Hooray for Friday! This week we've discussed the hot topic of 29ers, reviewed the latest in cycling GPS, the Hammerhead Karoo, and taken a look at some of the weird things in cycling that we've come to love. In today's 11spd we bring you a Garmin computer alternative, a custom clothing option for your club, and a bunch of bikepacking gear to help you get your adventure on.
Jakroo custom cycling apparel
Jakroo is a vertical custom cycling clothing company. Much like Giant is a vertical bike company, producing its own bikes in its own facility, Jakroo makes its own clothing in its own Chinese factory and ships directly to customers around the world.
Jakroo has an easy-to-use website where you can upload your logos, select your colors, and then choose from three general styles: classic, edgy or extreme.
From there, a Jakroo designer will create a handful of design options and send them via email. You then pick what you like, and you can make suggestions for changes.
The art creation process is free.
Once the design is finalized, you can choose your types of clothing (i.e. skinsuit, various jerseys, etc.), and then the jersey cut (skin-tight, fitted or slightly loose). Each team or club member can place individual orders and then have the clothing shipped directly to their home in two weeks for orders of less than 25 pieces, and in three weeks for larger orders.
BikeRadar just received a sample set — in less than the promised two weeks — and we will be reviewing it soon.
Pricing depends on quantity ordered. Single items begin at $119, and get increasingly cheaper the more you buy.
Boyd 28mm and 44mm disc carbon clinchers
Boyd Cycling is a family-run business in Greenville, South Carolina that specializes in wheels. Building all its wheels in-house in the American South, Boyd began as consumer-direct, but now sells through dealers, too.
Boyd claims its wheels are aerodynamically equal to or better than the major players like Zipp and Bontrager.
Boyd’s carbon clinchers come in 28mm, 44mm and 60mm depths, and the disc-hub versions can be configured for quick release and the standard thru-axle dimensions.
The wheels are laced 2x with Sapim CX Ray spokes, and can be used tubeless or as normal clinchers.
The 28mm front wheel shown here weighs 689g, with 18mm internal and 25mm external rim widths.
The 44mm rear wheel weighs 915g, with 19mm internal and 27mm external rim widths.
- $775 front / $875 rear
Elite Fly Team water bottle
At 55g, the Fly Team is the world’s lightest water bottle available worldwide, claims Elite.
The 550ml bottle is the standard 74mm diameter, so it works in regular bottle cages. The opening is a little wider than a standard bottle, though, to make drink mixing and bottle washing easier.
Also shown here is the Vico Carbon cage, which we weighed at 23.5g. Elite also has the Leggero Carbon cage, which weighs a claimed 15g.
- Fly Bottle: £5.99 / $7.99 / AU$12.95
- Vico Cages: £24.99 / $39.99 / AU$49.95
Sigma ROX GPS 11.0 computer
This black-and-white computer from Sigma packs in a fair amount of features, including Strava Live Segments, basic GPS navigation, customizable waypoints with text (i.e. “coffee shop James recommended here on the right”), and customizable layouts and bike profiles.
You can buy it alone or with speed/cadence and heart rate sensors, both of which are ANT+ and Bluetooth compatible, so you can use them with your smartphone as well as the ROX.
Speaking of the smartphone, you can pair it to the ROX for receiving incoming call/text notifications, downloading routes and uploading ride files.
The 61g unit has a 1.7in display with 160x128 pixel resolution.
The screen and functionality isn’t as robust as one of the latest Garmin Edge computers, but then neither is the price.
$259 with speed/cadence and heart rate, $179 alone
Nuun Performance drink mix
Nuun made its name with dissolvable hydration tablets, but now the company has a drink mix created in partnership with Dr Stacy Sims, the co-founder of both Skratch and Osmo.
The two flavors both have a mild taste and are designed to enhance hydration, not deliver loads of sugary calories.
So how is it any different than Skratch and Osmo? Dr Sims says the Nuun powder has none of the fillers the others have, thanks to the application of the latest studies and fruit-sugar processing methods.
- 16-serving pouch: $19.99
- Single-serve sachet: $1.99
Granite Designs Hex Stand
Granite Designs is a new company. Its first product is the Hex Stand, a lightweight, foldable repair stand.
It’s compatible with any bike with a hollow crank spindle. The stock axle sleeve works with many road and mountain cranksets. Granite also includes a hollow M20 preload bolt to broaden its compatibility with Shimano cranksets.
The Hex Stand has 65mm of vertical adjustment and folds down when not in use.
- £62 / $80 / AU$105
MSR TrailShot water filter
If you’re a bikepacker or a mountain biker who loves long backcountry rides, MSR’s latest water filter could be for you.
The TrailShot allows you to quickly fill up from trailside water sources. Just squeeze the silicone body to move up to one liter of water through the filter per minute.
The pocket-sized TrailShot weighs a measly 142g. The replaceable filter is good for up to 2,000 liters and is claimed to remove 99.9999% of bacteria and 99.9% protozoa from water (not viruses).
- £40 / $50 / AU$25.47
Outvi Possm
Outvi is a saddlebag maker based in Kansas City, Missouri. Actually, “saddle-based tool roll” might be a better description of the Possm.
What sets this product apart from the crowd is a pair of buttons that snap in place to hold the Possm by the saddle rail when unrolled.
We have the medium Possm in for test. It can hold a pair of CO2 cartridges, a tire lever, multi-tool and a 29er tube.
- £30 / $39 / AU$52
Schwalbe Nobby Nic 29x2.6in
Mountain bike tires come in a massive range of sizes these days — from traditional widths to fat, to plus and now to 2.6in options, which have the potential to steamroll the market.
Schwalbe is now offering its venerable Nobby Nic tread pattern in a 29x2.6in version. This tubeless-ready tire uses the company’s new ADDIX Speedgrip compound. You can learn all about Schwalbe’s massive investment in tire development here.
Our test tires weigh 860g each. Stay tuned for a review.
- £70 / $90 / AU$120
Sweet Protection Bushwhacker II MIPS
Sweet Protection has updated the Bushwhacker trail helmet with a new micro-adjust dial, thinner straps and, best of all, an adjustable visor.
As one would expect in a modern mountain bike helmet, the Bushwhacker II sits low around the head to offer plenty of protection. There are 17 vents to promote airflow.
The Bushwhacker II is available at three price points. We have the mid-level version, which is equipped with the MIPS system.
- £190 / $260 / AU$TBC
Crank Brothers Klic HV guage/co2 handpump
Packing in the features as ever, the high-volume Klic pump from Crank Brothers has a pleasing raft of details and cunning elements.
The flexible hose, which features a pressure guage, is hidden in the shaft of the pump and attaches with a magnet (Crank Brothers sure loves its magnets!) which means you can attach it to your valve, Presta or Schrader, without trying to manouvre around the pump. The handle doubles as a Co2 inflater too.
The HV (high volume) is recommended for tyres 1.8" and wider, and there's also a high pressure version available for road bikes.
- £TBC / $89.95 / AU$TBC
