing to put up with – especially given the tall asking price.