Mountain bike gear a bit rubbish

Well, he start well with the slang word “gash”

top outdoor brands

v

mass market mountain bike clothing

Hmmm.

Still, I’m sure the reader* will enjoy it.

*I believe that’s roughly the right number.

People crash mountain bikes a lot. Not sure I’d want to wear expensive kit that was going to get trashed stupidly quickly.

He is right though, most mountain bike gear is crap, especially jackets.

I agree with him. Some very poor kit out there, that for some reason ‘we’ all think is great. Endura Humvees for example.
Best. Shorts. Ever. Are my ancient, simple Sombrio, mid thigh, slight stretch, we’ll cut and detailed.

I agree on the Norrona bike gear, and am aiming for some shorts when the Sombrios break.
Please let more companies (Montane and Patagonia) get back into bikey stuff (and please can Patagonia bring lotus gear back in as well.)

Those Norrona shorts are £180!
And I’ll snag it on a bramble, first ride out no doubt.

My latest shorts were £18 for Scott Roarban. That’s a tenth.

Don’t care if Montane aren’t officially bike kit. Their Alpine Stretch is the best bike jacket I’ve had.

I am on his side too. I have completely failed to find a decent riding jacket and use outdoor ones instead, and have just bought a softshell that is a proper outdoorsy one because the bike ones are not good enough.

There are some notable exceptions, though the only item of Gore stuff I have tore on the first ride and has many a resown seam. I have a basic pair of Royal shorts that I’m pretty sure would be left with cockroaches for company in the event of nuclear Armageddon. They’re as sturdy and hole free as the day I bought them several years ago, despite being the only pair I owned until recently and plenty of hefty crashes. Kudos to Royal.

On the other hand, the Endura and Altura stuff I’ve had has been pretty awful. Poorly thought out designs, material as delicate as fairy wings and zips broken just because you’ve had the audacity to try and use them.

I can’t fault my Endura Singletrack shorts but everything else I wear is non-MTB outdoor gear. I have a roadie flimsy tiny waterproof in the pack but that’s only for the wettest weather, otherwise a Mountain Equipment softshell does the job.

I’m inclined to agree with him as well. My wardrobe is limited to Endura (which can be very hit and miss) and Gore, as other brands I’ve owned have not been sufficiently durable. I’m not surprised at the longevity of MTB kit in the UK though, the number of times it gets churned round in the washing machine due to our conditions.

Doesn’t sound like trolling to me. He’s talking a lot of sense.

Mine is a mix of MTB gear from Gore etc and brands like Montane / Rab. Was looking at some MTB softshells in a shop near Pately Bridge and money wise you were at top level for the equivalent true outdoor gear.

I had just come to a similar conclusion particularly about jackets. After freezing in Scotland for a week, I have ordered a well known outdoor brand jacket for the winter months and I looking for some mega warm gloves as well.

And here’s a contrary opinion piece from another well-respected outdoor type

Bucking the corporate trend…

Can’t say I’ve had issues finding good gear.
Pearl Izumi stuff seems to last well as do the Spesh winter jerseys I’ve had for years

Shorts tend to use madison or Spesh and both have lasted well for me
The few bits of endura I’ve had did fall apart pretty quick

I’d never wear any of my decent outdoor kit for mtb, other than maybe baselayers. it’s just going to get filthly and trashed on the first ride. Better to just accept that you are going to get wet and muddy, buy cheaper gear and just get on with it. A Gore-Tex jacket, for example, will probably never be any cop if it’s either clogged up with mud and/or constantly going thru the wash.

I’m not sure what his point is really, other than there’s not a big range of really high end (and expensive) mtb gear. There’s plenty of crap £50 general outdoors stuff which he ignores.

well-respected outdoor type

Cameron McNeish has a ghostwriter?

Not all are created equal! having said that I’d still say most of the MTB gear is also overpriced. Putting MTB on it seems to add at least a 20% fashion tax often much more, with marginal to no increases in quality.

Won’t be long before they are vetting customers like Studio 54 😀

i agree with hime. i use outdoor gear rather than cycling gear.
1st reason, i look a **** in lycra
2nd reason, bike clothes tend to be small sized

I don’t think the writer is wired up correctly if that’s his opinion

They are, in short, the crusties of the outdoors world, slogging around in ill-fitting, plastic bag jackets and shorts that struggle to stay done-up or in one piece for longer than six months

: )

I think there’s some truth in it but it depends what you’red doing with it. For long periods in crappy weather much of the bike kit out there is pretty hopeless, outdoor gear can be much better ime. But for general riding there’s plenty that’s good enough.
And maybe some of the new 7-Mesh stuff mentioned has landed on a desk as ‘long term test’ stuff, that could ‘sway things’. But riding in a £250+ WP jacket, no chance. Paclite or Event works and is £130-150 tops for an outdoor jacket with a good hood. Maybe the conditions bike kit gets used in means the really techy (pricey) kit just isn’t valued enough to be popular.

