Ahh, the sweet, sweet smell of Fresh Goods. Kicking off this week is a bit of advice from the guys over at Madison. We certainly try to follow it where we can.
Right, on with business. We’ve had some more lovely XTR through, namely another Shimano FC-M985 XTR chainset, with whopping and manly 44/30T rings up front. They’re destined for an XC racing biased build of our groupset…
Price: £439.99
From: Madison
Hollow forged Duralumin arms keep everything light. Look rather bling too…
That big outer ring uses alloy outer teeth bonded to a carbon composite support.
Everything is better with lube. The White Lightning Wet Ride is, you guessed it, a wet conditions lube for long distances and crap weather, using synthetic oils and water repelling polymers to keep gears and chains rolling smoothly. There’s even a special anti corrosion inhibitor to prevent rust, which will be very welcome on a few of the staff bikes. White Lightning Clean Ride is for the brief summer months, the waxy formula drying on so dust and muck isn’t attracted to it. The wax gently flakes off over time, taking the dirt with it, hence the clean bit.
Price: £6.99 for 120ml bottle
From: Madison
These are the Giro Remedy Jr gloves for the yoof in you life. All the features of the regular adult’s Remedy such as Clarino palm, four way stretch backing and microfibre wipe in a size for fitting for little hands.
Price: £16.99
From: Madison
Chipps is modelling the latest Adidas Evil Eye Halfrim Pro glasses. They use all the neat features of previous Evil Eye glasses such as the foam sweat blocker, lenses that are interchangable even when wearing gloves and extremely lightweight design. The lenses themselves use ‘Light Stabilizing Technology’ to provide 100% UVA, -B and -C protection. You can even put in the RXready prescription inserts if you’ve got wonky eyes. We’re looking forward to giving them a thorough testing – hopefully somewhere sunny.
Price: £170
From: Adidas
Here we have a multi coloured selection of Giro DND gloves. That’s short for ‘down and dirty’ by the way. The ‘super fit’ palm is made of three pieces for an excellent fit and there’s a stretchy and breathable mesh backing. They’ve got a 2mm EVA crash pad in the Clarino Rovenica Nubuck synthetic leather palm, flex zones in the knuckles and there are colours for every outfit. It’s just as well Sim has banned Jon from wearing the all red outfit that’s been plaguing the pages of the last few magazines.
Price: £29.99
From: Madison
The lovely Tim Sadler at Lowepro has sent us a care package of good things, starting with this hat…
…some mouse mats, mugs and Parker pens…
..but best of all a Lowepro Flipside 400AW camera bag. The main compartment opens from the back to prevent dirt getting into the gear when it’s throw down for last minute photo opportunities and the adjustable velcro dividers mean it can take all sorts of kit in safety and comfort. The padded waist and shoulder straps along with the all weather cover mean it’s ideal for taking out on long rides in British photoshoot conditions. The main compartment has little card holders and the zipped front pocket has plenty of storage for anything else you might need.
Price: £86.99
From: Lowepro UK
The camera bags are all sorted – does anyone fancy sponsoring us with some lenses now?
Sim’s got some new Bontrager knee warmers to keep his joints cosy. Nice, thick material, silicon grippers and multi-panel construction should everything in place and keep his knobbly knees warm.
Price: £27.49
From: Bontrager
These the Bontrager Race Thermal Bib Shorts will be just the thing to go with them. They’re for use when longs are too warm and summer shorts are a bit too nippy. They’ve got a plush feeling fleecy inner on the lowers and the uppers are made from mesh to prevent overheating. The chamois is a multi density foamed padded inForm design to keep your bottom comfy too.
Price: £74.99
From: Bontrager
He’s also got Bontrager Race Bib Knickers. They’ve got a 3/4 length leg, the same inForm chammy as the other shorts and micro mesh shoulder straps with a zipper. Sim’s got all his poor to mild weather clothing options sorted here…
Price: £79.99
From: Bontrager
The sweet smell of a fresh chammy…
This is the 661 Sub Gear Long Sleeve Compression suit. It combines the features of a tight fitting compression base layer with lightweight protection on the chest, forearms and shoulders. The material is anti bacterial to prevent the pong that can plague body armour and the padding is a quarter of the thickness of normal EVA foam protection but offers even more protection. We hope it’ll be light and breathable enough for pedally riding but will provide enough protection for our forays into downhilling and/or the ground…
Price: £54.99
From: MMA Sports
Cyko are a new entry to the world of bike cleaners – in fact they’re designed for use on motorbikes and trikes as well as humble pushbikes. They say it’s safe for use on every material you could expect to find on a bike and uses a ‘molecular action formula’ to clean and shine, as well as being biodegradable. We’ll get plenty of use out of it in the next few months…
Price: £TBC
From: Cyko
Dave’s excited because he’s got some K2 Amp Rictor skis for himself. He tells us they’re for all mountain riding but we can’t see where you’d fit a 2.35″ tyres fit…
Price: £550
From: 2Biz
..and Sharon will be going on the piste with K2 Burnin Luvs…
Price: £550
From: 2Biz
..and we thought riding bikes was an expensive hobby.
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Giro Gloves looking good.
They do look good. Shame they fall apart so quickly, really disappointed with mine.
Our area Shimano/Madison rep told me they wouldn’t be doing a 44 tooth XTR outer ring, shows how much he knows 😉
440 for a double chain ring, is it just me, or is that a tad expensive?
nevermind all that. what’s the jacket sim’s wearing? like.
It’s a Rab Shadow Hoody – review up soon…
I bought a Cube Stereo Race in November which is fitted with a 10 speed XTR rear mech and XT everything else, I’ve found it to be most disappointing. I thought that when I ‘traded up’ from a £1100 budget Specialized bouncer to a £2700 bouncer that the top of the range stuff would work at least as well.
I rode a Ragley Mmbop last night with X9 stuff and was so much more better, not impressed with the XTR at all, especially the price.
XTR is for sponsored riders and bankers. Everyone else need not apply.
They look lovely, can’t wait for mine to arrive.
Tron!
can we just call it duralumini[/i]um?
Does the imagery, bottle shape and technical blurb on the CYKO stuff look a bit familiar?
Gopping over-priced adidas glasses.
Nice skis, but they are not for going up are they? Therefore you can’t say they are all mountain, but more dh 😉
Like those skis 🙂
Oh golly that does look reminiscent of an original Tron suite.
xtr is more for less abit like tescos.NOT!
I never knew ski’s came that small. Cute!
I have an XTR crank box beside me, and there’s markings on the side for a load of different variations – 42-32-24 (M980), 38-26 (M980), 44-30, 42-30 and 40-28 (all three are M985)