Whether you’re ‘hip-hop don’t stop’ or ‘hip op please stop’ there’s something for you here. The Singletrack Test Team has put this little lot through the mountain bike mangle.
Whyte Kado RSX
- Price: £7,499
- From: Whyte Bikes
- Tested by: Benji for two months
The Kado is a full-power Bosch bike with 150mm rear travel, 160mm fork, 800Wh battery and a full carbon frame. I reviewed the forerunner for this bike (the Whyte E-160 RSX) three years ago. And while this new Kado is undoubtedly the better bike, it did initially feel like it was slightly undergunned in the performance stakes for a bike of this heft (24kg).
To cut a long story short, I didn’t get along with the Fox 38 fork. In this 160mm travel guise I could not find a setting that sucked up hits effectively whilst retaining the necessary amount of support. As a sub-80kg rider I usually find the Fox’s 38 air spring unsuitable. Rather than struggle on and have the whole review coloured by this (undeniably significant) aspect, I swapped out the fork to a 160mm travel Fox 36.
Right then. With a more favourable fork installed the Kado was heaps better. And thinking about it, even if you get along with the 160mm Fox 38, I can’t help but think that upgrading to 170-180mm fork at some point would unleash even more capability out of the Kado, the geometry (including the flipchip on the shock yoke can handle such a bump up in mm).
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Anyhoo. With a front end that takes the hits at speed but doesn’t sink into its travel on steep stuff, the Kado was like a different bike. The overall geometry is fantastic: loads of standover, slack head angle, steep seat angle, generous reach, Goldilocks chainstay length and a low slung BB that gives oodles of confidence when the terrain tips seriously downwards. The rear suspension doesn’t do anything weird, unexpected or undesirable. When running the Fox Float X rear shock with minimal damping, the bike has a significant bias towards suppleness and traction hoovering, as opposed to a poppy and ‘playful’ (whatever that means) ride.
The Kado can scramble up most things, though the combination of short 155mm cranks and large 36T chainring does mean you’re in the biggest sprocket on the cassette pretty quickly! And – shout out to the excellent Magura brakes here – it can fine control its way down sketchy, slippery terrain that is often the undoing of full-fat eebs. If you do wish to firm things up a bit to induce a bit more nimbleness to the handling, both the fork and the shock have a useful range of Low Speed Compression that’s simple to dial in on-the-fly. That said, the super low slung bottom bracket is always going to promote a ploughing and carving style as opposed to ‘pick-up-and-plop’ jibbing around stuff. The Kado certainly leans into the brawling genre of eMTBs. There are other bikes – such as Whyte’s own amazing ELyte range – if you want something more peppy and skippy.
The Bosch Performance Line CX motor is a ‘known known’, if you will. And these days it’s a lot more easily tweakable (via the Flow phone app) to get it to respond how you like it to. In terms of finishing kit, the Kado is a really decent package. Standout items being the 200mm dropper, ground-clearing 155mm cranks, short 35mm stem and acceptable rise handlebar (‘only’ 35mm rise but the head tube length is nicely tall). Overall, the Kado is not breaking any new ground but it does what it does very well. By the way, there is an alloy Kado with 600Wh battery for £3,999 that is well worth shortlisting for those on a lower budget.
Rating: 4/5
Enduro Bearings Maxhit BSA Bottom Bracket
- Price: £179.99
- From: Extra UK
- Tested by: Ross for a year
This is not your everyday run-of-the-mill bottom bracket. Rather than the traditional set up of a bottom bracket with bearings set in, the Maxhit bottom bracket IS the bearing; it threads directly into your frame. Doing away with any form of bearing cup means that there are fewer parts and therefore less creak potential. More importantly, the additional space gained by removing the cups means the use of much bigger ball bearings than in a regular bottom bracket. Bigger balls means more than double the load capacity and increased durability. Enduro offers a lifetime guarantee, including against corrosion, providing you keep up some basic maintenance and periodically clean and regrease. The finish is top drawer with lovely machining and no rough or burred edges.
After 12 months of use, riding several times per week, it’s performed faultlessly. No creaks, no wobbles, no grinding, just smooth consistent pedalling.Taking the BB off the bike for the purpose of this review, a quick wipe down was all that was needed to remove some surface dirt and old grease and it basically looked like new again. The bearings all moved freely and smoothly by hand, with no notchiness or roughness. £179.99 is certainly a hefty chunk of cash for something as un-sexy and un-blingy as a bottom bracket, but apart from that it’s hard to fault.
