Quote Originally Posted by pooks
About jackets --

We're riding in the LIVESTRONG in October (Austin) and the weather can be hotter than hades or rainy and chilly, impossible to predict. (Though hot or warm is the better bet.)

So I don't really want to buy rain gear for "just in case" but my husband doesn't want to wait until the last minute and figure out that we need rain gear and rush around and buy it. So I'm wondering if we take our breathable rain jackets that we wear all the time (they do fold up into a pocket) will that probably be okay, or will we be sorry we don't have something that isn't cut so full? These are made to wear over layers and we've worn them in England and Scotland in February as a top layer, but they're very lightweight.
As long as those jackets are long enough in the back to provide decent coverage when you're on the bike, I don't see why they wouldn't be adequate. No sense buying something "cycling specific" if what you have on hand fills the bill. Do they have a draw at the waist or bottom to cinch it in to it doesn't fill up with too much air?