Craft ADV SubZ Jersey and Bib Tights Review

There’s a Swedish proverb that cold-weather adventurers have been paraphrasing for decades. It goes, There’s no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothing. And sure, that works for walking your dog and skiing most of the time. But winter gravel riding is a different beast.

On the one hand, you have super-cold wind obliterating your hands and fingers. Then you’ve got wetness and snow falling from the sky. Then, of course,  it’s tough to avoid an inevitable spritzing from the inside as you heat up and sweat through your layers when you’re hammering uphill. And that’s when the road is dry enough to even ride. 

These factors combine to make winter gravel, road, and mountain biking difficult to love. Hell, it’s difficult to even tolerate — sending too many adventurous riders indoors. 

The Scandinavian designers at Craft are no strangers to long, dreary winters. This winter, the brand introduced the ADV SubZ Bike line for riders who refuse to be stuck inside during the coldest months.

As the powder days have become fewer and farther between this season, I jumped on the opportunity to ditch the trainer and layer up in the ADV Bike SubZ Long Sleeve Jersey ($130) and ADV Bike SubZ Bib Tights ($190), take advantage of dry roads, and brave the winter for myself. 

In short: Craft’s ADV Bike SubZ Long Sleeve Jersey ($130) is a cycling-specific gridfleece style insulator with a few special additions for winter riders. The matching Bike SubZ Bib Tights ($190) have a warm, brushed polyester fabric that’s fitted for fast rides in chilly temps. When worn together, they form a warm, highly breathable insulating kit for temps dipping into the low 20s.

Check out GearJunkie’s guide to the Best Cycling Jackets and the Best Winter Cycling Gloves.

Craft ADV SubZ LS Jersey & Bib Tights Review

Many cyclists can get away with using their regular riding kit during the shoulder seasons, adding arm and leg warmers as needed. But true winter cycling? It takes some legitimate insulation in the core and legs to keep the pedals spinning. 

Craft’s ADV SubZ Bike line comprises an entire ecosystem of cycling layers designed to make winter riding less terrible. I squeezed into the SubZ Long Sleeve Jersey and the SubZ Bib Tights, threw a leg over my gravel bike, and pedaled into another lackluster storm. 

Fit

Craft’s cycling gear is sized aggressively tight and small. I felt vacuum-sealed in the Pro Enduro Lumen Jersey in men’s large, for example. It felt so tight that a sneeze could have blown a zipper. So even though that’s typically my road jersey size (I’m 6’1” and 195 pounds, for reference), I sized up to XL tops and Large bottoms in the ADV SubZ cycling gear.

ADV SubZ Jersey

The XL jersey felt about perfect for my tastes — snug without feeling constricting. If you’re all in on full aero, size normally. You’ll feel like a missile in a headwind. (It was too much for me.) 

Other than running what legitimately feels like a full-size smaller than most cycling gear, the ADV SubZ long sleeve Jersey fits nicely throughout. I loved the long arms whose cuffs extended over or under the cuffs of my gloves and didn’t ride up my wrists while I was hammering in the drops. 

Unlike the long arms, the torso is distinctly short. It’s clearly designed for a cycling position where you don’t want excess material bunching up underneath your belly and waist. Yet, the jersey’s tail hung right at the top of my tailbone with a silicone rear hem locking it in place. 

That was the perfect length for riding with tight bibs and the ADV SubZ bottoms, but it felt too short for wearing baggier mountain bike pants or shorts – a gap continued to emerge between the top of the pants and the bottom of the jersey that got annoying quickly given my relatively long torso. For that reason, I’m exclusively layering the ADV SubZ jersey with bibs sans baggies. 

ADV SubZ Bibs

The large bibs fit my body well. I could probably have gotten away with my normal size (medium) without any issue. However, the large felt comfortable and mobile, especially for rides of about 4 hours or less.

Like the top, the legs extended low to my ankle bones, revealing just a small gap above my shoes. Side zippers from ankle to calf provide a big opening that helps get your feet in and out of the tights, even with shoes on if you find yourself in that situation. 

The ADV SubZ Bib Tights fall into the light-to-moderate range for compression. Because insulation requires trapping air and compression does the opposite, the two characteristics are somewhat at odds. If true squeeze is what you’re looking for, check elsewhere.

Materials

I pedaled into a light headwind up my local gravel road with sunlight peaking through the oncoming clouds. It was about 25 degrees, not counting wind chill. I could feel air moving through the ADV SubZ’s insulating material thanks to the air permeability. But since I was pushing uphill, that little bit of airflow actually kept me at the right temperature. Heat moved away from my skin just enough to keep my sweat at bay.

As the uphill miles wore on, I could feel the slightest dampness behind my neck. 

Eventually, I was forced to turn around when I reached a snowbank. The afternoon wore on, and the temps continued dropping. I pointed it downhill without swapping any layers and could feel the bite of the icy air on my arms and legs again, quickly. But I wasn’t chilled to the bone. The insulation worked. 

