Trail pants are arguably the best thing in recent years and Pete reckons that the Fox Racing Ranger offerings might be near the top of the heap.
If they fit you right, the Fox Racing Ranger pants will be the ones you hope are dry on the rack as you kit up for your next ride.
Photos by Pete Scullion.
Key features:
- 85% polyamide nylon, 9% polyester, 6% elastane
- Slim fit, tapered leg
- Lightweight, stretch fabric
- Snap fly closure
- Two zipped hand pockets
- Fox Head screen print
- £90.00 RRP
- FoxRacing.co.uk
The Fox Ranger pants, on paper, tick plenty of boxes for a UK riding trouser, without claiming to be anything they’re not. At £90 retail, and much cheaper if you know where to look, the Rangers certainly don’t break the bank either.
Materials-wise, the polyamide-polyester-elastane mix is likely not the stretchiest we’ve encountered but isn’t uncomfortable in any way. When you’re looking at sub-£100 riding trousers, there will be compromises somewhere. It’s certainly not the end of the World in this regard.
With a fine pair of chicken legs on me, the looser upper and tapered lower fits me great, although if you’ve got larger lower legs, you might find these a little too snug, and that’s where the lack of fabric stretch will become apparent.
For the first time in a long time, a pair of 28 riding trousers don’t immediately have to be sent to my mum to have several inches clipped off the leg so they’re not trailing in the mud. The 31″ inseam is spot on. Again, if you’ve long legs, you will see plenty of sock showing. The lower cuff is tight, so expect to have a minor wrestle with them when you go to put them in the washing machine.
Out on the trail, the lack of DWR coating or similar can see these getting soggy reasonably quickly, but then they’re not marketed as such, so asking them to see off a winter monsoon is perhaps a stretch too far.
The close fit means they’re not flapping about in the breeze or catching drivetrain as you pedal, so you soon forget they’re even there. There’s really not much room for a knee pad, so I haven’t tried but you might be able to get some slim pads under there if you really need to. The pockets go a fair way down the thigh but you’ll not get much more than keys and a phone in there.
What do we think?
Despite the fact that these are clearly more of a shoulder season or summer offering, the fact that they fit out of the box makes them a firm favourite for me. A DWR coating might push them beyond the £100 mark but would put them in a different realm altogether.
We love:
- They fit my chicken legs
- Good value
Could do better:
- DWR coating would make these absolute bangers
- Slim fit won’t suit everyone
You can check out the Fox Racing Ranger pants over on their website here.
Buy online at Tredz for £69.99 here.
