Welcome to the end of the week! With any luck you’re going to be off for a weekend of biking but before then it’s time for our weekly roundup of the shiny new things that have landed in the Singletrack office. This is the first and possibly harshest test any new product will suffer – trial by internet…
ESI Racer’s Edge Grips
Price: £14.50
From: Axel Imports
Lightweight 100% silicon, 100% made in the USA grips from the people at Extreme Steering Inc. The grips are thicker on one side than the other to give a good balance of feel and comfort – these Racer’s Edge grips are the extra thin for gram counting types but a thicker (and £1 more expensive) Chunky version is available. The grips are unpatterned, instead relying on the memory effect of silicon to give a good hold. ESI claim that the silicon grips won’t ‘throttle’ or spin round on the bars, despite not being a Lock-On design. We’ll be interested to see if that’s true in the rather ‘humid’ environment of Calderdale..
Topeak CO2bra
Price: £19.99
From: Extra UK
As well as looking a bit like a snake with a yellow tongue, this ergonomically designed CO2 inflator has an inline pressure gauge that’s green when a full, unpunctured cartridge is inserted and turns to red when you’re almost out of puff. It’ll fit Presta or Schrader valves and there’s a safety ring to prevent any unwanted discharges. Chipps will be doing an online grouptest of inflators soon, so if you’re in too much of a hurry to pump or need to seat UST tyres quickly then keep your eyes peeled on the site..
Easton Flatboy pedals
Price: £74.99
From: Extra UK
The Flatboy pedals have been around for years, the low profile, CNC’d super tough 6061-T6alloy platform remaining a design classic. We’re going to be grouptesting these and others against a load of the new breed of lightweight flatties to see what’s best for flat pedal pinning..
Tioga Surefoot MX Pro
Price: £59.99
From: Extra UK
Tioga are another name from ‘back in the day’ but the Surefoot MX Pro pedals are bang up to date, featuring loads of pin placement options, tough cromoly axles and a T6 alloy platform rolling on chunky cartridge bearings.
Crank Brothers Candy 3/Eggbeater 3 pedals
Price: Eggbeater 3 – £94.99 Candy 3 – £
From: 2Pure
The Crank Brother’s pedal range has had an overhaul and we’ve just received a pair of the new Eggbeater and Candy pedals. They’re both the second-from-top 3// versions. The Eggbeaters use the same open mud shedding micro-platform design and the Candys still have a small platform, now made from two pieces of machined aluminium rather than the composite of old. They both use a stainless spring and run on a cromoly spindle. The inner bearings are precision needle affairs, with a cartridge outer bearing. The release angle is still nice and floaty and there’s a five year warranty too…
Crank Brothers Iodine and Cobalt bars
Price:
From: 2Pure
Bars! You get a choice of 680 or 700mm widths with 5° upsweep and 6° backsweep. It probably shows how much fashion has changed that that seems a bit on the narrow side nowadays. The Iodines are for all mountain stylings and the lighter Cobalts are for the XC crowd – there’s even a flat bar available.
The radiant Matt is modelling his new IXS Battle Evo Jacket armour, which hopefully won’t get put to the test at the NoFuss Endurance Downhill at Fort William this weekend. There’s plenty of protection on offer with polypropylene shell pieces on shoulders, elbows and all down the spine plus lots of padding underneath. It shouldn’t be overly bulky thanks to the lycra mesh body but we’ll see how ripe it gets after six hours of hard riding. He’s also hoping for a bit part in the remake of Mad Max as a slightly deranged biker trying to survive a post apocalyptic wilderness where access to refined petroleum products is all that matters.
From: Hotlines UK
Price: £259.99
661 Filter shoes
From: MMA Sports
Price: £69.99
Shiny white goodness for use with or without SPD pedals – these are the shoes Steve Peat uses so they’ll make you go much, much faster as well as looking nice with their suede uppers and gum sole. If you want to less like a hip-hopper then you can get them in black too..
We have a “pub friendly” SPuD shoes test coming up. Here’s a bunch that have arrived from Shimano. The Shimano MP33W (white), MT32L (black) and MT42NV (navy/black)…
From: Madison
Price: MP33W
We also have a “big bag” group test of 20-30L capacity hydration (or hydration-friendly) backpacks. Here’s this week’s arrival from Camelbak – the Camelbak Octane 24…
From: Zyro
Price: £79.99
Just in time for the weekend’s Fort William 6hr Endurance Downhill event (and we meant that, it arrived this morning!) is a chain device for Benji’s beloved Saracen Ariel. Benji thinks the Ariel is an extremely capable bike with oodles of potential so he thought it would be a good idea to see how it performs/survives the Ft Bill Enduro. Stay tuned over the weekend over on our Twitterfeed (twitter.com/singletrackmag) to keep track on how he and Matt get on. The chain device is a Gamut P30 in ISCG05 flavour. Also in the box is a 35T Gamut Race Ring chainring…
From: Madison
Price: Gamut P30 – £114.99
Gamut Race Ring – £34.99
Shades for the ladies. A pair of Giro Coy (rose) and Giro Tone (black). Nice. We particularly like the balance of sporty with fashion…
From: Madison
Price:
Coy- £79.99
Tone – £99.99
What’s this? Just another boring backpack…?
Nope. It’s an extremely exciting Park RK-41 Backpack Workstation. A portable rucksack stuffed with 41 Park Tools with a fold-out interior system. Lots of pockets, straps and compression webbing stuff for carrying/storing other stuff as well. Ideal for the home(less) mechanic…
From: Madison
Price: £389.99
Replies (17)
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The ESI Grips are one of the most popular items on our site. I personally prefer the chunky for a bit of extra comfort ;o)
White ones do get dirty but they do clean up with a citrus cleaner and a stuff brush.
ESI grips are ace, use compressed air to float on or 3M mounting glue spray to slip and then set on bars.
I reckon my 40th wishl ist has just got larger, park tools backpack and those cobalt bars please, honey.
“…OH a new set of wheels and a Gore jacket is quite enough…..Izzit?”
Get a Grip guys!…ESI grips were already reviewed in STW!…(very favourably I might add), about 12month ago in issue 50.
-wally that is an intersting way too mount grips using compressed air…never heard of that before cool!
ESI grips are ace – been using for over 12 months. No probs in wet & muddy conditions, but obviously down south – probably different sort of ‘wet’ to Calderdale 🙂
That co2bra looks like a sex toy.
I don’t usually get aroused by tools, but that Park backpack does look very appealing.
I’d expect some decent ball-ended allen keys for that price though, unless I’m being blind.
I think the article author had the same thoughts judging by the description: “a safety ring to prevent any unwanted discharges” fnaar fnaar
The ESI grips work by magic! I fitted mine with just water and they have held in place for the past 6 months in all conditions.
Not sure how they work but they do.
I’m an ESI convert. Light like foam grips but tougher and grippy even in the wet. They were fine on the grassington marathon which was 5 hours of wet riding. Didn’t budge and remained grippy.
Chunky ones here.
I love ESI grips – the Chunkys fit perfectly next to gripshift and they’re comfy too!
Is Matt auditioning for the next Mad Max film??? Mad Matt – Beyond the Gnardome!
Do you have to send this stuff back or do you get to keep it?
I love Easton Flatboys, I have two pairs
one pair on the bike and a spare pair to look at and fondle
boring nothing that new,
i’d love that tool backpack
is the Shimano MP33 what you get when you only buy one MP66 (which is what appears to be pictured)?