Rating: 4/5
Coros Pace Pro GPS Sport Watch
- Price: £349.00
- From: Coros
- Tested by: James Vincent for five months
With an AMOLED screen, alongside mapping and all other functions you’d expect from a modern sports watch. It’s a remarkably capable watch that punches well above its barely noticeable weight (49g). The watch and phone app are delightfully easy to use. For a first time GPS watch user, I barely had to refer to the manual to figure it all out. The app is stripped of needless frippery – no clutter, no hearing about how many steps you didn’t take today. It’s clean, fast, and clear. Route plotting is super easy – it syncs automatically with your Strava account, you can import GPX files from elsewhere, or you can draw them in the Coros app and send them to the watch. Turn by turn navigation is good, with alerts popping up on the display if there’s a junction/turn coming up, and you are notified if you deviate too far from the plotted route. I used the watch for both running and riding, and was able to customise workout screens to suit, even mid ride/run which was a pleasant surprise. You can build the screens however you like: want your heart rate large and centre with split pace and altitude tucked underneath? No problem. Prefer one giant timer you can see mid-run? Sorted. If you like minimalism, that’s cool, but if you prefer the kitchen sink approach, that’s fine too. The silicon strap I found quite uncomfortable as it rubbed and irritated my skin at the buckle. Coros kindly sent me the alternative nylon strap, which has been significantly more comfortable (and saved 12g). I’ve only had a couple of other minor issues. When using the timer (or stopwatch), neither of the buttons lock, which sometimes leads to accidental pauses or resets. Finally, raise-to-wake could do with sharpening up. The screen is bright and clear once it’s on, but there’s a noticeable pause before it springs to life when you lift your wrist. It’s not catastrophic, but it is a little frustrating having to tap a button instead and takes away some of the overall slickness of the watch.
Rating: 3.5/5
Bluetti Elite 200 V2 Portable Power Station
- Price: £1,399
- From: Bluetti
- Tested by: Heather
The Bluetti is a monster power pack that can charge up to 7 items at once, with 2073.6Wh capacity and 2600W output for those excited by numbers. It has USB-A and C ports, as well as three pin plug sockets and a cigarette lighter port meaning that you can cover pretty much all charging possibilities. It can also reach 80% charge in 1.1 hours, so when you inevitably forget to charge it before a trip, you won’t be waiting too long. I used it while photographing a festival and it worked flawlessly. Even after three days of charging four camera batteries, a laptop, three phones, tent lighting, a smaller portable power pack and the air bed pump (twice, after it fully deflated in the night), it still had more than 70% battery left. The Bluetti took all of the pressure out of keeping my electricals running for a fast-paced event. I actually wish I’d brought a travel kettle too, as it would have had more than enough charge to run it. One charge of the power station would likely be adequate for a week of camping if you don’t have too many electricals on the go, and could easily replace an electric hook-up if you can poach a charging outlet for it in a pub or campsite kitchen. One downside is that the Bluetti weighs in at 24.2kg – fine if you can keep it in a car or only have a short distance to move it, but I had to pilfer a trolley to transport it the 15 minute walk from the car park to camping spot. Even with the sturdy built in handles, it can be a struggle to lift on your own and it’s not one for your next bikepacking trip for sure! It is also quite pricey, but if you’re a frequent camper or work in locations without consistent power access, it might just be worth the investment, especially if it lives up to the projected 17 year lifespan.
Rating: 4/5 stars
Decathlon Januel Outdoor Braces
- Price: £9.99
- From: Decathlon
- Tested by: Benji for six months
Most excellently promoted as “Resistant braces to keep any trousers on your waist” these things have been greatly appreciated as a means of keeping heavy, sodden riding trousers where they need to be. No more uncomfortable, restrictive over-cinching of straps or belts to keep your gusset from drooping. The X-layout of these braces also offers more purchase than the traditional Y-shape layout that Grandpa Joe wore in Charlie & The Chocolate Factory. Let the braces and your shoulders take the strain, give your poor old paunch a break. Hey, no one will see these braces anyway as they’ll be under a jacket. What have you got to lose?
Rating: 5/5
7Mesh Spruce Jacket
- Price: £130
- From: 7Mesh
- Tested by: Chipps for ten months
It might be incomprehensible, in a ‘where did the summer go?’ style, but autumn is officially here. Gone are the days of grabbing an inner tube, CO2 and multi tool and heading out into the hills. You’ll suddenly be checking the weather, plus how dry your shoes are, before every ride.
7Mesh is based in Squamish (up in the Pacific Northwest) and claims to have a good handle on British weather by association. A couple of years ago it launched the WTV (Wind Thermal Ventilation) 300 fabric, which was windproof with a thick pile lining. It was great, but it was too warm for anything active. And so here we have the WTV 200 fabric, which maintains the windproof rating, but is lined with a shallow fleece grid pattern, making it far more versatile.
Like all 7Mesh gear, it’s beautifully cut and sewn, with the (USA-sized) Medium being a great fit for my 42in chest. The arms and body fit close, but not sausage-tight and there’s a lot of stretch in the fabric. Features are limited to a single-way front zipper and an elastic waistband drawcord. There are two rear, side-entry pockets that’ll take a phone or sharing pack of Haribo. And that’s it. The cuffs are elasticated and the collar is short.
This is a bare-bones mid-layer that will add instant warmth without getting in the way. On cool autumn days, it’ll work just fine as an outer layer too. In fact, with a base layer and good shell, I wouldn’t really need much else to get me through a regular British winter. It comes as a vest version too if you want more stowability for mid-ride stop-warming.
My only complaints are that I’d perhaps like a chest phone pocket and a taller collar. The only other issue is that it’s so smart-looking and comfy, that you’ll end up wearing it round the house and out to the pub too. Or is that a bonus?
Rating; 4/5
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