I dont struggle with MTB stuff either
However two points

1. Its gets muddy and dirty and sweaty so it needs to be washed or it smells. therefore most expensive stuff wont be being bought by me as its lifetime wont be justified v something cheaper that does the same job and falls apart /fails just as quickly due to use and /or washing

2. £ 100 + for a pair of shorts never going to happen

FWIW i once rode in a pair of my Mrs leggings* – £5 for 2 from the market. they were just as good as anything i owned and they were just as water repellent. the clothes [ as indeed are many of the bits] just a rip off IMHO

* they were black I picked them up by mistake and realised once i had driver 60 miles so i wore them

Sounds like he’s written that just to promote the kit he mentions further down the article.

And his tyre price comparison is rubbish. I spend £50 on a tyre and every time I ride my bike I am using that tyre. I don’t want to spend £150 on a waterproof that will rarely be needed and spend much of it’s life scrunched up in the bottom of my rucksack. And I’m willing to take the compromise that a cheaper jacket may have in terms of outright performance.

Quite enjoyed that Cameron McNeish article.

Some biking kit isn’t the best, although I’ve found it’s largely independent of price. As other have said, if you pick and choose from the brands available and consider non “bike specific” clothing there is a brilliant choice out there.

Hmm. Cant think of any hiking shorts I’d want for riding. Tech tees aren’t rocket science. Kit monkeys might want to justify their haglofs tee shirt but in reality, even karrimor make decent ones so £25 for a fox is ok. Baselayers? whatever. Fit? I don’t want tight “fitted” kit, I want to be comfortable. MTBing needs a lot move movement than hiking or road riding, why would you want to constrict this with a tight jacket?
MTB jackets are generally overpriced and rubbish though (Gore aside).

Weak argument based on a very selective choice of gear, plus ignoring what I would have thought were fairly obvious differences between the two sports.

1) He complains about the use (or not) of high end fabrics. My Endura jacket from years ago is an eVent membrane on a sturdier outer shell, fairly crash resistant, about as breathable as it comes, fits well, etc. etc. I don’t believe the very latest Gore Tex would offer much over this.

2) I demand more out of a hiking jacket as I don’t often go out for 8 hour bike rides, whereas that is a standard day on the hills. Likewise on the hills you may not be able to move fast enough to generate warmth so I would argue the quality of clothing is more important (i.e. getting wet and then cold would be more serious navigating off a rocky ridge in the clag, 5 hours from home, than it would if you were an hour from home on a 3 hour MTB ride where you are rarely unable to generate body heat by just pedalling harder.

3) Lycra tops have served me impeccably as base layers for years, coupled with arm warmers/leg warmers for in between days, cheap(ish) Endura merino layers for winter days, blah blah blah.

4) Like others above, I’m not interested in chi-chi shorts for mountainbiking in, in fact I stopped looking for replacement shorts once I discovered the Endura MT500 shorts with the waterproof arse and the plentiful and sizeable openable vents on the side.

Interesting article but pretty poorly argued I’d say.

I was rather hoping that BWD could expand on his article, certainly his insight and knowledge has been enjoyed on here by myself and others. Please don’t be shy!!

My preference is for outdoor gear base layers by Berghaus, Lowe Alpine etc as the technical fabrics are far superior to the mtb version.

Am guilty of being spendy on mtb clothing, having experienced being cold, wet and miserable in rubbish gear buying Gore Windstopper and Goretex has been a revelation in that it copes with whatever weather conditions I find myself in. If you look after it then it will last.

Picking his targets carefully and ignoring the fact that plenty of hikers don’t even want to spend £50 on a jacket – and are happy to head up Snowdon in Peter Storm’s finest.

It is true that the general level of “technical” garments seems lower for cycling tbf, but then in most conditions all you need is a decent softshell IMO.

In relation to the other piece – I’m still walking in my mustard yellow ME Gore Tex jacket from the 20-odd years ago and I hope it’ll last me another two decades!

Opps, I should say that I meant theres some truth on bike gear being technically not up to as much as some outdoor gear, not that there’s truth in saying we’re the crusties of the outdoor world.. ha. Not in general anyway ..

I demand more out of a hiking jacket as I don’t often go out for 8 hour bike rides, whereas that is a standard day on the hills. Likewise on the hills you may not be able to move fast enough to generate warmth so I would argue the quality of clothing is more important (i.e. getting wet and then cold would be more serious navigating off a rocky ridge in the clag, 5 hours from home, than it would if you were an hour from home on a 3 hour MTB ride where you are rarely unable to generate body heat by just pedalling harder.

This (and an element of the 2nd article) hit th nail on the head. On the MTB i need 2 outer layers, one if it rains that’s just about waterproof and very breathable, and a foil survival blanket if things go wrong. Walking I need layers to keep me warm, MTB’s far more about being fast/light.

I do like good baselayers though, never realised untill I went back to sailing this year how much better the right baselayer is as opposed to just grabbing a lycra one. Lycra is cooling, if it’s cold then polypropylene is much much warmer and doesn’t get damp like lycra, you can go swimming in it, and 30s later it’s all but dry.