Castelli Perfetto ROS 3 review: A whole new take on winter cycling clothing, but I'm not sure if that's a good thing

The Castelli Perfetto needs little introduction. Alongside the Gabba, it has been a stalwart of the winter cycling scene for a decade and more.

Though the two items have long been separate, the Perfetto as we know it actually began life as the Gabba, which itself started out as a short-sleeve winter jersey designed for pro riders who wanted an aero jersey that could handle the rigours of racing while still protecting against the elements.

The two lines have retained that DNA over the years and have long been considered the best winter cycling jackets for riding hard in horrible conditions. I have spent many a winter mile with the iconic Scorpion on my chest and those recognisable taped seams across my shoulders.

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In the late 2010s, when the Gabba returned to its short-sleeved roots, the Perfetto was formed, taking on long-sleeve duties. Alongside the Alpha RoS (Rain or Shine) deep-winter options, they were a formidable winter lineup. But as PFAS chemicals – excellent at waterproofing, but awful for the environment – were banned, Castelli was forced to reassess.

Nowadays, as the Gabba name takes on life as the excellent, skintight, race-day-only Gabba R, the latest iteration of Perfetto – the Perfetto RoS 3 – has shifted too.

Castelli says the new version is designed for temperatures ranging from 4-14°C (39-57°F), just like the outgoing model, but, to no doubt raise a few eyebrows, it claims to be "redefining dry."

Castelli argues that modern cyclists no longer ride in downpour weather. When it rains, cyclists will either ride indoors or automatically wear a hardshell rain jacket. Contrary to the outdoors market, in which waterproofness is a priority, Castelli says "perspiration impacts performance long before precipitation," so cyclists should prioritise breathability to avoid getting wet from sweat.

It reasons that when you get caught in a rain shower, you only need a jacket good enough to keep the worst of it at bay; the extra breathability then helps to dry you out more quickly afterwards, and to keep you drier by expelling vapour when you sweat.

With that in mind, Castelli says that in designing the Perfetto RoS 3, it opted to put breathability first, and "let waterproofing land where it lands".

To give you the one-line review, it's a very clever piece of equipment that works very well in certain conditions, or when layered appropriately, but it's not the one-piece winter stalwart it used to be. I'll get into why I think that below.

Design & Aesthetics

The Perfetto RoS 3 is made using entirely PFAS-free materials, and of the three layers (outer, membrane and inner), the two outer layers are made from recycled plastic bottles.

The big change between Perfetto RoS 2 and the new Perfetto RoS 3 is the switch in material from Gore-Tex to Polartec; shifting from Infinium Windstopper to a new membrane technology called Polartec AirCore.

AirCore was designed as a collaboration between Castelli and Polartec, and as such is exclusive to the MVC Group (the parent company of Castelli, which also owns Sportful and others) until Fall 2026.

The material is the brainchild of Dr Ramesh Kesh, the Vice President of Polartec's parent company, Milliken & Company, and its construction is incredibly clever. It uses a process called electrospinning, in which a proprietary hydrophobic polymer is pushed through a hypodermic needle charged at 20,000 volts.

Under pressure, this emits a thin jet of microscopic filaments, each approximately 100 times smaller than a human hair, and these then gather like snow in a thin layer to create the membrane. This membrane has millions of tiny holes that, Castelli says, are big enough to let the material breathe, but small enough to prevent water ingress.

Interestingly, I'm told that brands like The North Face were experimenting with Electrospinning in the early 2000s, but could never get it to match the performance of PFAS chemicals. This newly formed iteration, I'm told, is significantly more advanced - as you'd expect two decades later - which is thanks in part to the use of hydrophobic polymers.

There's a DWR coating to the external face fabric, and the hydrophobic nature of the membrane's polymer means the membrane doesn't lose its ability to breathe if it does eventually wet out.

Castelli says this lets the Perfetto RoS 3 perform "as well in the dry as it does in rain, in temperatures ranging from 4-14°C (39-57°F)."

Notably, that's the same temperature range as the outgoing Perfetto RoS 2.

Putting that into numbers, the new Perfetto RoS 3 claims a Moisture Vapour Transfer Rate (MVTR) of 35,000 g/m²/24 hour, and an air permeability of 0.7 cubic feet per minute (CFM).

To compare this with some well-known alternatives, GoreTex Windstopper has an MVTR of 15,000-20,000 g/m²/24 hour and an air permeability of 0.25 CFM, Polartec Neoshell is 0.3 CFM. Castelli's Ristretto material, found in the Espresso jacket and many of its gilets, is between 1.0 and 1.5 CFM with a MVTR of over 40,000 g/m²/24 hour.

It also claims a hydrostatic head of 5,000mm. Castelli argues this isn't a more-is-better metric because of the breathability trade-off, and that 5,000 is still "essentially waterproof."

It says:

"Rain only falls with a hydrostatic pressure of around 800mm, so the 5,000mm test score AirCore achieves means normal rain would have to fall with 6.25 times more force than it usually does to permeate the fabric. That means AirCore is functionally waterproof, allowing riders to stay drier in the widest range of conditions."

Beyond the material, much of the Perfetto's DNA remains constant. The two vent zippers up either flank remain, and the contrasting-coloured two-way zipper is also still a feature up the middle, complete with the three-quarter zipper cover. The contrasting-coloured taped seams across the shoulders make an appearance too, and the collar remains similar in height and comfort.

At the rear, the dropped tail is bigger, more pronounced and rounded, while there are still three pockets, each with a small drainage hole to prevent your phone, keys, or whatever else you're carrying from being given their own private swimming pool.

