November went by a little hazy, at least for me. My desk faces out the window towards a magnificent red Acer tree. In the past four weeks, relentless winds have stripped all but a handful of leaves. Growing dissatisfaction with his two pigeons who regularly use the branch as a perch.
The usual routine of testing, reviewing, and the normal news cycle turns around a bit here in November. cycling news Like the juggernaut of commercialism that is Black Friday rolls into town. As usual this year, we spent quite a bit of time finding the best deals that you, dear readers, might actually want to buy.Black Friday/Cyber Monday weekend is officially here. It’s over, but many places are quietly offering discounts on their products for a while. , where you can find all the best finds collated on the Cyber Monday Bike Deals hub.
In the run up to Black Friday weekend, we’ve put together a guide to buy-it-for-life cycling tech. It may not be the pinnacle in terms of performance (or the pursuit of speed), but it’s the gear that wins in the long run by lasting noticeably longer than its competitors. This included some premium components from Chris King, Rene Herse, and others, but also some decidedly budget options.
Even if you don’t like square taper cranksets and hub gears, there are plenty of photos that you especially like, so it’s a little eye candy.
Black Friday may have dominated broadcasting for a while, but it hasn’t completely disrupted normal business. Now that winter riding is underway, we’ve put together a number of all-new Buyer’s Guides to help you make the best possible buying decisions.
To kick off, Josh Ross has done a lot of testing by putting together a guide to the best winter cycling jackets. This also included tips and specific product recommendations for softshell cycling jackets, insulated cycling jackets, and some fully waterproof options.
Following this, we recently spent an inordinate amount of time in the pouring rain to bring you an all-new guide to the best waterproof cycling jackets you can buy today.
As a follow up, I decided to give you a little insight into how we tested.
However, if you’re looking to buy a new waterproof cycling jacket, the highly popular and high performing Shakedry fabric is being discontinued by Gore. It may soon be too late.
In another test, Josh Ross created a new guide to the best winter cycling gloves. I also learned when testing the winter gloves article he also made 6 things together and used a stand alone tire pressure gauge to find the best bike how many hours to test his pump in a row also spent We’ll give you well-informed buying advice.
With the news of ‘Staying Warm’ Tom has been suffering from cold feet and decided it would be a good idea to share all his tips for keeping his feet warm on the bike. On top of human anatomy, we’ve rounded up everything you ever wanted to know about embrocation, in case you’re curious about that weird spicy leg cream you’ve heard whispered on club rides whenever the weather turns bad. It’s not for everyone, but it’s a lot of fun making your own with the included recipe.
As with numerous group tests, we used some full reviews to dig deeper into some of our handpicked clothing items.
The northern hemisphere short-sleeve season is over, but there was still at least a touch of warmth in the anemic sunshine when I published my review of the MAAP Alt_Road 1/2 Zip Jersey.
Josh Ross gets to know the climax by reviewing the Rapha Pro Team Long Sleeve Gore-Tex Infinium Jersey (say it five times faster) and the Sportful Fiandre Light NoRain Short Sleeve Jacket (just a little less than a mouthful). was ).
In new bike news, mountain bike brand YT Industries has announced its first foray into gravel with the new Szepter. Not only that, but Tom spent some time in the muddy hills of Surrey pre-launch to bring us a first-ride review of the Szepter. It’s a pretty nice package, at least on paper.
As always, not only do we provide a throwback to the past four weeks, but we also have a preview of some of what’s recently landed here at CN HQ to whet your appetite ahead of the content to come. Without a doubt, here are some of the goodies thrown through our collective front door.
pair of smartwatches
Many of you are cyclists exclusively, but many of you do other lesser activities such as ‘running’ or ‘swimming’.
Jokes aside, smartwatches have the potential to cover as many bases as the best bike computers. With this in mind, we test many of them from a cyclist’s perspective to see how they stack up.
Wahoo Elemnt Rival and Coros Vertix 2 were the first to pass through the arrivals hall. Stay tuned for these performances.
2 pairs of overshoes
The best set of cycling overshoes can keep your feet warm and the best cycling shoes clean during your winter rides. Our Buyer’s Guide has plenty of decent models to choose from, but we’re continually testing new models to see if they cut the proverbial mustard.
First, make it gravel specific with GripGrab’s Explorer Waterproof Gravel Shoe Cover. Constructed in the same way as knitted waterproof gloves and waterproof socks, the inner and outer knitted fabrics provide comfort and warmth, with a membrane sandwiched between to keep pesky water at bay. Unlike road overshoes, these soles have a larger cutout to accommodate the chunky tread on the bottom of gravel shoes, and the TPU plastic toe and abrasion pads are perfect for when you need to get off and walk. I have it.
The second is the Neoprene Tall Shoe Cover from Specialized. They feature a water-resistant front that extends mid-leg before continuing to exposed neoprene to the knees to prevent road spray from hitting the exposed bib tights and soaking into the overshoes. It prevents water from entering and is easy to put on and take off with the hook-and-loop fastener at the bottom. Of course, it would be remiss to mention his knee-high overshoes without mentioning the British company Spatz, the pioneer of this concept. I scored a perfect score in my review of the Spatz Pro 2 a while back, so I’m excited to see how Specialized’s endeavor stacks up.
some very narrow washers
One of my favorite things about gravel bikes is that you can go from a complete rad gravel shredder to an endurance road bike for all intents and purposes by swapping wheels.
If you have two of the exact same set of wheels, it’s a lot less hassle. This issue occurs when you’re running two different wheelsets, or more specifically two different hubs. The bike industry has a difficult relationship with “standards”, but the rotor position should be the same between two hubs of the same width. Unfortunately, due to different manufacturing tolerances, the relative positions of the rotors may vary slightly. This means that when you change wheels, there will be a small amount of friction.
These small shims for cyclocross racers allow one of the rotors to be moved 0.25mm away from its normal position for smooth, frictionless wheel changes. Stack up to 4 per wheel for 1mm in/out adjustment.
If you have a 6-bolt rotor, you can easily accomplish the same with shim washers that are very readily available online.
Kask’s genre-defying helmet
The best road cycling helmet should tick all relevant safety feature boxes while being lightweight and easy on the eyes. This month we received Kask’s latest helmet offering, the Sintesi. This looks like it can meet this requirement. The Sintesi is a solid and stylish unit for the price.
Sintesi is Kask’s new budget offering for under £/$100. The new helmet is touted not just for roadies, but for commuters, gravel riders, and everything in between.It’s available in 11 block colors, so if you’re interested, you can color-coordinate with your kit. It should be easy.
Importantly, the Sintesi comes with Kask’s WG11 sticker, meaning it meets Kask’s strict WG11 rotational impact safety standards. Exactly like some of Kask’s more premium offerings.
The medium-sized helmet is claimed at 230 grams and has reflective stripes on the rear for increased visibility.The helmet also features antimicrobial Blue Tech padding and the Kask Ergofit adjustment system.