Coy
2009-07-27 21:45:21 UTC
Hi Carrol, here is my LTR for the Prime Merino Wool tee. Very nice shirt and it has been a joy to test. PS I lost more weight while testing this shirt than with any other gear so far...mostly because I let myself get so fat last January and February...
HTML here
http://www.backpackgeartest.org/reviews/test/TESTS/LTR%20-%20Prime%20Merino%20wool%20T%20-%20Coy%20Boy/
or here
http://tinyurl.com/l5lew8
and text only below
Long Term Report: July 27, 2009
photo of the shirt soaked
Testing Locations and Conditions
All testing was done on local trails, waterways and roads here in northeast Alabama. These outings consisted of several day hikes, several kayaking and one canoeing trip on Guntersville Lake plus kayaking the Flint and Paint Rock river. I also rode my my recumbent on three long rides and several shorter ones on local roads and bike paths. Normally, June and July weather can be summed up in two words; hot and hotter. However, June was one of the hottest on record and July is going down as the coolest on record. That said, it has never been really cool except for a couple of July mornings which registered in the mid 50s F (around 13 C). The hottest weather encountered was 96 F (36 C) back in mid June. It rained several times during testing but try as I might I was only out in a coupl
e of light sprinkles while dayhiking, mainly because 3 of the biggest rains fell on Sunday morning while I was at church.
Long Term Test Results
I don't have a lot to add in the performance department as the Prime has continued to work well but no different than what I experienced during the Field Report stage of testing. However, with several more outing and subsequent washings, I can say that the durability of the shirt is good. It has also held its shape and color very nicely. I have gotten the shirt muddy on a couple of occasions but it always comes out of the washer nice and clean.
Wicking and Quick Drying Ability
If you look closely at the photo at the beginning of this section you will notice the Prime is pretty wet. The photo was taken right at sundown near the end of a hot 4 mile (6.4 km) June afternoon hike. I had just topped the trail up the mountain when I had my friend take the picture. We still had about a mile of hiking on fairly level trails and the shirt never did dry out much but this may have been due to the high humidity at the time. On the dayhikes I usually wore my Mountainsmith Day pack with about 10 lb (4.5 kg) of gear and water onboard.
I went kayaking with the shirt several times and while I didn't sweat as much as when hiking, I did get the short very wet. In fact, on one trip my friend and I decided to find out how easy his kayak would be to re-enter if flipped in deep water. We both spent half an hour each flipping, then trying to get back in his kayak. We were unsuccessful but on the plus side, he ended up going and getting a Sit On Top like mine which proved to be a breeze to re-re-enter. As for the Prime, it stayed wet for the remainder of the paddle which lasted about another hour. On one trip on the Flint River I was out a total of 5 hours. We ended up floating about 3 miles (5 km) downriver and then paddling hard back to the put-in. On the return trip I spent a lot of time in the water helping pull other ka
yaks and the one canoe back upstream. I would often just lay down in the fast moving water as it felt so nice and cool. The photo below was taken just after we launched.
Photo while kayaking
I wore the Prime on several more recumbent rides and I got the shirt plenty wet climbing hills. However, due to the speed cruising along on flattish sections of the road it dried out much faster than when hiking. Three of these rides covered around 22 miles (35 km) and lasted about 2 hours each while several more were around 10 mile (16 km) and lasted just over an hour each. However, the shorter rides were the ones off the mountain and back up and were basically as hard or harder then the long rides which were on much flatter roads.
Odor Management
I still find the shirt has a slight odor when wet,. even right out of the washing machine, but strangely, I could take it off and let it air out overnight and the next day it would have very little odor. I will say that the Prime smells much better after a long hot hike than my full synthetic shirts and much much better after airing out.
Summary
The Prime Merino Crew is a great summer time shirt and is one of the most comfortable shirts I have ever worn. The thinness of the shirt did seem to help it dry quicker than my regular cotton tees but I would not say it dries as fast as full synthetic shirts. My observations, while not scientific suggest that it dries (while being worn or while hanging outside to dry) about halfway between the two. The tight fit and thinness of the shirt also made it less than ideal for wearing at social gatherings as it showed my tummy off a little more than I would have liked. However, since the beginning of this test in early March I have managed too loose about 14 lb (6 kg) and the fit is much better. I plan to continue wearing it and hopefully it will fit even better after a few more months.
