It's Friday! Wooooo! The weekend is upon us and it's time to get on your bike and ride!
But before you do, check out the latest and greatest bits of kit that have rolled through the door of our Australian and UK offices.
- 5 reasons your next bike should be a cyclocross bike
- The Snap drone weighs 570g, will fit in your backpack and follow you on your ride
- How to adjust your handlebar height
Best new mountain bike gear
Shimano AM5 shoes
The Shimano AM5 is a budget friendly Gravity shoe, which should appeal to people who like throwing themselves down mountains as fast as possible. This means it’s built like a tank with tough synthetic leather and a raised outsole to protect your foot. It’ll take SPDs too and in this new colourway will have you standing out from the crowd on your next uplift day.
£53.49 / US$TBC / AUS$TBC
Guee KD sport silicone grip
Silicone grips have been gathering favour among the mountain bike crowd in recent years and Guee’s KD Sport grip follows that trend.
There are too many marketing acronyms and features listed in the package to mention, but the soft texture and ergonomic shape felt comfortable in the ‘grab them in your hands and give them a squish’ test.
£20.70 / US$TBC / AU$TBC
Garmin Fenix 3 HR
Garmin’s Fenix 3 has been a bit of a staple among the BikeRadar staff for some time, with our own Josh Patterson even calling it the “R2D2 to his Luke Skywalker.”
The latest version takes everything we loved about the original Fenix 3 but adds in Garmin’s Elevate wrist-based heart rate technology, although with this additional technology comes a slightly reduced battery life: 40 hours of battery life in UltraTrac mode, 16 hours in GPS training mode, three weeks in watch mode and two weeks in smartwatch mode. For comparison, the current Fenix 3 will last up to 50 hours in UltraTrac mode, up to 20 hours in GPS training mode and up to six weeks in watch mode.
The Fenix 3 HR also features a PVD-stainless steel bezel and buttons, treated silicone band and reinforced housing and sapphire crystal screen for extra durability.
£470 / US$600 / AU$950
Lupine seat rail mount
It seems like there’s a dedicated mount for every part of your bike these days and Lupine didn’t want to miss the party with this seat rail mount.
The neat little device allows you to attach a Lupine Rotlicht light directly to your saddle rails, keeping it super secure, and more importantly away from your shinny carbon seat post.
£16.49 / US$TBC / AU$TBC
IsoWhey Sports Gels
The performance advantages on offer from nitrates, specifically beets, have been well documented over the years. However, the trouble with beets and beetroot juice are that everything that comes into contact with them turns red, a hallmark that can be particularly unsettling when it comes to toilet time.
Aussie outfit IsoWhey Sports has sent over its latest energy gels, which among other things included Oxystorm red spinach extract — standardised to a minimum of 9% inorganic nitrates and equates to 190 mg of nitrates per 30ml gel.
At the moment the gels are only available in Tropical flavour, which we're yet to try.
Box of 20x30ml gels £TBC / US$TBC / AU$55.95
Best new road bike gear
Lazer Aeroshell
Lazer’s Aeroshell has been around for a while, and the snap-on plastic cover is available for the Z1, Blade, Genesis, O2 and Tardiz helmets.
The lightweight covers can be carried in a jersey pocket and in seconds transform an airy summer lid into a windproof winter helmet. While it’s available in a range of colours, the Belgian helmet brand will soon be rolling out a program where the Aeroshells can be customised.
The Australian Lazer distributor Bikesportz tells us while they can’t be custom ordered in small quantities just yet, eventually teams, clubs, and retailers will be able to offer custom Aeroshells.
£15 / US$20 / AU$35
lazersport.com / bikesportz.com.au (Australian distributor)
Attaquer All Day kit
Attaquer is definitely not known for its subdued designs, and the new All Day kit is no exception. The top third of the jersey is made from an ultralight stretch material while the bottom is a cotton blend. The result is a lightweight top that is extremely soft on the skin and looks pretty good to our eyes, though it may not bode well with everyone.
The All Day jersey also sees long length sleeves with thermo bonded grippers, a low neckline, inner zipper placket and three decent sized rear pockets finished with buttons for a bit of added style.
Attaquer has also sent over its All Day bibs, which the brand says are its most comfortable to date. Designed around a two-piece chamois, the All Day bibs get new ultra soft mesh bib straps and a new ‘jacquard’ leg gripper, where the printed silicon reads ‘Look good. Feel good. Ride Faster.'
The pro-cut bibs are made with an Italian fabric designed to provide comfortable muscle compression and get flatlock seams all around for added comfort and durability.
- Jersey — £110 / US$145 / AU$190
- Bibs — £162 / US$214 / AU$280
K-Edge Garmin XL Combo and Go Big On-Center Mounts
Handlebar retail space becomes a problem with all the tech a modern day cyclist might need — cycling computers, lights and action cameras can all take up an annoyingly large amount of space.
K-Edge has sought to fix those woes by offering a large variety of mounts to suit many types of bar/bike/gadget combinations. It’s worth noting that the majority of the action camera range fits GoPro’s style of mount — a style that has now almost become industry standard, though K-Edge do accommodate the universal camera ¼”-20 thread too.
Redesigned for the 2017 range, the Garmin XL combo mount ditches the 2 bolt design and now has a much sleeker, easier to fit hinged clamp.
While the XL mount is designed to house Garmin’s Edge 1000 (and any unit that's shorter — so all of them, really), K-Edge do a shorter version that fits units like the 820 and 520 to appease the OCD among us that may not wish to have such a large gap between stem faceplate and Garmin.
In a similar vein to the Garmin XL combo mount (just without the Garmin mount, obviously) but new for 2017, the Go Big On-Center mount puts your action camera front and centre allowing for a low-down secure position perfect for those recording any potential commuter hazards.
It’s been specifically designed for action cameras that aren’t offset to the mount, such as the GoPro Session or TomTom Bandit.
- Garmin XL Combo Mount: £70 / US$65 (31.8mm clamp) / AU$TBC
- Go Big On-Center Mount: £55 / US$55 (31.8mm clamp) / AU$TBC
Mettle Cycling Tool Roll (Fully Loaded)
Saddle bags are out, tool rolls are in. There, I've said it and I'm not taking it back.
And with that, let's have a look at this tool roll from Portland, Oregon based soft goods company Mettle Cycling.
Made from mixed panels of 10oz waxed canvas and 500D Nylon Cordura, the highly convenient fully-loaded option comes with one Pedro's tyre lever, an inner tube, a Co2 cartridge and Shiny Object head courtesy of Portland Design Works.
Colour options are burgundy, camo, blue, plain canvas (that comes with its own Sharpie for doodling on) or a special edition black version (which is 1 inch longer than the others and costs a few extra $). There's also the option to buy an empty tool roll if you want to transfer over your already trusted bits and bobs.
£TBC / US$98 / AU$TBC
Mcfk Carbon saddle and post
Mcfk specialises in making some of the lightest carbon components around, and their feathery 71g/0.1lb saddle and 138g/0.3lb seat post are no exception. Everything is handmade in Germany, meaning the quality is up there with the very best. These components are part of an exciting anti-gravity feature we’re working on, so keep your eyes peeled.
- Saddle — €198.90
- Deat post — €248.90
Rotor NoQ cyclocross chainring
If Twitter hasn’t already told you… #crossiscoming, and with the rising popularity of one-by groupsets Rotor has released its NoQ Cyclocross chainring.
It has a narrow wide tooth profile, which should increase chain tension and eliminate chain drops. Being Rotor, the quality is top notch but it does come at a price.
£84.99 / US$TBC / AU$TBC