Eurobike 2012: Endura’s MTR Range

Eurobike: Endura’s MTR – a technical range of clothing for ‘serious’ mountain bikers. Serious enough? Read on…

We got glimpses of Endura’s new MTR range back at CoreBike in January, and after two years of development, it’s finally ready to come out. Endura had Oli Beckingsale on hand at Eurobike to talk people through how it came about.

Oli explains that Endura wanted a range of clothing for serious mountain bikers, with exactly the features that they’d want and nothing else. They asked Oli to bring up a bag of his favourite kit and talked through just what made every bit important and good for him. The range literally started as six blank pages and will consist of a long and short sleeve jersey, a bib short and a baggy short, a jacket and gloves.
Starting with the shorts, the bibshort is of similar quality to Endura’s Equipe range of premium road gear, but it also features a water resistant back for wet days and an intriguing grey patch of fabric on the lower back. This works with a similar patch on the baggy short to keep the baggy in place. It’s not Velcro, it works more like a velvet, so the two patches lock together and will resist the baggies sliding down. The cut on the baggies is pretty slim – kind of a TransAlp euro-baggy look. They’re simple in design with no vents, two slash pockets and one small zipped rear pocket for a car key and a tenner.

The emergency shell is as waterproof as Endura’s Helium jacket and features very little in the way of extras. There’s a full zip and a high neck for comfort in bad weather. It packs down to the length of a mini-pump and will fit into a rear pocket.

 

 

 

The Endura MTR windproof jersey comes in long and short sleeves. Both have a windproof front, reinforced shoulders for wearing with a pack and the long sleeve has windproof sleeves too. There are three rear road-style pockets and a small waterproof zipped phone pocket.

 

Finally the MTR glove is a simple (there’s a theme here…) glove with no Velcro tabs or extra bits. Just a thin, pre-curved palm and Cordura patches in places where you’re going to get scuffed. This should all be out in the shops soon and we’re keenly looking forward to trying it. Meanwhile, Oli’s off to the World Champs at the weekend.

 

 

 

 

As for colours, the Emergency shell comes in orange or black. Everything else comes in… black.

 

Prices: Emergency Shell £89.99, Windproof jersey is £69.99 long sleeve and £54.99 short sleeve. The bibshort will be £89.99 with softshell panels and £79.99 for regular bibs, the baggies are £59.99 and the gloves are £32.99. Currently it’s a men-only range.

 

And finally, not part of the MTR range, but Endura has come out with a women’s bibshort trying to solve the eternal issue of going for a wee without having to completely undress. The Endura short has a small zipper that works in a semicircle (a moon?) around the back panel of the shorts and allows bottom access.

 

 

 

 

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