Cometh the hour, cometh Fresh Goods. There’s a bit of a winter focus today, with cold weather bikes, clothing and plenty more…
Cotic >X< ‘cross bike
The ‘cross season is rapidly approaching and there’s been a flurry of skinny tyred bikes with teeny tiny knobbly bits on them coming into the office lately. Coming from the stable of renowned British designer Cy Turner, this bike mixes up mountain bike influence (disk mounts, clearance, decent head angle) with a lively steel frame to make something that can ether be used as a commuter, winter hack bike or cyclocross racer. Should be just the thing to keep us entertained this winter…
Price: £350 frame & steel forks, £100 upgrade to carbon disk forks seen here, full builds available from £900.
From: Cotic
The 135mm rear wheel spacing gives plenty of hub options, frame has masses of mud clearance plus removeable canti mounts keep it looking clean…
Carbon fibre disk ready forks with plenty of clearance…
Montane Singletrack jacket
This cycling-specific lightweight windproof jacket is made from a mix of Pertex diamond mini-rip stop fabric with tougher Pertex 4 fabric on high wear areas to toughen it up. There are loads of subtle reflective details to keep you seen at night and the DWR coating should give some degree of protection from rain and spray.
Price: £65
From: Extra UK
Montane Hyena jacket
This is is a much more heavy-duty jacket, using Polartec Power Shield softshell material, a highly breathable, water repellent and extremely abrasion resistant material to keep you dry and warm in grim weather. The sides are made from DryActiv Stretch to give plenty of movement.
Price: £125
From: Extra UK
Accel 2nd Surge Ultra energy gel
Accel reckon this stuff will help pull you back from the brink of bonking, thanks to a mix of carbohydrates, protein to perk your body up and a large helping (100mg) of caffeine per serving to get your mind functioning properly again. It comes in either chocolate or double espresso flavours.
Price: £1.39 each
From: Extra UK
Blackburn Heist 6 multi tool
With an aluminium body and chrome vanadium bits, the Heist-6 has 3mm, 4mm, 5mm and 6mm Hex Keys, Torx T25 and Philips Screwdriver to do the job for all your mid ride tweaking needs.
Price: £11.99
From: Madison
Blackburn Toolmanator 2 multi tool
The one-piece aluminium body has die cast 2mm, 3mm, 4mm, 5mm, 6mm, 8mm Hex keys, T25 and T30 bits, a bladed screwdriver, spoke wrenches and a chain breaker hidden inside. It’s nice and low profile too…
Price: £25.99
From: Madison
Race Face Rally FR knee & elbow guards
The Rally FR knee and elbow pads use a two-piece hard plastic outer shell to give maximum protection with plenty of holes for ventilation. The EVA foam underneath should help to absorb shock and the water repellent, hardwearing 600D nylon outer has mesh backing to wick sweat. They’re available in a whole load of sizes and colours – ours are in the rather nice EyeCU/White mix..
Price: £64.95 for knees/shin, £49.95 for elbow/forearm
From: Silverfish
Giro Merino Winter Cap
We’ve had plenty of winter goodies through from Giro. This peaked, merino wool winter cap is designed to keep your bonce nice and warm this winter, with an extra long fit to cover your ears. You can always roll it up if you desire and it’s got classic 1950s road cyclist styling – when you don’t wear it like a fool. It feels lovely too…
Price: £27.99
From: Madison
Giro Merino Winter socks
If you don’t have the benefit of fur covered feet, then a nice set of warm socks is a definite plus come winter time. These Italian made thick Merino wool socks are available in grey or black with a nice 5.5″ high cuff too…
Price: £19.99
From: Madison
Mountain Adventures in The Maurienne book
It’s a guidebook with a bit of a difference, describing a load of outdoorsy things to do in the Vanoise and Dauphine Alps. There are sections with a range of rock climbs, via ferrata trips, scrambles as well as two wheeled activities, on or off road. If you like your outdoorsy stuff and you’re already planning next year’s holiday then this is well worth a read to inspire you…
Price: £14.95
From: Cicerone Press
Accel Recover bars
These bars are said to help your body recover after a ride with “a combination of three proteins enriched with glutamine, arginine and leucine, the amino acids that drive the repair and rebuilding of muscle protein and the rapid transport of nutrients to muscles.” They come in chocolate peanut butter flavour and from the little taste we’ve just had to stave off pre lunch hunger, they’re remarkably tasty…
Price: £17.88 for box of 12
From: Extra UK
Giro Ambient & Blaze winter gloves
The Ambient glove (left) is a proper cold weather glove, designed for use when it’s hovering just above freezing. It uses a breathable, three layer soft shell upper with fleece lining and padded Clarino palm to keep you warm. The Blaze (right) is a lighter weight glove with a nice thin palm for plenty of feel and a ‘Breath-o-prene’ neoprene backing to fend off the cold weather and wick away moisture.
