Review: Albion Visibility Cargo Vest
Photos by Michael Drummond and Ben Wormald
It’s often said that to be truly valuable, the best kit for minimal adventures needs at least uses. Combining lightweight carrying capacity with high visibility then, is the Visibility Cargo Vest from Albion the perfect solution for riding long distances in one simple package? Let’s find out.
Honing your approach to on-bike storage is a subtle craft. It takes plenty of trial, error, and years of experience. Even then, the process is seldom complete. It just evolves and starts again.
Embraced by mountain biking and then the gravel community, wearable storage has become increasingly popular in bikepacking too, offering extra capacity that neither relies on the bike or impacts the way it handles. For riders tackling long distances or venturing into the night — especially on tarmac, visibility is just as important. Drawing on their pedigree in adventure cycling and bikepacking, Albion’s Visibility Cargo Vest offers a unique design with their take on wearable carrying capacity, maximising, that’s right: visibility and cargo. In their words, ‘designed for everything from ultra racing to commuting, use this product when riding in low light conditions, at night time, or for long rides when you need extra carrying capacity with added visibility.’
Why I Chose the Albion Visibility Cargo Vest
When I started longer rides and bikepacking, I was pretty keen to avoid wearing anything on my back. On my back, it felt restricting, stressful and sweaty. So sweaty. Plus, with more and more designs there was probably a design I could just attach to my bike instead.
That changed when I started riding off road more when I decided to try out a small, specifically designed mountain biking backpack, with an inbuilt hydration bladder. I loved the accessibility of its contents and keeping the weight off my bike, the bike’s handling remained untouched. Getting into endurance riding and eventually ultra racing, riding long days in all sorts of conditions and long nights on the road, visibility became a real priority. Noticing how well other riders were often lit, alongside good lights, I realised the power of well placed, effective reflectivity and I dabbled in various reflective clothing options and also a hi-vis reflective harness. Both I got in with fine, but the clothing demanded suitable weather and somehow I’d always find myself tangled up in the harness.
Earlier this year – 2025 – signed up for the Transcontinental Race, I was eager to land the perfect fix-all solution. With a 30% discount code with ace registration, and my pre-race anxiety primed for purchasing, what better excuse to give the Albion Visibility Cargo Vest a go?
Out The Box
Straight away, the vibrancy of the orange is really apparent with the vest, and personally I much prefer the colour than the sickly neon yellow we’re used to seeing in cycling clothing. There are plenty of reflective strips across front, back and sides. Equally notable, is its minimal construction. It’s light as hell and packs down – into one of its own pockets – impressively small.
The material feels really light and minimal but still robust which, mixed with very few zips, fastening or straps, makes for a really minimal feeling vest. The fastening clips are a really cool, unique design using minimal cords with mini carabiner attachments. While they’re not really adjustable in length, the cords themselves do offer a fair amount of stretch meaning there will be a fair window of flexibility. There’s also just one zip closure across the vest, just a side entry to the main storage compartment on the back.
Entire back panel of the vest is a large storage compartment. Without any structure to it you’ll be sure to notice the shape of whatever you put inside against your back but its this lack of rigidity that also makes it feel so minimal when it’s empty.
Worn, the jacket sits relatively high which keeps it feeling agile and minimal suitable for road and gravel meaning allowing access still to access to rear jersey pockets while four pockets on the front of the vest are super handy for small items you might want access to on the move – gels, snacks phone, mulit-tool etc.
Put To The Test
Training for the TCR meant I was able to put the vest to the test in the scenarios it’s intended to be ridden – overnighters into Cornwall and Wales, a weeklong foray around the Republic of Ireland, soon followed by TCR itself – 4800kms, west to east across Europe in all kinds of conditions on all kinds of roads.
One of the key features that sold the product to me was its packability. I imagined that on TCR – faced with extremely hot days – I wouldn’t wear it until I needed the carrying capacity, say for food supplies or the light dipped enough to need the visibility. In reality, actually it was light and breathable enough that I was happy riding in it almost all of the time, valuing the extra visibility in the days on bigger roads and finding some sort of comfort in having it on.
Having it ready to hand proved really useful for grabbing supplies efficiently, minimising our stopping time on our biggest days both in the shop and also having food to hand when it was needed on the road.
What did soon become quite apparent though was how ineffective the reflective strips are.
It’s not always easy to judge how effective reflective points are, but riding as a pair and using the same vest made comparison simple — especially during the first few days of the race, when we shared the road with hundreds of other riders – many having taken advantage of the same pre-race deal with Albion, while others used alternatives like Apidura’s Visibility Vest.
Unfortunately, I’d say the Visibility Cargo Vest was among the weakest option. In fact, even the small reflective details on our jerseys worn underneath at times did a better job of showing our position on the road.
Knowing we’d regularly be riding late into the night and on larger roads the proposed night time visibility was probably the main selling point of the vest for me. In reality, how little these strips actually reflected light in real-world scenarios then was pretty disappointing.
Key features
Minimal Design
Thin, airy material ensures the vest is breathable and light to wear, making it easy to wear all day, regardless of the temperature.
Size and Fit
Connecting both straps at the front of the best over the shoulders is one cord that weaves through the fabric. In addition to the elasticity of the side panels this is the only adjustability in the size and fit, meaning it might not be suitable for all riders.
Carrying Capacity
With one huge compartment taking up the entire back panel of the vest, plus two smaller pockets for food, tools or a phone means there’s plenty of capacity while still lying really flat if not filled.
Visibility
The hi-vis orange is great, super bright and effective in day or low light but for the nighttime, while there are a lot of reflective strips, they really aren’t effective enough.
Rating
3.5 / 5
Specs
Weight: 143g (size medium)
Capacity: 8 Litres
Back pocket dimensions: 38x27cm
Hydration bladder compatible – max 2l.
Pros
Light weight
Bright
Plenty of capacity
Great fit
Washable
Cons
Not reflective enough
Quite expensive
Not adjustable
Is the Albion Cargo Vest Worth your Money?
As with any decisions around gear, it comes down to what you need and exactly how you intend to use it.
In terms of carrying capacity, this is a really well-designed piece, offering great additional capacity when it’s needed, while keeping a real low profile when it’s empty. When it comes to visibility, the orange really pops, making it a fantastic option to add visibility during sunlight hours and could make all the difference in low-light . That said, on the whole, I’m not so worried by daytime visibility. Where I really want to be seen, where it really matters, is on the road at night.
Albion’s Visibility Cargo Vest is a piece of gear I genuinely wanted to love — and in many ways, I do. It’s thoughtfully designed, impressively functional, and offers smart extra storage without adding bulk or discomfort. But for a product built around the promise of being seen, for me, it falls short where it matters most.
With that in mind, its £125 RRP does feel a little rowdy for what is so minimal, but here we are in the world of modern cycling apparel. And while more complicated premium vests come with a hydration bladder and hose even at a similar price, when you look at similar offerings like POC’s Ultra Vest or Endura’s Corner Hydration Vest the price is perfectly in-line.
Ultimately, at this price point, reflectivity shouldn’t compromise on a product that’s designed to offer just that. After countless miles, long days and dark nights, the vest doesn’t deliver the level of visibility its reflective detailing suggests. A solid concept, a quality product, and one I’ll certainly continue to wear alongside plenty of other Albion products in my cycling wardrobe. But ultimately it’s not quite the dependable high-visibility solution I hoped it would be.
