Black Sheep Essentials Bib and Jersey Review
© Leon Poultney
10/10
Cycling is often considred to be a very serious sport, talk of watts per kilo and fuelling strategies aren’t uncommon to hear at the café stop and the kit can often reflect this. Head out on a club ride and there’s often a sea of neutral colours that scream classy but subtle. Black Sheep aim to do things a bit differently (we’ve heard that one before!) but take a look through their range and you’ll see some truly wild designs that we’re very much onboard with. The brand also strongly advocates for Men’s Mental Illness as well as getting more women involved in cycling through their WMN initiative so you can be sure with every purchase, your helping valuable work off the bike.
Men’s Essentials TEAM jersey
£104 | Buy from Black Sheep
For: Excellent fit, feels luxurious, more affordable than Rapha, Pas Normal, MAP etc.
Against: None
© Leon Poultney
Cycling needs a bit of colour injected into it and Black Sheep clearly agree; the ‘Possesed Sunrise’ colourway of from Essentials collection is certainly one way to brighten up a club ride. We’re not sure we quite had the panache to fully pull it off but we gave it a damn good go and felt oh so comfortable doing it. If you’re looking for a more subtle jersey, then Black Sheep offer various other hues including solid colours.
The 130gsm lightweight knitted fabric kept temperatures under control even when the mercury climbed above 30c and we welcomed the UPF 50+ sun protection so we didn’t have to apply suncream underneath. Black Sheep call this material ‘Light Asteroid’ and its manufactured and dyed using sustainable BlueSign certified methods.
© Leon Poultney
We found the fit to be more generous than other ‘race fit’ garments we’ve been testing recently (ahem, Pas Normal and your tiny sizes). The jersey is of a more traditional length and eschews the recent trends in very short torso which also means the pockets sit at a good height and makes getting stuff in and out much easier. The shoulders are reasonably generous too, we didn’t feel restricted and the sleeves stayed in place with no hints of rising up.
Our only real gripe is a little off piste, but Black Sheep recommend washing the jersey by hand and to be honest, no one as time for that. We’ve had no issues with throwing it in the wash on a gentle cycle along with the rest of our kit but your mileage may vary.
© Leon Poultney
Black Sheep Men’s Team Bibs
£135 | Buy from Black Sheep
For: Comfortable pad, excellent value
Against: Too hot in the warmest conditions
© Leon Poultney
The most important aspect of any bib shorts to consider is the fit, too tight and you’ll feel restricted, too loose and the pad won’t stay in position and you’ll end up being very uncomfortable.
Black Sheep have struck an ideal balance here with the Team Bib’s, the 250gsm fabric offering perfect levels of compression without feeling restrictive. The legs are a good length and fall an inch or two about our knee with the silicone gripper ensuring they stay in place on even the most arduous of rides.
© Leon Poultney
The shoulder straps are also a good length, offering plenty of stretch to suit a range of torse lengths; our only complaint being that they are thick and provide a lot of coverage across the back so in hot weather we found ourselves getting a little sweaty. We were comfortable in the mid 20s but any warmer and we’d reach for a pair f bibs with a more minimalist strap setup.
The pad used is a BSC High Density Pad by Greenline which we found was comfortable on all day rides on both road and gravel. Some pads are fairly small and we’ve found they only offer a very small amount of coverage to be able to shift positions but this pad was the opposite, offering plenty of coverage when shuffling back and forth on the saddle.
© Leon Poultney
There’s not much else to report on these bibs, they could be considered quite minimalist in comparisons to others on the market which offer a slew of different fabrics for varying levels of compression or pocket integrated into the legs but Black Sheep have decided to focus on what really matters here and have designed a bib that offers oodles of comfort without breaking the bank.
In comparison to some other kit we’ve been testing recently, you can pick up a full Black Sheep kit for less than a pair of bibs from other brands and in our eyes it performs just as well.