As the week draws to a close and office drones everywhere prepare for a weekend of freedom, it’s time for us to dip our sticky mitts into our post box and see what’s been sent to us to test this week…
Identiti AKA
We’re going to be doing a test of alloy hardcore hardtails in a few issues time and all-mountain hardtail fits the bill perfectly. The 7005 alloy frame has a tapered headtube up front to accept forks from 120-150mm of travel, although Identiti say the magic number is 130mm with a 68 degree head angle. The rear dropouts are adjustable so if you want to go full-luddite and singlespeed then you can, although our build has a complement of SRAM 10spd gearing.
Price: £375 frame only
From: Ison Distribution
Chunky stays and understated graphics…
Tapered up front…
This is the first of the new White Brothers forks we’ve seen – we’re looking forward to testing their new offerings.
Adjustable dropouts mean singlespeeding is a possibility although you can still use it to tweak the wheelbase.
Neat little MRP bashguard show the build’s thuggish intentions…
System EX ED577 pedals
Plastic seems to be making more and more sense for flat pedals these days. It slides well over rocks, it’s light and best of all, it’s cheap. These polycarbonate pedals come in black, clear or red as above and they use open ball bearings – but thanks to their see through outer you’ll know when you need to regrease them.
Price: £12.99
From: Extra UK
Accel Gel
Sim has been lining up a load of energy gels for lunch today. These gels use a patented 4:1 carbohydrate to protein mix which the makers claim significantly increases endurance, reduces exercise-related muscle damage and accelerates exercise muscle recovery. They come in orange, chocolate, lime, raspberry cream, vanilla and kiwi strawberry flavours so finding on to suit shouldn’t be a problem. The chocolate and raspberry flavours also come with a kick, thanks to 20 and 40mg of caffeine being stuffed into them, respectively.
Price: £1.39 each
From: Extra UK
Ainsley Harriott Cous Cous
Sim’s got these from our local Lidl. As well as being perfect for a quick and warm lunch, he reckons they’ll be just the thing for keeping hold of when going camping or out bivvying later in the year…
Price: 49p each
From: Lidl
Bioflex Sprint Classic saddle
This retro styled saddle has got CrMo steel rails and a light amount of padding. The faux leather cover has got polished thigh sliders to prevent any chafing too…
Price: £21.99
From: Extra UK
The North Face Puddle jacket
North Face are really getting on their range of technical mountain biking gear of late. This jacket has Gore Windstopper Active Shell fabric on the front and highly breathable ‘Apex’ fabric on the back. It packs down nice and small and it thrives on being machine washed too…
Price: £90
From: The North Face
The North Face Men’s VTT Crew shirt
We really like ‘technical’ T shirts Unlike a cotton version you won’t lose all your limbs and die horribly alone get too soggy on hot days either. This one is made from wicking and anti-pong VaporWick ‘Minerale’ polyester and there are plenty of neat features, such as the flatlocked seams, hidden side pockets and silicone gripper on the rear hem to stop the T riding up.
Price: £35
From: The North Face
The North Face Men’s Short Sleeve Ultra GTD 1/2 Zip shirt
The North Face Men’s Short Sleeve VTT 1/4 Zip shirt
A bit more of a classic cycling jersey, it’s made from the same wicking polyester and uses silicone grippers on the back but you get three elastic topped pockets round the back. Sim likes the feel of it.
Price: £40
From: The North Face
Sugoi Men’s RPM shorts
These shorts are made from eight panels of lightweight ‘P3’ fabric, which mixes nylong and spandex to make a lightweight, wicking but compressive short. The seams are all flatlocked to prevent any chafe but the real magic is in the chammy. It’s got four-way stretch fabric at the sides with welded lines to increase airflow and flexibility.
Price: £45
From: Sugoi
Polaris Pilgrim Jersey
Some more bargain outerwear from Polaris, who seem to be shrugging off their old image with their new baggy cut range. This jersey has a nice relaxed fit and is made from breathable Airbase fabric. Should be just the ticket for summer evenings – although a short sleeve version is available too..
