This is a rather smart idea – the Ergon Pedal Cleat tool. It aims to take the guesswork out of setting up your SPD shoes so you can set them up to be dab on without loads of faffing. There’s also a Look Keo cleat fitting version and it comes with a very in depth manual that explains the ergonomic principles that you’ll need to get right to ensure pain free and efficient cleat setup.
Price: £19.99
From: Extra UK
We’ve also had a few Polar Insulated Bottles. They aim to combine the benefits of a vacuum bottle with the durability of a normal cycling bottle by using a foil liner. They use BPA and Phthalate-free plastic, double wall construction, a removable valve and carrying loop – although they fit into a standard bottle cage. Polar say they will keep your liquids cool for twice as long as normal designs and should stop water freezing on cold rides…
Price: £12.99 for 200oz bottle, £13.99 for 240oz
From: Extra UK
We’re also got some more Fi’zi:k saddles. This is the Fi’zi:k Tundra 2 K:ium rail which uses new seamless welding to produce a smooth and comfortable outer. The carbon reinforced shell is designed for all day comfort but it still weighs a scant 190g.
Price: £119.99
From: Extra UK
The Fi’zi:k Gobi XM saddle uses a braided carbon rail which should provide extra vibration damping. The redesigned Gobi has a longer sitting surface but retains the rounded shape of old…
Price: £149.99
From: Extra UK
Look at the lovely carbon!
We’re going to be getting loads of shorts in for a grouptest in a couple of issues’ time and these are the Sugoi Gugstov shorts. They use four way stretch side panels for maximum comfort and have a removable liner short with RC Pro chamois which Sugoi say offers greater shock absorption than standard foam.
Price: £80
From: Sugoi
Although we’re going to be testing shorts, we’re not out of the bad weather yet. Tweedledum is modelling some Madison Protect waterproof overtrousers. They use M:TEC 5000 breathable rip-stop fabric and have loads of reflective detail and some very tidy zipped ankles that flare out to make them easy to remove when you’ve got shoes on.
Price: £34.99
From: Madison
Sim seems to have misunderstood the purpose of these Madison Shield Protec Roubaix 3/4 bib tights. They aren’t for keeping food off your T shirt, they’re for keeping you warm and dry, using a water repellant coating on the six panels of warm Roubaix fabric. They’ve got an antibacterial chammy too…
Price: £49.99
From: Madison
The WTB LaserDisc Trail wheels have a pair of sealed, stainless cartridge bearing hubs connected to the 27mm wide rim with 32 spokes. You can get the front in a 15 or 20mm flavour and they’re designed for all-mountain use. They also use WTB’s rim strip tubeless system and their Global Bead Seat profile rim that uses a deeper groove for better bead seating. It aims to put and end to tubeless tyre ‘burping’ under hard cornering…
Price: £169.99 front, £249.99 rear
From: Hotlines UK
We’ve had good experiences with WTB wheelsets in the past so we’re looking forward to seeing how these will stand up.
They also use WTB’s special double butted spokes that are thicker at the highly stressed J-bend than standard spokes.
Bearings use a preload system to keep them running smoothly.
This is the eyecatching Azonic Outlaw 32 wheelset. They use welded and pinned 32mm wide rim for downhilling and freeride duties, rolling on sealed cartridge hubs that can be converted from QR to 15 and 20mm through axle at the front and QR 135 to 12mm thru axle at the back. If green doesn’t float your boat then they come in white, blue, red and black anodised finishes…
Price: £449.99
From: Hotlines UK
Burly…
A 150mm wide rear hub option is available too…
These are the Gusset Slade bars. Named after the cup-a-soup loving glam rockers (not true), they’re 760mm wide with a 8 degree backsweep, 5 degree upsweep. There’s a 19mm rise and they’re made from durable 7075 T6 aluminium. they’re available in satin black, gloss white, fluro yellow (YES!), anodised red or anodised blue.
Price: £39.99
From: Ison Distribution
These Manitou Minute Pro forks are destined for Benji’s Pivot Mach 4 Long Termer. They’ve got 120mm of air sprung travel and use their Absolute damping system with rebound and compression adjustment. They use lightweight magnesium lowers with a hollow crown and 32mm stanchions with their 20mm Hex Lock axle.