Price: £TBC
From: Madison
Leatherman Wave multitool
Ideal for the less subtle bike repairs, the Leatherman Wave is built around a sturdy set of needlenose pliers with built in wire cutter. You’ve then got a selection of locking cutting blades and saw plus a diamond coated file. You also get a can and beer opener, thick flat screwdriver, micro scissors, two reversible screwdriver bits, including a really little one for fiddly screws. The back of the stainless steel body is etched with a ruler too.
Jon reckons the previous Leatherman he had – lost somewhere in Kielder sadly – has let him bodge his way out of more serious mechanicals than you can shake a well whittled stick at.
Price: £79.96 (down from £99.95)
From: Leatherman
Comments (20)
Comments Closed
a serious winter glove – and it’s white, really well thought out that.
Jon
Have your hands grown or do you just have a peanut for a heid?
The one with the hat is just missing you holding up numbers in front of you………..it’s the eyes that scare me….sharks eyes… black soulless eyes that stare into the very depths of your being…….
Sanny (runs away almost tripping up over himself in his haste not to get a doing from the Todmorden Massif)
“a proper winter glove designed for when it’s above freezing” -sounds like a contradiction in terms to me
OK, I’ll start with the “how much?” comments.
£20 for a pair of socks? Three pairs of merino socks for about £12 in M&S.
I’ve seen the >X< before and only just noticed the conventional fork brake mount. Has Cy changed his mind since the Roadrat forks?
you’ve changed Jon 🙂
damn !
http://www.flickr.com/photos/45689323@N00/2434220110/in/photostream/
Really like the look of the Cotic, when or will Shimano ever bring out hydraulic dropbar levers with built in shifters?!
“The ‘cross season is rapidly approaching”
Was this post delayed by several months? ‘Cross season starts at the end of September.
M6TTF – The Giro Ambient glove is also available in black.
The carbon fork isn’t my design, hence having to go with conventional position and lawyer tabs. Steel fork still has the front right positioning.
Cy
Your site doesn’t seem to cover the following…
Is there toe overlap on that X bike?
What sort of head angle?
What sort of all up build weight (105 ish type kit +discs) are they averaging out at….22lbs??
I was looking for a Road/CX bike frame that had better downhill manners than the mainstream seem to possess.
Cheers
Bill
Ok, I’m a dummy…just found the headangle…TA
I have a pair of Ambients and suffer from cold hands, but this has never been a problem in them. Good glove.
Technically … (depending on the context) that particular Leatherman could well constitute a breach of S139 CJA 1988, as it has a ‘locking blade’ (at least mine does). Although the ‘non-locking’ condition isn’t in the primary legislation, subsequent case law has fully supported that interpretation. The ‘good cause’ defence (in isolation) applies if you have a non-locking, folding knife, with less than 3 inches cutting edge – but have in mind that’s it’s no in anyway an absolute ‘defence’ tho’ – context and conduct is also very important in determining a breach, or otherwise.
They are fine tools tho’ – especially the black PVD versions.
X Sunday Disc with the carbon forks is a bit heavier than that, about 23lbs without pedals IIRC. No overlap due to the head angle. It’s a fun bike.
Thanks Cy
I had told myself I was going to stop buying bikes and frames…BUT…if it’s fun? Seriously…does sound like the sort of thing I’m after. I’ll retire and wrestle with my conscience…didn’t go on holiday this year…did buy two bikes…OOOOH…Ahhhh. I’ll get there in the end!
Or get 2 pairs of Endura Baa Baa Winter socks for the same price as the Giro’s. And I have to say the Baa Baas are lovely and cosy and comfy and can’t imagine there being anything better, certainly not 2x better (if you use price as the measure).
cool winter stuff. 🙂
thanks for posting i like the cyclo cross.