This concludes my testing of the Backcountry.com Prime Merino Crew. I would again like to thank Backcountry.com and BackpackGearTest.org for letting me test this shirt. I hope my findings are beneficial to all who read the report.
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HTML here
http://www.backpackgeartest.org/reviews/test/TESTS/LTR%20-%20Prime%20Merino%20wool%20T%20-%20Coy%20Boy/
or here
http://tinyurl.com/l5lew8
and text only below
Long Term Report: July 27, 2009
photo of the shirt soaked
Testing Locations and Conditions
All testing was done on local trails, waterways and roads here in northeast Alabama. These outings consisted of several day hikes, several kayaking and one canoeing trip on Guntersville Lake plus kayaking the Flint and Paint Rock river. I also rode my my recumbent on three long rides and several shorter ones on local roads and bike paths. Normally, June and July weather can be summed up in two words; hot and hotter. However, June was one of the hottest on record and July is going down as the coolest on record. That said, it has never been really cool except for a couple of July mornings which registered in the mid 50s F (around 13 C). The hottest weather encountered was 96 F (36 C) back in mid June. It rained several times during testing but try as I might I was only out in a coupl
e of light sprinkles while dayhiking, mainly because 3 of the biggest rains fell on Sunday morning while I was at church.
Long Term Test Results
I don't have a lot to add in the performance department as the Prime has continued to work well but no different than what I experienced during the Field Report stage of testing. However, with several more outing and subsequent washings, I can say that the durability of the shirt is good. It has also held its shape and color very nicely. I have gotten the shirt muddy on a couple of occasions but it always comes out of the washer nice and clean.
Wicking and Quick Drying Ability
If you look closely at the photo at the beginning of this section you will notice the Prime is pretty wet. The photo was taken right at sundown near the end of a hot 4 mile (6.4 km) June afternoon hike. I had just topped the trail up the mountain when I had my friend take the picture. We still had about a mile of hiking on fairly level trails and the shirt never did dry out much but this may have been due to the high humidity at the time. On the dayhikes I usually wore my Mountainsmith Day pack with about 10 lb (4.5 kg) of gear and water onboard.
I went kayaking with the shirt several times and while I didn't sweat as much as when hiking, I did get the short very wet. In fact, on one trip my friend and I decided to find out how easy his kayak would be to re-enter if flipped in deep water. We both spent half an hour each flipping, then trying to get back in his kayak. We were unsuccessful but on the plus side, he ended up going and getting a Sit On Top like mine which proved to be a breeze to re-re-enter. As for the Prime, it stayed wet for the remainder of the paddle which lasted about another hour. On one trip on the Flint River I was out a total of 5 hours. We ended up floating about 3 miles (5 km) downriver and then paddling hard back to the put-in. On the return trip I spent a lot of time in the water helping pull other ka
yaks and the one canoe back upstream. I would often just lay down in the fast moving water as it felt so nice and cool. The photo below was taken just after we launched.
Photo while kayaking
I wore the Prime on several more recumbent rides and I got the shirt plenty wet climbing hills. However, due to the speed cruising along on flattish sections of the road it dried out much faster than when hiking. Three of these rides covered around 22 miles (35 km) and lasted about 2 hours each while several more were around 10 mile (16 km) and lasted just over an hour each. However, the shorter rides were the ones off the mountain and back up and were basically as hard or harder then the long rides which were on much flatter roads.
Odor Management
I still find the shirt has a slight odor when wet,. even right out of the washing machine, but strangely, I could take it off and let it air out overnight and the next day it would have very little odor. I will say that the Prime smells much better after a long hot hike than my full synthetic shirts and much much better after airing out.
Summary
The Prime Merino Crew is a great summer time shirt and is one of the most comfortable shirts I have ever worn. The thinness of the shirt did seem to help it dry quicker than my regular cotton tees but I would not say it dries as fast as full synthetic shirts. My observations, while not scientific suggest that it dries (while being worn or while hanging outside to dry) about halfway between the two. The tight fit and thinness of the shirt also made it less than ideal for wearing at social gatherings as it showed my tummy off a little more than I would have liked. However, since the beginning of this test in early March I have managed too loose about 14 lb (6 kg) and the fit is much better. I plan to continue wearing it and hopefully it will fit even better after a few more months.
This concludes my testing of the Backcountry.com Prime Merino Crew. I would again like to thank Backcountry.com and BackpackGearTest.org for letting me test this shirt. I hope my findings are beneficial to all who read the report.
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