The evenings are drawing in and that means only one thing…
NIGHT RIDES! We’re gathering lights for our lighting grouptest and the first in were these pre-production samples from Lezyne.
Lezyne Lights
The Mini Drive (£49.99), Power Drive (£79.99) and Super Drive (£99.99) are all neatly machined lumps of sturdy aluminium with varying amounts of lumens and differing beam patterns. We’ve not quite unavlled how they all work yet but in the shine-it-round-the-office-with-the-lights-off test, they did well. These are bar mount lights but we’ve also been sent an exclusive sneak spy shot of Lezyne’s protoype helmet mount being tested under rigorous conditions that look not dis-similar to our office on a Monday morning…
Price: Mini Drive (£49.99), Power Drive (£79.99) and Super Drive (£99.99)
From: Upgrade, www.upgradebikes.co.uk
Exposure Lights
All the lights are self contained with no batteries to strap on seperately thanks to Exposure’s Cable Free Design though you can Piggy Back an extra battery if you just don’t want to go home.
New for 2012 arebrighter LEDs, an Intelligent Thermal Management (ITM) system and a sealed and gold plated charge port to keep the cack out.
MaXx-D Mk.4
The barmounted workhorse of the range. Four Cree XPG R5 LEDs offering up to 1285 lumens with a burn time of 3-24 hours.
Price:£324.99
Toro Mk.3
The Maxx-D’s bright little brother. Three Cree XPG R5 LEDs offering up to 975 lumens with a burn time of 3-24 hours.
Price:£274.99
Diablo Mk.3
Like a mini dumbell for your head. Three Cree XPG R5 LEDs offering up to 975 lumens with a burn time of 1-10 hours.
Price:£199.99
and lastly the Joystick Mk.6
Not much bigger than a tube of lipstick but probably more use in a dark woodland. One Cree XPG R5 LED offering 325 lumens with a burn time of 3-24 hours.
Price:£164.99
From: Exposure Lights, www.exposurelights.com
Hope R4 LED Light
New for 2012 is Hope’s R4 LED featuring four Cree XPG R5 LEDs offering a claimed measured 1000 lumens (1446 generated)and a burn time of 1.15-8 hours.
The bar mounted light comes complete with a redesigned headtorch fitting making it ideal for multisport illumination. And did we mention it’s dinky compared to the old Vision4?
Price: £250
From: Hope, www.hopetech.com
Hope headset
Choosing which headset fits in what frame has become something of a confusing task, gone are the days of one-n-one-eigth on everything and here are the days of multiple tapered headtube ‘standards’. Whilst there has been an attempt to simplify things by giving everything a ‘standardised’ number it’s still not as easy as it should be. Hope have produced a neat diagram that helps you work out what headset you need for your frame and then assigned a letter for the bottom cup and a number for the top cup. You can then pick-n-mix cups to fit your frame. So here we have a 4F combo, easy!
Price: £30 per cup.
From: Hope, www.hopetech.com
661 Kyle Strait Knee Pads and Maxxis Ardent Tyres
Jenn is off to the Alps this week (yes, we know she’s only just got here) for a holiday, so big tyres and safe knees have arrived – these are old faithful ‘(not) Kyle Straits’, and we should be seeing samples of the new versions very soon too. Ardents are another office favourite for big mountain days out and in the 2.4in flavour they’re lots of fun.
Price: Pads, £44.99. Tyres, £47.99 each.
From: One Industries, www.oneindustrieseurope.co.uk
Works Components Angle Headset
Probably as many Lapierre owners have found – the internal diameter of the Lapierre’s tapered headtube is not as standard as other people’s standard – So no Cane Creek anglesets for you.
Have no fear though Works Components are doing this lovely fixed 1.5 degree angleset (for use with a 1/8th fork ) For instant Nico Vouilloz like cornering ability. Facts below.
1.5 Degree EC44 – ZS55 – Lapierre Fitment Angle Headset
– Fits headtube internal diameter – 44mm Upper – EC44, 55mm Lower – ZS55 –
– To suit standard 1 1/8″ steerer tube forks. (28.6 – 30.015)
– 41mm OD, 45 x 45 Degree AC sealed bearings.
– Insertion debth: 9mm Upper, 16mm Lower.
– Cup Stack height: 3.5mm – Total upper stack height inc bearing cover: 15mm
– Proudly machined in the UK from 6082 T6, Black Anodize finish
-Complete with headset top-cap and star-nut.
Other sizes are available .
Price: £79.99
From: Works Components, www.workscomponents.co.uk
Lizard Skin Peaty Grips
Not all grips are created equal and not all grips suit all hands, but these Lizard Skin Peaty grips are an office favourite, how can they not be with the big man from Sheffields name on them! As well as the black and grey combo seen here there’s a more patriotic white grip with red and blue anodised collars.
