Up in our little Northern valley it seems that the cold weather has finally arrived in earnest and it looks like it’s here to stay. The perma-sog has landed; every ride is filled with the sweet sting of cold water on places that don’t appreciate it and riding in a straight line requires more concentration by the day.
It’s rather lucky that a load of cold weather gear has turned up at just this time. It’s almost like someone is planning this sort of stuff…
Whyte 146S
Ian and Keith from Whyte Bikes headed up to show us a few highlights of the 2012 range, talk bike design and take in a bit of Valley slithering yesterday. Before travelling back, they left us the carbon monocoqued Whyte 146S to test. Although the Works and X models run ahead in the bling stakes, the S model doesn’t scrimp on quality, with a 2×10 SRAM X7 drivetrain, Easton wheelset and Fox suspension all round. For a bike with 150mm travel at the front and 146mm at the rear, it weighs a rather impressive 26lbs out of the box…
Price: £2999
From: Whyte Bikes
The fork is a Fox 32 Float RL with the FIT damping cartridge, tapered steerer and 15mm thru axle. With a 66° head angle They haven’t skimped on contact points either, with Easton bar and stem, Fi’zi:k saddle and Maxxis Ardent/Crossmark tyre combo.
The shock is nestled safely out of harm (and mud) inside the frame and swingarm and uses roller bearings instead of shock bushings. The suspension pivots come with a lifetime warranty too, always handy.
The bike has plenty of neat touches, with the hand friendly, forward facing seat QR and unbroken cable routing as nods to the UK’s oft-grim weather.
The carbon fibre swingarm has modular dropouts to help future proof it but comes specced with 12x142mm as standard.
New Nuun!
A big box of Nuun arrived this week. Nuun is an electrolyte replacement drink that Matt credits with saving his life at last year’s Trans-Provence; we’ve got some Nuun bottles, some current Nuun, and some of the new Nuun that’s not available in the UK yet, as hand-modeled here by Dave. We’re assured it’s nothing like sweet 70’s booze Blue Nun either.
Manly Sim is especially fond of the label on the Strawberry Lemonade flavour. Bet you can’t guess which one that is…
Price: £5.99
From: Nuun
Hope Eternity seatpost
Shiny seating technology from the boys over the hill. Hope’s seatpost is one of a handful on the market which allows virtually unlimited saddle rotation thanks to the ball’n’socket style cradle, thus solving problems for riders with oddly shaped frames (like, er, Mavericks).
It’s been paired up with the Crank Bros Iodine saddle and dispatched to our pickiest cockpit tester for a thorough arse-Grinding over the winter…
Price: £75.00
From: Hope Technology
Gore Bike Wear winter care package.
Gore Alp-X SO pants
Made from breathable Windstopper Soft Shell material, these slim fitting trousers are designed for proper grim weather riding and commuting. They’ve got a pair of zipped pockets, legs vents and have reinforcement on the inside of the legs to stop cranks messing them up.
Price: £139.99
From: Gore Bike Wear
Gore Fusion GT AS jacket
Using the new Gore Active Shell, a combination of a lightweight Gore Tex membrane laminated to fine weight performance fabric to integrate three layers for maximum breathability and comfort, this is designed to be a packable waterproof with fold-away collar and Gore Stretch inserts at the sides to provide plenty of articulation.
Price: £219.99
From: Gore Bike Wear
Gore Alp-X Thermo bibs
Made from ‘Thermo Stretch’ material, these bib tights promise to keep you warm, dry and comfy no matter how grim it gets. With heel loops, abrasion resistant inserts, mesh back piece and an ALP-X chammy, hopefully they’ll make the grim winter weather seem like summer – we may need some rose-tinted specs as well like…
Price: £149.99
From: Gore Bike Wear
Gore Alp-X SO jacket
Fashion poses! Made from Windstopper material, this jacket is has tight fitting cuffs, neck and waist to keep cold air well away from you. It also has stretch inserts and detachable sleeves to turn it into a gilet.
Price: £169.99
From: Gore Bike Wear
Gore Contest Thermo Lady bibs
It can be a bit of a struggle finding decent women’s winter clothing. These tights are packed with lady-friendly features, including X-shaped bibs with hook closure to sit comfortably over the chest and, to quote Gore, a “patented zipper solution for the easiest bio-break ever”. Going for a wee in men’s tights is high risk enough, so anything that makes that easier is a good thing.
Price: £69.99
From: Gore Bike Wear
Gore Oxygen GT AS Lady jacket
It’s another highly breathable and packable jacket made using the highly waterproof and breathable Gore Active Shell material. Designed for road use, it should cross over to off-road use well with a removable hood, adjustable cuffs and partially elastic hem. The cut doesn’t look too road-biased either…
Price: £179.99
From: Gore Bike Wear
Louis Garneau Limoges winter mitt
There’s a bit of a cold weather clothing theme this week isn’t there? These mitts are designed to keep you toasty warm, with just a single braking and shifting finger out on it’s own. The mitt is made from Teflon Lycra and the palm is synthetic Amara leather. The cuff is a wraparound item that looks like it’ll seal well over bulkier winter jackets and, with with 120g of Thermolite insulation on the upper and 60g on the palm, they’re definitely for the really cold days..
Price: £44.99
From: Evans Cycles
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Did you get any Green Tea Nuun Really want to try it!
the head angle on the whyte looks mental! Is that real or just the photo??
Is he about to take a leak on the Alp-X Thermo bibs?!
Agree with mulacs, whyte bikes head angles do seem to be going rather extreme, their cross bikes look really weird with downhill bike head angles. Suppose I should try one before judging though….
No Green Tea Nuun, Rich – we do have the caffeinated Lemon Tea, though. Will let you know what it’s like…
How much of this stuff are we going to get reviews on then?
If you’re going to be given the stuff, and presumably try it out, then it’d be nice to hear opinions on a bit more stuff, rather than just making me jealous of how well stocked the gear and spares cupboards must be at stw headquarters.
Liking the look of the Louis Garneau Mitt…
caffeinated Lemon Tea sounds good is this coming out in the new year. I am massive Nuun fan usually go for Kona Kola though.
66 Degrees!
Not steep and deep is it?
The Houdini bib occupants have done a runner whilst A) being pinned to the wall and B) being held off the ground. How did they escape with their Sidi’s on?
Love the Whyte…
Any word on the Nuun release dates? Like Soma Rich i’m a big fan of kona kola but was wanting to try the green tea. Whyte looks awesome
“How much of this stuff are we going to get reviews on then? ”
Hopefully all of it… Or all of it that we have in for a while. All our test gear gets logged in and then goes out to testers to review. Might take a few months though. It should mostly appear in Through The Grinder feature in the magazine, with extras appearing on this very website.
That Whyte looks nice but I wonder if the rear-end still wags like a dog?…
Why do Gore, like most makers of cycling trousers continue to assume that everyone with a given waist size has the same length legs? If you buy “normal” trousers they are sized separately by waist size and by leg length, but cycling kit manufacturers just assume they’re like big shorts and make the leg lengths proportional to the waist size. It’s very frustrating and leaves Altura (who have adjustable leg length on their trousers) my only option.
the head angle on the whyte looks mental! Is that real or just the photo??
Well we rode three models last Thursday and they certainly didn’t seem to slack. 66 degrees felt fine (on the money in fact) handling was good including one silly steep and tight turning switchback – I think that the way the Whyte’s are constructed with the pivots sitting within the main frame – makes for some funny visual tricks – Review soon ;]
Whyte looks like a Marin, and they suck.