NF Heavyweight Pants

Fabric:

Face: 94% Polyester / 6% Spandex
Backing: 100% Polyester

Size Tested: Medium

Blister’s Measured Weight: 535 g

MSRP: $190 USD / $249 CAD

Test Duration: 3 months

Test Location: Washington

Reviewer: 6’, 170 lb / 183 cm, 77.1 kg

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Review Navigation: Specs // Intro // Features & Construction // Fit // Performance // Bottom Line

Intro

Vancouver, BC-based NF apparel knows a thing or two about riding in cold, wet weather, and the Heavyweight is their latest take on mountain bike pants for those conditions. But unlike a lot of other wet-weather bike pants out there, NF has eschewed laminated waterproof fabrics in favor of a different approach. There’s a method to the madness, though, and having now spent a whole lot of time in the Heavyweight pants in a wide range of conditions, I think they’re really on to something.

Design

In short, NF’s argument against waterproof fabric for bike pants is that, for high-output activities like mountain biking, you’re bound to get wet one way or the other, be it from the outside by way of regular precipitation, or from the inside as you sweat. And so, with the Heavyweight pants, NF set out to make a pant that’s warm and comfortable when damp, rather than placing maximum emphasis on keeping outside moisture out.

And to that end, the Heavyweight uses a dense, tightly woven polyester / spandex face fabric with a fleece backer, and a DWR coating. The fleece backing material is much thicker and with far more loft than you’d find in the backing fabric of a typical three-layer waterproof laminate, for example, but thinner and lighter than what you’d use as a standalone fabric without an additional face layer. The fabric is made with recycled polyester from Reprieve (though the exact percentage of recycled content isn’t stated), and as per usual for NF, it’s sewn in their own facility in Vancouver, British Columbia.

The Heavyweight uses NF’s signature elastic waistband arrangement that’s been around for a while on their DP series of more all-around pants. In short, the Heavyweight uses a non-adjustable elastic waistband that spans the full circumference of the pants, and forgoes any sort of waist closure or fly — just stretch it on and go. The waistband is especially wide, at 2’’ across, and the arrangement works great. It’s super comfortable, especially with a hip pack, where more elaborate buckles and adjusters on other pants can interfere with the pack strap, and does a nice job holding the pants up without feeling overly tight or restrictive.

David Golay reviews the NF Heavyweight Pants for Blister — NF Heavyweight

The Heavyweight pants feature four pockets — two large open hand pockets, plus a zippered phone pocket on the outside of each thigh. The phone pockets work especially well in terms of keeping a phone secure and preventing it from bouncing around without feeling too tight, and the hand pockets are plenty deep to fully insert your hands to warm them up. The pocket lining material isn’t as thick as that of the rest of the pants, but is still quite substantial, and the large hand pockets can be prone to bunching up when you first put the pants on, but I’ve found them to stay put once I smooth them out.

Fit

I’ve been wearing the Heavyweight pants in my typical size Medium, and would describe the fit as moderately trim, but true to size. In particular, the lower part of the leg tapers quite substantially to keep it low profile, but there’s ample room for knee pads underneath the pants, and the fit through the thighs is slim-ish but not ultra tight. The knees are heavily articulated for better on-bike fit, and between that and the fairly heavy, only moderately stretchy fabric, they do feel very subtly restrictive when walking around off the bike, but not to the point that it caused me any real issues or discomfort.

Overall, the fit is extremely similar to NF’s excellent DP3 pants, just with a slightly less stretchy fabric. It’s clearly designed for on-bike fit first and foremost, and does great there, while still being plenty comfortable to walk around in. The aesthetic is clearly bike-focused as well — these aren’t going to serve double duty as casual pants — but the on-bike fit is clearly better for it, and I’ve found the Heavyweights to be extremely comfortable on the bike.

On the Trail

The Heavyweight pants are quite warm for a bike-specific pant but, as intended, do a pretty good job of breathing and venting off excess heat once you really start to warm up. I’ve been comfortable pedaling the Heavyweight pants on some bigger days when temperatures are in the low 40s Fahrenheit (~6° C) and the trails are dry; that temperature limit rises substantially if things are wet. And I think there’s a lot to be said for NF’s approach of aiming to stay warm and comfortable while a bit damp, as opposed to trying to keep every drop of outside moisture out. The Heavyweight pants breathe far, far better than anything with a waterproof membrane in the fabric, and are vastly more comfortable once things do get wet inside, as compared to the clammy, slippery feel of a hardshell, even with a modest backing fabric. Particularly when the trails are wet and temperatures are hovering around freezing, the Heavyweights are by far the most comfortable option I’ve tried to date. Waterproof pants — the 7mesh Thunderpant still being my favorite of the genre — are great up to a point, but don’t regulate temperature nearly as well and are far less comfortable once some moisture winds up trapped inside, especially if temperatures aren’t cold enough to wear a full-length base layer underneath (which, at least for me, tends to be pretty damn cold).

That said, while the Heavyweights are definitely not fully waterproof, they’re also a lot more water-resistant than you might expect for what’s essentially a DWR-coated soft shell. Credit, I think, the thick, densely-woven face fabric, and probably also the fleece backer, which goes a long way toward wicking moisture away from your legs, and preventing the Heavyweight pants from feeling cold and clammy even once the face fabric starts to wet out. I’ve also had great results with the durability of NF’s DP3 pants over the years, and every indication is that the Heavyweights are also excellent on that front. It would, of course, be disappointing if the Heavyweights hadn’t held up to three months of use so far, but I’ve got at least 25 days in them so far, and with a good washing they look essentially brand new. The Heavyweights aren’t cheap, but they’re extremely comfortable, they’re sewn just up the road from me in Vancouver, BC, and every indication is that they’re going to last a very long time. I’ll report back if any durability issues crop up because these are going to remain in heavy rotation for me during the colder, wetter months around here. They’re excellent.

Bottom Line

The NF Heavyweight pants are meant for riding in cold, wet weather, but deliberately forgo waterproof fabrics in favor of emphasizing comfort once things inevitably get damp, and the results are excellent. They’re quite warm, for both better and worse, and wouldn’t be my first choice for warmer wet-weather riding, but they’re my favorite option that I’ve tried to date for Pacific Northwest winters — precisely what they were designed for.

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