Bushwalk Australia

After a cold and wet trip to Lake Rhona last week in shorts I bought my first pair of overpants. I have never owned overpants before but the ones I got (Wilderness Wear Strider) seem really baggy. I have skinny legs (size 28 jeans if that means anything to you) but am 180cm tall, so I concede I am not the easiest to fit, but I do wonder what is 'normal'. Oh and yes I know by their very nature overpants are going to be baggy.

So when wearing the overpants, I can pull them out tight against my thigh and have approximately 15cm of fabric left over (I could nearly fit two legs in). Is that too much or am I just too used to wearing skinny jeans?

well, in cold weather its going to be harder to keep warm with the amount of extra air they will let in.... go scrub bashing and you'l have fun as they will catch on the scrub.....
they will make a fantastic rhythmic flapping noise in high wind...
enjoy them..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NyEE0qpfeig

Yeah I realise that wayno, but is anything else on the market going to be markedly different (point of the topic)? I am back in country NSW so I have no chance of going somewhere to try anything else.

i've got outdoor research pants. they arent that baggy, not that much baggier than normal trousers... they stretch a bit as well.
i bought them through bivouac.... the revels
pretty light but they have heavier options if thats what you're after from other brands as well
the north face ones didnt look that baggy either...
i've also tried macpac ones and they were a pretty regular fit. although if you want full zip length i think only their heavier model has that.

http://www.bivouac.co.nz/clothing/mens- ... ction=1562

bit hard to tell from that photo but they do look baggy

http://www.soc.com.au/products/59352/56540

Indeed. I think I will just return them and try and track some down when we get to NZ.
I want to check out the Earth Sea Sky ones but if that fails we can just get some generic Chinese made ones.

Thanks mate.

Depends a bit. If they are articulated they don't need to be as baggy I find.

wayno wrote:well, in cold weather its going to be harder to keep warm with the amount of extra air they will let in.... go scrub bashing and you'l have fun as they will catch on the scrub.....
they will make a fantastic rhythmic flapping noise in high wind...
enjoy them..

I haven't actually had those problems. Being a bit of a 'pineapple on sticks' I've never had rainpants that aren't really baggy in the legs. In cold weather or scrub - gaiters go outside the rainpants (one or two thermals underneath, cosy even in wind), jacket comes down a fair way. Never had any interesting flapping or scrub-catching problems. BUT i haven't done any serious off-track Tassie stuff.

Looks like you've got better options, but I thought I'd toss in my 2c anyway.

How baggy would you say yours are Tortoise?

Current ones are about 12 cm excess (x2 ie front and back) at the lower thigh, but i've used large ones in the past which were wider than that.

Knowing your build Robert, I think you will struggle to find anything that isn't at least moderately baggy on you. But some are definitely less baggy than others.

Robert H wrote:Indeed. I think I will just return them and try and track some down when we get to NZ.
I want to check out the Earth Sea Sky ones but if that fails we can just get some generic Chinese made ones.

Thanks mate.

if you're in auckland, go to newmarket, all the major outdoor shops are close to each other on Broadway, so you can do a whip round in no time and find something.

not sure where they are in christchurch post earthquake, should still be somewhere reasonably central.
queenstown has a good selection of shops if you're flying straight there...

+1 for articulated knees, those designs should be easy to spot if you just look at the cut around the knees.... pretty standard in decent overtrousers...
if you are after lightweight trousers, pertex fabric is as good as gore tex paclite and cheaper. one retailer has found there are less complaints about pertex than gore tex... whether thats because they sell less pertex though I dont know. Pertex isnt as well recognised but then they don't market themselves to the public like gore tex...