Exposure Lights – Flare (New Product).

I have a problem, and it is one I have had for decades. Certain things fascinate me and I am unable to walk away once I have got my grubby little mitts on them. Waterproofs are one…God knows….don’t ask me why, and the other is or rather are….torches. Show me a bright torch and I have got to buy it.

Today I fell victim to my perennial weakness once again. Dropping my bike and a box of bits at Revel Outdoors this afternoon I casually mentioned my desire for a properly bright rear light and in a trice, this baby was flashed before my eyes:

The body is aluminium, 6 centimetres long with a lens at 2.5 centimetres it really is a midget light. Claimed run time on a CR123A is 9 hours on constant beam and 20-ish on flash. Output is rated at 75 lumens which should be plenty bright enough to be noticed day or night. (This is bright enough for you to be strung up from the nearest tree if you try using it while riding in the woods with your mates) There is a small clip on bracket and a red silicon band for attaching the whole thing to your seat post (from 25.0 to 34.9). Rechargeable batteries are an option.

Set up is a piece of cake. Unscrew the LED unit, plop the battery up, re-tighten the former and you are away. Flash mode seems as good, if not better, than constant. The light is turned on and off by partial rotation of the LED unit. It is very easy to do but I must confess to feeling that it might be too easy to unscrew it too much, particularly in the cold and wet.

Fitting the light to the clamp is fiddly and requires a little effort before it is snug. The clamp went flying across the room twice before I got it right! The unit seems secure enough though once slotted home but there were no reassuring ‘clicks’ when it got there. The silicon band is big and chunky so should be fine for cold and or gloved hands.

As the nights begin to draw in, this is the time for getting your lights sorted. Recent years have seen lights get smaller and brighter so if your light is a few years old now, take a look at these, you never know, they could save your life!

Long term test results when I have run it for a few months. At £39.95 this tiny, lightweight little baby looks just the business.

Torq Energy Gel – review

A long term fan of Torq products I have just about finished my first box of gels. Gels have always been a binary thing for me and the first time I had any (can’t remember which brand) I almost threw up. Horrible texture, disgusting taste I vowed never to have any again….ever. Well, as you know, time goes by, tastes change and while I was not totally ready for a reintroduction to carbohydrate rich wallpaper paste, Matt persuaded me to taste the range at the 2010 D2D. I can only really comment on the two I bought, Fruits of the Forest and Rhubarb and custard. The former is a caffeine enhanced gel and the latter a ‘vanilla’ energy gel.

I selected these two because I love rhubarb and custard crumble so anything that comes close is going to be a winner for me. Well, whoever juggles the various chemicals to approximate the target flavour did a damned good job. So good, I could happily squeeze tube ofter tube down my throat. Is it any good as a gel though? This is a really tough one to answer. When I eat, it is to stave off the bonk or to energise myself when I am falling off the pace – usually well into a ride. This stuff doesn’t make you go faster, it doesn’t ‘give you wings’ to pinch a strap line from a well known drink manufacturer, is simply fuels your body so you can keep going… a similar to the range of Torq bars. To be honest, I can’t tell the difference except the gel is a lot easier to eat. I tend to eat the bars on prolonged stops, usually while we are enjoying a natural break in the trail, the gels are consumed on the go. If I were to criticise the rhubarb and custard gel, it would be that it is ever so slightly too sweet for my taste.

The caffeine enhanced version has a more ‘generic’ fruit flavour, redolent of berries in general but nothing in particular. Once again, I guess this is the taste target. It is spot on in terms of sweetness, being rather less sickly than the previous offering. This means when you are working hard, are slightly dehydrated and you have had too much energy drink etc, it is far easier to get down. This gel produces a noticeable kick in performance, eat it, and maybe 15 minutes later you begin to feel strong, your legs come to life and you can reinvigorate your legs for maybe another 30 minutes. This will get you through a period of heavy legs or maybe even allow you to notch your flagging speed back up to somewhere nearer your max; it isn’t going to give you the sprinting ability of Mark Cavendish, nor is it going to let you ride as fast as Chris Hoy but it could make the difference between a place or two on a race or even a decent finish on an endurance ride. I was sceptical of Torq’s (low key) claims about the benefits of a caffeine enhanced gel but I am a keen fan now. An order is going in for some more very soon.

If you haven’t used gels before, I’d suggest maybe buying a sample pack and see which ones you get on with. You need to see what you can bear to consume while riding, and it isn’t always the one you like the sound of most!

