After a year of trawling tradeshows and press launches we thought it might be an idea to sit down and think about the things we’d most like to test next year. Standby for an eclectic mix of bikes and bike stuff as we each look back through photo archives and whittle them down to a choice of ten. Obviously as the one who thought of it I get to go first, so let’s grab a brew and peruse…
Canyon Commuter 7.0
Everytime I’ve seen this bike it’s grabbed my attention with its easy traditional meets futuristic looks. It’s a neat and simple design and I want to ride it fast through traffic, ideally in the downtown featured in Bladerunner.
Lapierre Spicy
I missed the Lapierre press launch this year due to being in a cast, but I was blown away by how well the 2014 Spicy rode. It’s a nice balanced bike that’ll happily drag you to the top of anything before working with you to get back down again.
Helmets!
Third choice in and cheating already? Hey it’s tough this only ten thing. Two different helmets but I really like them both. With the Smith Forefront it’s a simple aesthetic choice because I really like that urban camo, I’ve already been testing a Forefront and it really suits my head shape. Excitiing in a different way is the new Giro Feature with MIPS which is coming to a shop near you for a bargain price of only £20 upcharge on top of the standard Feature. I reckon it’s going to be a very popular helmet.
Five Ten Freerider
I’ve dabbled in and out of the flat pedal camp, but I reckon these would draw me deeply back in. Light, grippy and sorted for mountain adventures.
Raceface SixC cranks
Light and stiff and blingy as a bling thing. Match them up with a narrow/wide ring and I reckon the 1 in 1×11 is sorted.
Mondraker Foxy XR Carbon
I’m a few rides in with my long term Vantage RR and I’ve already got a hankering to ride a forward geometry fully. So it makes sense to just try the carbon one right?
Specialized Camber
I rode the Camber in Moab kitted out with all SRAM’s latest kit on it including the RS-1 fork in 120mm mode. For a bike more at the cross country end of the mountain bike spectrum it was a hoot to ride on Porcupine Rim and I’ve wanted to see how it measures up on home turf ever since.
Transition Smuggler
And in a completely different style of 29er there’s the Smuggler with its long and low, thrash me in a fun way style. This is a bike I reckon would perfectly suit our local riding, once you’ve got rid of the Nobby Nics and put some suitable rubber on there.
Mavic Crossmax Shoe
I’ve been riding in Alpine XLs all year and I love the mix of on the bike pedalling platform/off the bike grip they offer. They’re just about perfect but for the summer months the Crossmax and its mesh venting appeals.
Blackburn Outpost bikepacking range
Everyone needs a bit of adventure in their life, it makes everything better. I really like the way Blackburn have made a range of packs that makes everything that little bit more accessible so that people can just load up and get out there.
Comments (6)
Comments Closed
Apart from attaching the rear saddle bag to a dropper post!
What’s the colour scheme on those freeriders? Do want!
the Ewok’s called, they want the smith helmet back, last seen on Endor on Leia’s head….
Rik, Nigel Page managed it when we rode the West Highland Way. It can still let you drop the saddle a couple of inches, which might be all you need to ride technical stuff with more confidence, loaded up. Works better on a hardtail obviously, or you tend to wear away the fabric at the bottom of the bag.
Apart from the bag – tyre interface implications I think the main concern is abrasion damage to the dropper stanchion from mud/grit trapped by the strap and rubbing nicely as it bounces around and the post gets lowered and raised.
Five Ten Freerider – another request for more specific details on the shoe featured please. I can’t find anything like it on the web, even Five Ten’s own site.