Price: £19.99
From: 2Pure, www.2pure.co.uk
POC
POC gear has been much in demand but not very available, but with 2Pure taking on distribution we’re hoping things are going to change. The trademark loud colours seem to split opinion but the general consensus here is one of love rather than hate. Bright colours make for better photoshoots and happy photographers.
Price: Helmets, £140. Shorts, £85, Gloves, £45. T-shirts from £35.
From: 2Pure, www.2pure.co.uk
DMR Vault Pedals
Sim loves a good flat pedal and word on the street is these DMR Vaults are premium foot parking places. The low profile and weight coupled with a large area to plonk your meat plates on and shiny anodising with jewel-like blue pins ticks a lot of boxes. As well as being rather good looking on the outside they’ve got some substance on the inside with a heavy duty steel axle and serviceable bush and cartridge bearings. It almost seems a shame they are destined to be scraped and bounced off rocks really.
Price: £89.99
From: Upgrade, www.upgradebikes.co.uk
Comments (29)
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That’s some serious coffee making you’ve got going on there.
POC demand has now nosedived at those prices. £35 for a T? Bonkers.
£140 to look like a lego-man?
Not for me, I’m afraid.
I dunno, I’ve still got some t-shirts from 1995….
“Are you man enough to wear these?” > “Are you rich enough to wear these?”
no matter what they charge there will still be chumps who buy that POC tat
nice bottomless portafilter!
45 for a pair of summer mitts! Madness.
Hope’s new headsets have very poor seals don’t you know
worringly that new POC helmet is growing on me……
Do you mean the bearings in the Hope headsets have poor seals? Are they bespoke bearings or nip down the bearing factors and pick up a new one for a tenner?
Just saying like!
Upgrade bikes linky no worky
editor: it is now
Do you have to buy a seperate bat mount for a USE Diablo? (or as I gathered from their website, 2 parts to bar mount)? Couldn’t they offer a bar ready option (and at a “better” price than buying the 3 things individually)? Little things like this do annoy me. It looks like just the light I could do with but a little annoyed that you can’t get it all in one box and that it’s adding 15% to the price. While I accpt that the USE bar mount looks all rufty tufty in it’s nicely machined engineeringness, I’b be more than happy to live with the off the shelf placcy mount that the Lezynes come with and included in the purchase price.
That POC stuff is hilarious. Do people really pay through the nose to look like pre-schoolers? Maybe its no coincidence that the pink shorts are pictured next to a copy of Marketing magazine…mmm…..
i like the look of those poc hats, but am not sure about the sad tortured faces on them.
Humm 85 £ for a short.. Even if I absolutely love it and the colour, no way I can afford one… And now that the owner of the best bike shop in all burg has a bear I won’t sleep with him for stuff any more (no pun) I am screwed!!!!!
Speaker2animals,
you can get a zip tie mount for £8 works OK for road use.
the lezyne lights look nice but how do they stack up against the likes of Exposure? there’s a lot of CNC’d lights out there…
I don’t get everyone moaning about the prices of POC. While it’s on the expensive side, it’s not exactly astronomical compared to other offerings out there. I think the helmets look really interesting and apparently can survive a bump or two. I certainly want to check one out in the flesh.
Oh yes! Want : forks, pedals, helmet, orange frame… all lovely.
Lezyne lights look, er, a bit, er like, er, copies of something else on the page, no?
Is it just me or are quite a lot of these fresh goods not that fresh?
POC prices- the performance stuff is worth it, their elbow pads might be the most expensive out there but they’re hands down the best… But the tshirts are ridiculous.
“Not much bigger than a tube of lipstick but probably more use in a dark woodland”
Maybe, maybe not.
Just sayin’
😉
that hope headset diagram is very useful. the new headset “standards” were confusing me
http://www.hopetech.com/webtop/modules/_repository/documents/HOPEHEADSETS2011Web.pdf
Are you planning on including some of the ‘shed built’ lights in the group test for balance? e.g. Lumi and Troute lights?
Does POC stand for Piles’ O Cash? I like a little loudness but that’s offensively lary pricing.
Hope headset “Mix & Match” setup: Approved.
Good work Hope, now, try to keep up as all the latest standards come out (Giant, you muppets)
“Lezyne lights look, er, a bit, er like, er, copies of something else on the page, no?”
Half to a third of the price though.
True. Very true. Good prices.
Oh, Hope need a big slap on the back for selling headsets in halves: all manufacturers should follow their lead. Brilliant.
Maxxis Ardent Tyres
47.00 each…… jeepers…..pricey………………
liking the lizard skin grips tho…