Review: REV’IT! Sand 4 H2O Adventure Riding Suit
The REV’IT! Sand 4 H2O suit is a multi-season outfit meant to fall in the catalog between the time-tested Poseidon 3 GTX and the relatively new Offtrack2 H2O. I wore the Sand 4 H2O for a seven-day, 1,000-mile ride through Colombia. The journey included a virtual smorgasbord of climates. It was hot and dry, hot and wet, cool and breezy, cold and damp, and just plain damp—and often these weather conditions occurred in a single day’s ride.
For this journey, the Sand 4 H2O was ideal. It was light enough for long-distance ADV riding (time-wise, about half of the 1,000 miles were off-road), but durable enough to give good protection in a fall (I tested this the old-fashioned and painful way). The suit was also warm when zipped up and kept me toasty at 45 degrees. Yet, when unzipped, I was comfortable at higher temperatures.
The pants, which connect to the jacket with both a short and a long zipper, feature two deep waterproof pockets and two long vertical zippered vents—with inside snaps to hold the vents open. The waist snaps shut and has two adjustable belts to fine-tune the fit, mirrored by two that adjust the fitting below the knee. A drawcord cinches the bottom of the jacket closed. The legs close with a zipper and hook-and-loop strips. Laminated reflective strips on the legs and back should increase nighttime visibility.
The jacket also has two similar pockets and two vents on the chest—with two on the mesh interior, too—as well as long zippered vents along the upper arms and two more along the upper back. A storage pouch at the small of the back is also waterproof. The zips all have easy-to-grasp tabs. The adjustable, fleece-lined collar snaps closed or fully open for better ventilation. There are laminated reflective strips on the back and upper arms, as well as multiple places to attach accessories. The jacket adjusts with a belt at the waistline and has hardware for attaching a Segur neck brace and a reflective outside vest.
The suit is sold with Seeflex CE-level 2 knee, shoulder, and elbow protection and is prepared for chest and back protection, although those are not provided. It also has detachable thermal and waterproof liners. Both zip in easily and do their job admirably. When I returned to the wettest Los Angeles winter on record, I tested the waterproof aspect thoroughly and stayed dry even after 45 minutes on the freeway during a rainstorm.
I have just one complaint. The Sand 4 H2O jacket, like the Poseidon 3 GTX I wore during two ADV trips to Iceland, has only one main zipper. That means the zipper cannot be raised from the bottom to allow for more comfort and freedom of movement at the waist area. There were times on longer rides and hotter days when this feature would have been helpful for additional adjustment and ventilation.
REV’IT! Sand 4 H20 Adventure Riding Suit
Jacket: $549.99
Pants: $399.99