Review: Fieldsheer Congo 2.0 Tex jacket

[CThunder-blue]

I scored a Fieldsheer Congo 2.0 Textile jacket on ebay for $90 + shipping. I read some good reviews on it and decided to try it.

Pros: looks great! Reflective logo on the chest, back of the neck area and down the sleeves. Velcro wrist straps instead of cumbersome buttons. The wrists are thin so it allows you to easily pull gauntlets over them. Button adjustments on the sleeves to keep armor in place. Lots of interior pockets, including one for a phone. Nice warm liner, also with pockets. Zipper on the back to attach to pants. Shoulder zippers for venting.

Cons: If you remove the liner, when you replace it, there are two button/loops for each sleeve and you can't tell which goes to which. It's easy enough to unsnap and twist, but still...

So, a couple of oddball things I noticed. The collar is a mandarin style collar. Good for summer, bad for colder weather. The jacket tends to puff out while riding as well. I have a 36" waist and 43" chest, so I'm always stuck in between ordering two different sizes. This tends to let the jacket puff when in a riding position. Anyways, at least it's far less puffy than my a*'s stunt 2 tex jacket. It's strange. The only jacket that fits me really well is my A*'s leather jacket. Textiles seem to run big for me.
Another kind of strange thing I found out on accident: If you have the liner in during cold weather and it is allowing wind to pass in, you can unzip the shoulder vents. This creates a vacuum around your body and actually sucks the liner right up to your body. This keeps me warm in the mornings.

Overall, great jacket! It's usually in the 40's when I ride to work and I ride with nothing more than a t-shirt and I'm warm! I love the fact that it has thin wrists for gauntlet gloves too. I'll never buy a jacket with buttons on the wrists again.

[CThunder-blue]

Just thought I'd update. Still wearing the jacket and it's great. It's comfortable up into the low 80's. After that, it doesn't flow enough air. Their are 2 sets of vents. One that is just above the arm pits and a second set that that runs down almost the length of the back of the jacket. That rear vent is freaking awesome. It flows air so my back is never sweaty, even when it was in the upper 80's my back was dry. My forearms did sweat a lot, which is why it's only good to low low 80's. I also installed a forcefield back protector and got rid of the foam padding. Great fit and definitely more protection.