Review: Dakine's Thrillium Heavyweight Pants & Dewit Waterproof Apparel

Next up in our wet weather round-up are the latest winter offerings from Dakine. This features the Dewit jacket and pants, which boast features including a 20K waterproof rating, and the heavy-duty Thrillium pant.

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These pants are so heavy they could almost qualify as a piece of body armour in themselves. They fit, which I'll come onto in greater detail later, leaves plenty of room for knee pads and their hard-wearing material firmly sets them up for bike park laps. However, in cold yet dry climates, these could also work well as winter trousers. Saying that, it would have to be pretty cold indeed. On cold days November days in British Columbia they were good, but it's actively raining I'd rather ride in an all-out waterproof trouser.


The pants have three pockets. Two standard affairs that sit at the fore of the pant above the thing and one that sits slightly lower on the left-hand side. It's not as big as the others and has a loop to attach something to for extra security. The main pockets themselves are very deep and can easily fit a phone.



The waist belt works well, and the venting is a nice touch. I imagine if you were riding these on hot bike park laps it would be very welcome. They breathed okay in colder temperatures and were adequately warm. Sadly, I haven't been able to test them in anything other than cold and colder but not yet coldest.

As somebody who hates tearing trousers on silly crashes, I think these trousers could be a smart buy for shuttle days or bike park laps in changeable conditions or colder temperatures. Unfortunately, the fit was nowhere close to being right for me.

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The pants have more features than most other waterproof pants I've tried. Some are good, but I think that others create a rod for their own back. These pants breathe well, or as well as one could expect any waterproof item to, but the fit, again, was just far too baggy.

They had a strange fit that was almost bootcut. This was then exacerbated by the inclusion of a zip around the calf. It would be great to see them dramatically slimmer cut, and then you could make full use of the zip and elasticated ankle. In their current fit, however, they probably won't fit many people well that don't have large legs.



Joking aside, this was a problem that both the POC waterproof trousers and dungarees did suffer from as well. I understand that this isn't the super-stretchy material that you might find in a non-waterproof pant, but at the same time, it doesn't mean it has to be just this baggy. I was riding these trousers watching them constantly graze my oiled chain on every rotation. It seems needless. I would love to see the same trouser come with the same features that include very deep pockets and the aforementioned zipper that would make getting them off with cold wet hands all the easier, but just so much narrower around the calf.

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The jacket is subtle enough that it can be worn off the bike without looking like a kook. The rear of the jacket does feature a bike-specific dropped hem to hopefully provide enough coverage that it stops trail-spray working its way between jacket and trouser.


It's far better fitting than the trousers on review and fits true to size. I'm 6' and found the large to be generously sized but not overly so. I could have probably gone down a size for a less casual bike-fit, though. I like the elastic cuffs on the wrists and they stop any unwanted drafts coming through. In fact, I think features like this actually help a jacket breathe. Instead of just unzipping or trying to get waves of cold air through the jacket, I find it's better to just put up with some short-term sweating until the jacket begins to breathe, instead of just having a cold wind to chill your sweat.


The jacket is fully waterproof, as opposed to something that can pack down nice a small. Sure, you can stuff it in your bag, but it's definitely something better suited to slightly colder temperatures rather than splash protection in the warmer months. Its material isn't particularly thin or light, which is great in winter but maybe not if you want a jacket to do you all year round and one that you wear several layers underneath.

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