Eurobike 2015: X-Bionic

Dave Hemming (yes, he of nineties DH prowess, and bunny hopping skills) was at Eurobike with X-Bionic (on a very swish closed stand), and I took the opportunity to drink lots of coffee and grill him about the latest X-Bionic gear.

Primarily X-Bionic have a bunch of gear that they claim out-performs pretty much everything else out there. Granted, a lot of it is roadie-tastic, but there are a couple of things which might be of interest to mountain bikers. Here are the things that caught our eye:

First up is the Sym Frame waterproof jacket. It’s got the usual taped seams, but it’s got SpaceFrame(TM) technology (they’re very fond of trademarked buzzwords, are X-Bionic) which lifts the jacket from your back, and lets the air circulate. Apparently the jacket can transport sweat out of the jacket as vapour through the symbionic(TM) membrane.Apparently the body than then work at its optimum cooling temperature.There’s a dropped tail, too. It’s priced at the chichi end of the market, at £300. This natty orange number is the SymbioStream, which has an unusual vent on the back…  …which pulls moisture out in your wake. It’s highly packable, and fully waterproof up to 20,000ml, with a breathebility of 70,000ml in 24hrs. And that weird vent?Zips up into an aerofoil shape and attaches to your top tube. Neat. Price TBC.

The baggies here (these are the ladies’ version) are especially designed to work with X-Bionic’s The Trick (TM) bibshorts which have lots and lots and lots of clever ways of evaporating moisture and letting bodies sweat. The bibs (not pictured) are £200ish, and the baggies, which have been especially designed to go with them, and not to impede that cooling flow of moisure evaporant, are £147. Which seems an eye-wateringly pricey way of covering your arse, but the proof, as they say, will be in the pudding. This underlayer is pretty sweet-looking. The energiser MK2(TM) (for such is this) comes in regular (£75) or turtleneck (£86) flavour (like this one). 3D BionicSphere(R) ho aid cooling, sweat traps and air channels and other fascinating sounding tech to keep you warm and dry.

More details here from X-Bionic

Barney Marsh

Barney Marsh takes the word ‘career’ literally, veering wildly across the road of his life, as thoroughly in control as a goldfish on the dashboard of a motorhome. He’s been, with varying degrees of success, a scientist, teacher, shop assistant, binman and, for one memorable day, a hospital laundry worker. These days, he’s a dad, husband, guitarist, and writer, also with varying degrees of success. He sometimes takes photographs. Some of them are acceptable. Occasionally he rides bikes to cast the rest of his life into sharp relief. Or just to ride through puddles. Sometimes he writes about them. Bikes, not puddles. He is a writer of rongs, a stealer of souls and a polisher of turds. He isn’t nearly as clever or as funny as he thinks he is.

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