Endura Humvee Long Sleeve Jersey

A no-nonsense jersey that works well for three season riding.

Mavic Alpine XL shoes.

Excellent all-mountain bike shoes offering grip off the bike and a decent pedalling platform on it.

Showers Pass Elite 2.1 jacket and Gore Bike Wear Alp-X 2.0 Gore-Tex Active Lady jacket

A good technical jacket will make more difference to your winter riding comfort than almost any other bit of kit

Giro’s Privateer: price, performance, durability

Value shoe outshines pricier options

CUBE Action Team Shorts

Practical everyday riding shorts with love/hate Euro looks.

Madison Flux jersey

Comfortable, cheap, full of features and not paint-on lycra tight. Blue is the new black.

Sombrio Kettle women’s softshell

As a person who hates draughty riding, this weatherproof jacket keeps out the cold with style. As soon as I put it on it felt great. The cut is flatteringly...

Howies Venture

Beautifully cut short in a high performance fabric.

DirtBaggies Feature bibs & Classic shell

A surprisingly versatile, supremely comfortable bib/baggy combo for any weather

Madison Zenith

Definitely a \'try before you buy\' fit, but a great hardwearing short for the hard riding

One Industries Mission Broken-Up

Excellent comfort, nice styling and smart touches

Polaris AM 500 Repe

Shorts made for typical UK riding weather and for riders who wear pads year-round.

Garneau Liberty 2

If you like integrated liners and short shorts, you\'ll like these.

The North Face Storm Track

A nice summer short but rather spendy

Trail42 bamboo tech tee

Trail42 tech tees are difficult to find fault with. The selling point of bamboo shirts is that they don’t show sweat patches when you’re getting moist. But there’s a host...

Endura Pakagilet

One of the most useful bits of kit you\'ll buy. Keep one to hand at all times.

Altura Mayhem Printed

Decent value all-rounders - even if you don\'t use the liner shorts.

Endura MT500 Spray

If you’re a ‘shorts all year’ rider, you’ve found your shorts from now until next summer.

Race Face Ambush

Good on and off the trail. More of a midwinter warmer than a midsummer’s dream, though.

Uvex’s 225g Ultrasonic helmet

Lightweight, low profile helmet made in Germany.

Mavic Stratos

Great versatile shorts that seem to cope with any climate comfortably.

Haglöfs Ardent

Lightweight, breathable, crashproof and possibly radioactive.

Sombrio Highline II Shorts

The Highline II is Sombrio’s top of the range short. It’s designed from four-way stretch material and comes complete with an inner short. Small ventilation holes are located on the...

Troy Lee Ace Shorts

Troy Lee’s Ace short is designed with what it calls “gritty XC” in mind and that’s fairly clear from the snug, tailored fit. Luckily it’s available in two-inch increments from...

Gore Bike Wear Fusion Trail

Although these Gore Bike Wear Fusion Trail shorts are in keeping with this year’s ‘TicTac’ fashion colour palette, they also come in brown or black. They’re made of a lightweight...

Sombrio Birm Queen Shorts

The Birm Queen is a great cross-country short with a flattering, slimmer cut. Though relatively heavy for hot and sunny summer trail riding, discrete mesh-lined and zipped thigh vents add...

Altura Quantum X Shorts

The velcro waist adjustment on the back draws the spare fabric away from the snag zone and together with the four-way stretchy yoke keeps the waist secure even when hanging...

Kali’s innovative Maraka XC helmet

A helmet with a number of truly interesting and compelling features

Howies Dyfi Active Shell jacket

My first impressions of the Dyfi Active Shell were focused on the colour and looks; understandable given that I nabbed it from Singletrack for photoshoot dressing-up. It’s a happy looking...

MET Kaos UL helmet

A whole other level of helmet?