Eurobike 2016: Endura

Endura always has a huge stand at Eurobike, partly because it has a big German following, and partly because it has a ton of stuff to show off. We got the quick tour of what’s new, but we’ll be revisiting the company soon for a more in-depth look.

Let’s start at the bottom, so to speak. The Hummvee has been updated, with some retro camo, stretch panels and a tidier look. Or a black and grey version for the shy. The Hummvee has been around for 20 years now and it was time for a bit of a revamp. The new version keeps features like the detachable liner, elastic waist and adjustable belt, only now it uses a new nylon fabric and has a slimmed down look. Not in the sizing, though, as it comes in a whopping eight sizes (and four colours, including camo…)

There’s a nice bold look for the SingleTrack Lite shorts and a lot of new mix and match colour options between jerseys and shorts.

The heavy-duty Burner short has also been neatened up, now with more stretch but the same durability.

Expect a revamp for the popular fast, but baggy, MT-R range next spring. This is the new MT-R short, which has a silicon gripper panel in the back to grip on to your liner shorts (rather than the velvety stuff of before) which will work with a wider range of liners. Talking of which, it features Endura’s Click-Fast poppers.

Also in this new blue colour is the MT500 Spray Baggy shorts – with fully waterproofed and taped bum, but DWR stretchy panels on the front for more pedalling comfort and less of that ‘wif-wif-wif’ noise as you pedal.

Endura has been working with Koroyd, the protection company, for a couple of years now, using a Koroyd back protector in some of its packs. It’s now expanded that relationship to use this thin, light material in other ways, most notably in the new MT500 helmet, below, and in new MT-R kneepads.

Here is the inner pad. The Koroyd is split into four panels that flex with the knee thanks to foam surrounds. The pads will be certified to CE1621 standard, which many soft pads are not.

Endura MT500 helmet

The new MT500 helmet is a big step up by Endura. Working with Koroyd again, Endura has a new enduro/trail helmet that uses Koroyd. Unlike the Smith helmets, that also use Koroyd, Endura has been able to spec bigger tubes (4.5mm, 1mm bigger) than previous Koroyd for better venting. It doesn’t just come in bright green either, there are blue, black and grey options depending on the colour of the helmet.

As well as being big on venting, the MT500 passes Koroyd’s new strict helmet standard and is claimed to reduce the chance of skull fractures in hard impacts from 40% (the minimum European standard for existing bike helmets) to 5%).

There are other interesting features too, like a GoPro mount, that also comes with an Exposure lights mount for a Joystick/Diabolo, a goggle strap and an adjustable peak that doesn’t make you look like a duck.

 

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