Performance

Starting with the fit, I found the Perfetto RoS 3 to have a much more comfortable fit than the previous model (which I was close to needing to size up on). The new jacket still holds a nice, aerodynamic, racy cut, albeit I feel it's a marginally looser fit overall. More noticeably, the AirCore polyurethane behaves similarly to Lycra and, as such, feels less restrictive.

I first received the Perfetto RoS 3 jacket in February, so I've been testing the jacket for seven months at the time of writing, so have a really good feel for how it performs in a variety of conditions. I've ridden it back to back with the RoS 2 and a variety of competitors, and I've tried it with everything from summery sleeveless base layers to wintery merino units.

My first ride was in Spain, where the weather was seasonably cool in the morning but warmed up quickly. Subsequent tests have been in the UK, throughout a typical spring which featured plenty of rain showers and super chilly days, and then later on into some stunning late spring weather.

I've ridden it on fast road rides, long and slow road rides, training rides with hill repeats, and a variety of gravel rides that often involve some very slow, steep (hot) climbs.

The hottest summer on record here in the UK means testing was put on hold for a while, but recent tests have helped to reaffirm my earlier thoughts.

And to reiterate my one-line review from above, the Castelli Perfetto RoS 3 is a very clever technical garment that works very well in certain conditions, from cool and dry to warmer days with light showers, but there are a few different instances where it's really let me down.

The most pressing of these was a cold and wet day – around 4C/39F with occasional heavy showers – and some 15-minute efforts on the menu on a hill around 45 minutes away from home. Rain began to fall as I approached the climb, and it was pretty much a downpour for the duration of the effort. It abated as I reached the top, but by this point I was wet through, my base layer too.

In these conditions, the extra breathability, combined with cold weather and a wet base layer, meant I froze to the core very quickly and was forced to head home. I hoped the breathability would let me dry out and warm up again before I got home, but my base layer (the Endura Baa Baa Merino Blend, for what it's worth) remained soaked, and the 45-minute ride home was one of the most unpleasant I've had in a long time.

Of course, the blame could be laid on the less-good DWR available in the modern PFAS-free era. And I'll concede this was right at the limit of the 4-14°C range that Castelli claims, with the heavy rain and hard effort pushing the membrane to its limit.

But my overall experience with the Perfetto RoS 3 suggests that this range is a little bit too confident at the lower end. In my opinion, it's best saved for days where the weather is a little warmer, or at least a day where you're confident the rain won't fall.

Overall, I've found the Perfetto RoS 3 needs a slightly warmer base layer than I'd otherwise choose with its predecessor.

Interestingly, when I put these experiences to Castelli's Steve Smith, he didn't totally disagree.

To start with, he believes any of its competitors would have failed under the stresses I gave it, describing the test ride where it let me down as a "really poking the bear in terms of areas where it, and anything else, would struggle to perform."

However, when I asked about the temperature range and described it as more of a jacket for the continental European winter, rather than typical British winters, he fully agreed. He added that with more time to develop it, the zippers on the flanks would likely have been removed, as they're "totally unnecessary."

With that said, however, there is a heavier-weight version of the material also coming, which will likely be a better fit for British customers' winter clothing needs.

Following my conversation with Smith, I'll admit I looked at the Perfetto RoS 3 in a slightly different light. While I still feel as though it's less good as a one-piece winter-beater like its predecessors, there's perhaps a bigger opportunity for overall performance.

With the right layering, the Perfetto RoS 3 can keep you drier overall, with less sweat buildup on mild days, fewer overheating moments on climbs, and a quicker return to your comfortable dry baseline on cresting a climb and descending the other side.

The downside to this is that in order for it to work, you'll probably want multiple base layers of different weights and a good quality hardshell too, all of which will cost more money if you don't have them already.

In a way, you also need to relearn how to use it. You'll find yourself unzipping less halfway up climbs. You'll probably find yourself wearing it for warmer days when you'd previously reach for a long-sleeve jersey (which likely has no waterproofing properties). You'll probably also find that on the first few rides, you wish you'd packed an extra layer or worn the warmer base layer.

But once you calibrate your mind on how to wear it, you'll find that overall, you sweat a little less, the rain is kept at bay a little more often if you put a hard shell jacket over the top, and your overall total time spent feeling damp is reduced.

Value

The Castelli Perfetto RoS 3 is a premium winter cycling jacket, and it's unsurprisingly priced as such at €249.00.

The variance of use cases afforded to it from layering might suggest better value for money, but given that it relies on also buying multiple other items of clothing, I think that the Perfetto RoS 3 jacket actually offers quite poor value for money.

If you already own a few base layers and a hard shell, such as a Shakedry, then this is a great way to get even more performance out of those items. But at the risk of oversimplifying things: on its own, it doesn't offer significantly more warmth and waterproofing than a DWR-coated long sleeve jersey would offer.

Verdict

I have regularly described the Castelli Perfetto RoS 3 as a winter jacket for people who live in Girona; where winter doesn't quite remain sunny, but rarely bites too hard.

Castelli's argument is that you get wet from sweat as much as from rain, and that when it rains properly, people wear a hardshell anyway, so trying to pack a high waterproof column into a softshell just worsens the breathability and makes you wetter overall anyway.

The problem here is that when you do get wet through, you risk getting colder more quickly because it's super breathable. This is fine in 15C/59F Girona, but not so fine in 4C/39F Somerset.

The extra breathability means the ideal temperature range is a few degrees warmer, meaning that in use, it's more of a high-tech long sleeve jersey than a softshell jacket as we know it.

Overall, it can make good on its promise to keep you drier overall, but not necessarily from rain.

It's no longer a one-piece winter all-rounder like the previous generation was. It relies on you also owning a better baselayer, a rainproof hard shell, and layering slightly differently for the conditions.