Price: £379.99
From: Hotlines UK
Tom has got his hands on the Sun Black Flag Expert wheel in 15mm QR flavour that he needs to make his Yeti ASR5 complete. They use the Stan’s Notubes BST rimstrip system to give tubeless capability on the 24mm wide rim. Tom is super stoked and listened to a load of angry man Henry Rollins immediately after this photo.
Price: £369.99 for a pair
From: Hotlines UK
Finish Line Wet Lube is their super durable ‘extreme’ lube for awful weather, long rides and anything else. Full of high viscosity synthetic oils, special polymers, anti-wear additives and friction modifiers it’s their longest lasting lube – but you will need to keep an eye on drivetrain cleanliness..
Price: £6.99 for 120ml
From: Madison
Matt’s trying this Ergon BD1 backpack as he’s been having issues with back pain lately and the smart design aims to spread the load more evenly from your back to your waist and hips. The ‘Flink Link’ is an articulated ball joint that allows more natural upper body movement even with the backpack stuffed to breaking point.
Price: £89.99
From: Extra UK
There are loads of other clever features with helmet holder, rain cover and plenty of organised storage in there.
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blimey……another smorgasbord of goodies………
do you keep all that kit ?
FGF with my brekkie. Nice way to start the day.
New Sugoi Gustovs, eh?
If they’re as good as the old ones, they’ll be excellent. The pad in the liner really is very, very comfortable.
The michellins look very interesting, be interesting to see if they live upto their claims.
Those michellins look like old pananracer Spike tires; now that was a mud tire…
“Finally, proper mud rubber for the big wheel brigade.”
Bontrager 29er Mud X have been around a while and perform brilliantly
I’ll be carrying out a thorough testing of t’black pudding pie during my next Tod visit.
wrong price on the shoes ladies, should be £149.99
I know they are very horrible, but there’s also something strangely attractive about those green wheels as well. It must be a retro thing.
Recently picked up a pair of 183s for £85 from my LBS – who said the best bargains are online? 🙂
Is that pie going to be available via the shop?
Hey Crell no pies for you, your in training…get my mail re Frases 40th?
Thing is for some reason I can’t really explain, mud tyres don’t seem as necessary on 29ers…bigger contact patch I suppose
Can we get this bigger contact patch sorted out? Some internet experts on here were saying last week that contact patch is the same all other things being equal. Just possibly a different shape, which is it please?
Finish line wet, excellent for hack bikes you lube every 6months (commuter, SS etc) but fuzz over badly on dry trails – not seen any of those for a while tho.
what rocketdog said. Bontrager MudX 29″ has been out for ages?
“but fuzz over badly on dry trails”
Thats what wet lubes do? And what dry lubes are for?
Are those Maxxis Ikon tubeless compatible?
What is this ‘drivetrain cleanliness’ that you speak of?
Just started work round the corner from STW towers – will be sampling the pork/black pud pie on Monday!
look forward to the review, tops
I’ve got 2.2 versions of the Michelins on the rear of two of my bikes and can report that they do give good drive in wet and dry and roll well. I wouldn’t use them on the front though due to the lack of side knobs compared to something like a Nobby Nic.
Those pi55pot helmets with peaks are going to increase neck injuries when they dig into the ground. I heard a while back that horse riding helmets now have their peaks made of fabric over wire for that reason.
“As well as being their first touchscreen GPS unit, ”
Er, my Dakota is touchscreen? As was the Oregon?
“Thats what wet lubes do? And what dry lubes are for?”
I know, thats why I use a dry lube on bikes I look after rain or shine – I was just making sure it was a thorough one sentence review 😉
Nice Beaver.
There, I’ve said it.
Those lids look gash!!
Agreed starrman! They look like horse riding helmets.
preloaded bearings. this is standard engineering practice for bearings anywhere. do bike hubs not already do this?
“In addition, Wheel Energy’s analyses of tire contact patch have confirmed that 29in tires don’t have a bigger footprint than otherwise identical 26in ones. While the total area is the same, the shape of the patch is longer and narrower on 29ers, though.”
http://www.bikeradar.com/news/article/bicycle-tires-puncturing-the-myths-29245
keep up at the back! 🙂
Just tested a prk/BP pie from Ham Corner:
Delicious pork and perfect pastry complimented by the black pudding – even survived microwaving! It was accompanied by Uncle Bens Express Rice (mixed pepper flavour)
Thoroughly reccomended!