There’s nothing quite like New Bike Day. Opening the box to take a proper look at the bike I’ve ordered is always interesting and exciting. The anticipation of sitting on it and checking the size, tweaking the angles of the brake levers, sorting the bars… it’s always good fun. And then there’s riding it. I love taking a new bike onto the trails for the… Read More »Stif Squatch | New Bike Day
I’ve used a few Chrome Industries products over the years. Two of the bags which I still use now were originally sent through TotalMTB for a review and I’ve managed to hang on to them. Since Chrome focus on ‘urban cycling’, there’s no surprise that something I noted about the rucksacks were the lack of waist strap. In my mind, that’s absolutely vital for mountain… Read More »Doubletrack Bar Bag | Chrome Industries
After every ride, I like to give the bike a wash. Exceptions, of course, are during the summer months when there’s a thin coat of dry dust. For those rides, the chain gets a wipe and things carry on. It’s not dusty at the minute though. And it’s certainly not dry. So, the bike is getting a wash after every ride. That means that I… Read More »Peaty’s Loam Foam and Drivetrain Degreaser
When you order a jersey, it’s normally all about the design. Right? It is for me. At least, mostly. I like to buy something that I like the look of. I might have a peek at the fabric too, just to make sure it’s not 100% cotton and going to make me freeze if I sweat too much. But otherwise, it’s mostly about the way… Read More »Terrain Clothing Jersey
I’d been looking for a bar bag for the gravel bike for a little while when I stumbled across Jango Rolls. Don’t get me wrong, I’d found the usual brands. Restrap’s bags looked nice. Apidura clearly know what they’re doing. I’m a fan of Alpkit’s bags already, and the Podsacs frame and saddle bag from Planet X have been holding up well. But I wanted… Read More »Jango Rolls Tool Wallet
Flannel comes as part of the territory with mountain bikers, right? Isn’t it that you’re not a mountain biker truly unless you’ve got a flannel shirt. Of course, that’s a load of old rubbish but I can’t help but enjoy a good flannel shirt all the same. I find that of all the shirts I have (and I have a few because of my day… Read More »Dakine Reid Tech Flannel Shirt
Having the right kit at the right time is really important. Amongst the stuff that I reckon you should always have is a multi-tool. It’s one of those things that I find I’m using most regularly. A slightly wonky bar after a crash, a slipped brake lever after a crash, a loose grip after a crash. You get the idea. The thing is, it’s also… Read More »Fix MTB Tools
When Raw Silence, a brand new start up, reached out to me and asked me to take a look at their Chain Guard Kit a mate of mine had just picked up his very first mountain bike. Alas, it didn’t come with chainstay protection so this seemed like the ideal chance to stick it to his bike and have him ride about to test the… Read More »Raw Silence Chain Guard Kit
I’ve had a camera to capture riding since more or less the time I started riding. In 2015, I had a Poloroid Cube – a sort of earlier competition to the GoPro Hero Session – which was pretty dreadful. After that, I bought some GoPro Hero 4 cameras. They were better and, because of the sound quality, they stuck around until I bought a Hero… Read More »Go Pro Hero Max
Long term readers of this little corner of the internet will recall that I’ve written several times about the DMR Vault flat pedals. They’ve been a long time favourite of mine and I’ve ridden them for what seems like forever. They’ve been really solid and even survived what I still think was my most dramatic crash. The left one was torn from the thread of… Read More »Burgtec Penthouse MK5