ADV SubZ Jersey

The ADV SubZ jersey is primarily constructed with 85% recycled polyester and 15% elastane for stretch. The stretch panels are held together with overlock seams. Most of the interior is a fuzzy and soft microgrid fleece. It felt delightful against bare skin. I could legitimately feel air flowing through the grid while I was grinding uphill. 

Whereas the brand’s Lumin Pro Jersey is one of the most reflective jerseys I’ve ever worn, the ADV SubZ Jersey and bib tights limit reflectivity to tiny details sprinkled throughout. Given winter’s short days and low sun angles, the kit could use a little extra flash for road safety.

ADV SubZ Bibs

The ADV SubZ Bibs feature a different construction, using a non-gridded brushed 88% recycled polyester with 12% elastane. The upper portion of the bibs is made of 95% polyester, super-breathable stretch mesh. Like the Jersey, the tights’ soft interior was cozy against the skin, yet maybe a hair warmer than the upper’s breeze-channeling grid pattern.

The ADV SubZ Bibs incorporate a C2 chamois pad that proved simple, reliable, and comfortable. The C2 is Craft’s second-tier chamois for their higher-end offerings. It offers a three-layer foam of varying densities and an impressive four-way stretch. Simply put, we got along great. It offers a comfortable, fitted ride with good temperature and moisture control. The bibs’ panels are held together with a mix of strategically placed flatlock and overlock seams.

Layering

I wasn’t only riding on sunny, mild winter days. When a deep chill set in, the ADV SubZ Bibs and long-sleeve jersey weren’t quite enough on their own. 

I experimented with going between the ADV SubZ Jersey as my primary jersey and wearing Craft’s Lumin Pro Jersey, which is ultralight (and ultra-tight) as a base layer.

Wearing the Lumina Pro at the bottom with the ADV SubZ Jersey as a midlayer turned out to be my go-to setup. I liked being able to shed the long-sleeve jersey and stow it in the Lumina Pro’s back pocket. I even threw on arm warmers underneath for additional warmth and versatility.

Colder temps required even more layering. On the coldest ride, I tested the kit at around 10 degrees. I slipped an ultralight wool base layer top underneath everything, followed by the ADV SubZ Jersey. I topped that off with Craft’s similarly constructed ADV SubZ Vest.

It was a warm combo. My core was warm, and airflow at my arms kept my temperature in check. That setup, plus warm gloves and a Buff around my neck and chin, was the secret sauce for frigid riding. 

It’s important to note that the ADV SubZ Jersey and Bibs do not include any wet-weather protection, such as waterproof or water-resistant fabrics. I got wet when I splashed through a few puddles. Then I got cold. For that reason, a solid hard shell jacket and even hard-shell pants stuffed into the rear pockets can get you home from a surprise storm. 

Pockets

The ADV SubZ offers three big, stretchy lower-back jersey-style pockets that are superbly accommodating for a winter layering shuffle. Each one was big enough to carry the ADV SubZ Vest, for example. They’re huge — big enough for a water bottle, warm gloves, a rain shell, etc. 

The rightmost pocket on the right side has a zippered side entry to a secure pocket that’s a safe spot for keys, a spare set of sunglasses, or my iPhone. And thankfully, it was easy to manipulate while I was riding, even if I did drop my phone at 20 mph once (purely my fault). 

The ADV SubZ Bib tights do not come with any pockets. That’s pretty standard for aerodynamic cycling gear. But I think, given the chilly use case here, it would be nice to have a phone pocket somewhere tight to the skin where it could keep the battery warm, like on the thigh or on the back under the Jersey. 

Versatility

There is both good news and bad news in the versatility department. The ADV SubZ long sleeve jersey and vest are cut perfectly for a crouched riding position. There is barely any creep upward and they’re short enough that they don’t bunch.

That also means they don’t transition well to other activities like trail running or any other activity where it isn’t layered over something skin tight. The grippy rear hem really grabs a loose T-shirt and annoyingly pulls it up and up until your midriff is fully exposed. That won’t bother cyclists using this kit for cycling alone, but don’t confuse it with a more all-rounder grid fleece like a Patagonia R1 or a Black Diamond Coefficient.

Craft ADV SubZ Jersey & Bib Tights: Who They Are For

The ADV SubZ Long Sleeve Jersey and Bib Tights weren’t the standalone solution to cold-weather riding that I thought they might have been. Instead, they proved to be the key insulating components of a winter riding kit.

In other words, they won’t replace a shell, and they’re usually complemented by base layers of varying warmth depending on the situation outside. But combined and on their own, they accomplish their insulating duties very well for highly aerobic cold weather riding. 

As someone who runs generally warm, the ADV SubZ Long Sleeve Jersey and Bib Tights on their own kept me comfortable from about the mid-20s to the mid-40s. Thankfully, that’s the bulk of winter out my front door. Folks exploring deeper into the chill will want to add additional layering, like the ADV SubZ Vest, additional base layers, and/or arm and leg warmers. 

Riding season doesn’t need to end when the temps plummet if your cycling kit matches the conditions at hand. Even then, winter riding is still hard to love. But I’ll tell you what: suiting up in Craft’s new ADV SubZ cold-weather riding kit is about a hundred times more fun than heading into the garage for another virtual training session.