Price: £34.99
From: Polaris Apparel
Ryders Eyewear Trevisio
Hello Bono! We haven’t seen much from Ryders before but they do a wide range of goggles as well as sporting and casual eyewear. These bike glasses offer 100% UV protection from the light-sensitive photochromatic lenses. The water absorbing temple tips and adjustable nose pads to keep the sweat out of your eyes. Old skool XC racer looks too…
Price: £47.00
From: Ryders Eyewear
Manfrotto 701 HDV video tripod head
There’s a bit of a photo-kit lean this week as we’ve invested in a new and shiny two-way fluid video head to keep all our Premier user video nice and smooth. With fixed drag from the fluid cartridges it should be light enough to take riding but provide lovely shake free pictures. Goodbye gonzo-cam, we’ll miss you.
From: Manfrotto
Accelerade Forze GPS bars
These bars are designed to trick your mind (and stomach) into feeling more full than it actually is, meaning you can control your cravings for food while you exercise and keep your calorie intake down. That doesn’t mean they’re just made from foam – they contain 160 calories per bar and have plenty of vitamins and other good stuff to keep you going.
Price: £1.39 per bar
From: Extra UK
Suunto X10 Military
As you can guess by the serious name, this is a serious bit of kit. It’s in for Issue 66’s GPS grouptest and you can mark waypoints, record routes and keep tabs on speed and distance using it. Water resistant to 100m, it’s got a barometer, altimeter and a whole host of other features including timers, calendars and stopwatches so you can navigate and train using it. The backlight is red so badgers can’t see you too…
Price: £400
From: Suunto
USB charging cable…
Suunto Bike Pod Kit
This kit can turn your Suunto HRM (like the one below) into a wireless bike computer. It measures current and average speed, distance and intervals. It contains all the sensors you need, fitting kit and a bar mount too.
Price: £50
From: Suunto
Suunto T3 heart rate monitor
This heart rate monitor uses interference free ANT digital transmission, so you won’t get any more scares as your reported heart rate hits 450bpm after passing overhead electrical cables. It can remember up to 50 split times and has a full complement of HR limits and zones for fine tuning your pain, sorry, training.
Price: £125
From: Suunto
Red Snapper 283 tripod
The Red Snapper tripods offer some professional standard features at a very reasonable price. This alloy version has three section telescopic legs which are secured with easy twist-locks. You can spread them super wide if you need to get low or are on seriously uneven ground and a shorter centre piece is included. It’s about the perfect size and weight for being portable but stable although you can get long 4 section or lighter carbon fibre models.
Price: £49.95
From: Red Snapper
Sigma 10-20mm f4-5.6 EX DC HSM wide-angle lens
More camera gear – we’re sorry. This ultra-wide angle lense should be just the ticket for distorting people’s body proportions. It’s specifically designed for reduced frame SLRs which means it’s a perfect match for our work Canon 550D. There’s a near silent HyperSonic Motor for fast autofocusing and the maximum field of view is a rather impressive 109 degrees. We love new glass.
Price: From £430ish
Comments (12)
Comments Closed
Is that saddle really £1.39?
It really bugs me when people say “alloy” when they mean “ally”. Steel is an alloy and so is the the titanium used to make bike frames.
mmmm ultra wide angle lenses mmmm
mmmm cheap dehydrated foods for bivvying mmmm
7005 alloy is unambiguously an aluminium alloy 😉
Being 80% cyclist 20% photo geek, this was a great fresh goods for me!
Agree with boriselbrus too,
The System EX ED577 plastic pedals look exactly the same as the cheap plastic pedals I bought from On One for £8 last year. At that price they were overpriced.
according to the Ryder site the trevisio style glasses aren’t photochromatic – several nice ones that are though..
The Sigma ultrawide is nice, but if you can afford it (and have a Canon body) the Canon 10-22 is a better lens.
(speaking as a Sigma owner)
Anyone else think the saddle looks quite Spoony? Not that that’s a bad thing.
Does the GPS bar work- i.e reduce craving for food?
Ps can’t comment on canon one but the sigma 10-20 is excellent, EX is also normally their better quality lenses. Have a look at website on my profile for one or two shots although none on there are the superwide end of the lens.
Oops took out website link as don’t want people thinking just doing a commercial but can recommend the Sigma lens
flat tyres FAIL!