RailRiders Gear Review: Performance & Comfort Under Extreme Conditions

I was washing my only set of clothing again; it was becoming a regular fortnightly occurrence these days. The fast-moving stream stung my hands bitterly with its cold glacial waters, as I sat hunched in my boxer-briefs, perched on a rock in the middle of the flow, scrubbing away with just a tiny sliver of soap. It was all that we had left. On the bank I could see Matt collecting wood for the evening’s fire, and beyond that I could hear – even above the sounds of the raging torrent – the punctured crackle of rifle shots, as Tajikistan’s elite military forces once more commenced their live-fire training exercises in this out-of-the-way valley situated in the Fan Mountains. Glancing back down at the mass of sopping, tangled and soapy apparel, I remember feeling amazed at how far these clothes had come, and confused as to why they hadn’t disintegrated yet. They were hardwearing, I’ll give them that.

Nearly half of my 2013 was spent in the Central Asian republics of Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, on various expedition-styled projects and adventures. Throughout the course of those five long months my colleague Matthew Traver and I effectively wore just one set of clothing each, kindly supplied through sponsorship by RailRiders. This big boys’ explorers outfit was worn nearly every day and most nights too (as we’d often sleep fully-clothed to fend off mosquito bites). The clothes were subject to all sorts of mistreatments, from constant rubbing against galloping horses to wrestling Tajik yaks onto trucks in the Pamir Mountains. I believe we gave these clothes the most thorough in-field testing of any reviewer thus far, so without any further procrastination here is the Sidetracked review of what have been dubbed ‘the toughest clothes on the planet’.