Three hints… make sure you are well hydrated when you eat these, that way you will get maximum benefit and secondly, make sure you tuck the old wrapper in your back pocket and don’t drop it on the trail. When racing or riding hard, I have found it best to tuck a gel up the leg of my shorts, it is far easier to get hold of in a hurry than fishing about in your camelbak or back pocket while on the go.

Recommended

Rockshox Reba RLT 29er

The beginning of a product review. This is phase one and I will add to it as I find our more about the product.


The box opens to reveal the forks, a shock pump, a (useless) manual, star fangled nut and a spacer plus a sheet of stickers. I can never work this mania for stickers out, needless to say they’ll probably find their way to the bin in short order.

The Shimano shock pump is an old friend. Painted black, with a bleed valve, pressure gauge and a short hose topped off with a Schrader adaptor, it hasn’t changed in years. It has always proved to be reliable and as unexciting as only a pump can be!

The forks themselves come in a sort of glacier white and are colour matched with the crown. The stanchions are sort of an anodised version of a colour I have only ever seen on other forks and an old BMW my Dad had many years ago. Let’s call it metallic bronze. The steerer is matched with the stanchions, a nice touch but totally unnecessary. On first impression the paint job looks to be of a very good quality, nice coverage and it certainly gives the impression of being thick. Time will tell whether it is durable or not.

The brake mount is the now common post mount so if you have the old style IS callipers, you will have to buy an adaptor but this should not put you back more than a fiver.

As usual with Rockshox, the recommended positive and negative pressures are clearly displayed towards the foot of the fork leg. (Note: these figures are a good starting place, you’ll have to play about with them to find out what works best for you.) The valves are to be found in the top and bottom of the left hand leg. Rebound adjustment is in the foot of the right hand leg with the familiar tortoise graphic so rebound adjustment is simple – even for me!

The ‘Gate’ can be adjusted via a knob on the top of the right leg. I can never work out what this is for so more about that when I read it up again! Compression adjustment is via a large dial underneath the ‘Gate’. Interestingly, the serial number is printed, in relief, on the rear of the crown; I have never spotted that before but there again, my last pair of Rebas were about 5 years old and I guess this may have been introduced some time back.

I have been used to Rebas with the U Turn facility, so having to dismantle the fork to adjust travel seems like a bit of a chore to me. Having said that, I do not anticipate running these forks on anything more than 80mm so the 100mm option is a bit unnecessary.

Putting pressure on the forks, they move quite easily and smoothly, producing the familiar Rockshox gurgle as oil moves through the system. This little test is practically pointless as the forks aren’t fitted and have certainly not been pumped up to pressure but hey, who among us (professional mechanics aside) can resist the temptation to do it?

All in all then, a decent job of presentation and initial impressions are favourable. New kit always looks nice though and it isn’t until proper testing has been carried out that you can tell whether it is a dog or not.

This is my third set of Rebas, the previous two were 26 inch versions and proved stiff (enough) reliable (totally) and pretty much fit and forget. My last pair were not serviced for a while and although I kept the seals scrupulously clean after every ride, I was expecting some serous tlc would be required when I took them in for a service. To my surprise, the seals were in tip top condition, the oil was clean as a whistle and the stanchions unmarked with no signs of wear anywhere. For a five year old set of forks this is pretty damned good. My LBS replaced the oil (because they had the forks apart anyway) and reassembled them. Apart from coming back running as smooth as butter, they were my old forks, oh yes, and the lockout had been sorted (it wasn’t that good from day one). If these forks are anywhere near as good I will be a very happy bunny.

The frame will be here next week so I’ll aim to build the bike up and wil post my first impressions as soon as I have any.

EDIT: The ‘Gate’ or “Floodgate” I referred to earlier is a sort of blow-off valve. When you have the forks locked out, it determines when the impact is sufficient to allow movement in the fork. There seems to be reams of information (or people seeking information) about this on the web and to be honest, it is all pretty confusing. Once fitted, I’ll play about and see what works best for me….unless of course, anyone reading this would care to comment?

Endura Arm Warmers – review

I bought a pair some weeks ago as a replacement for my missing Orbea arm warmers. They remained unused until last week when I had cause to use them twice (so much for the British summer eh!)

The pair I own are ‘Large’. While I am neither an Orang Utan nor a knuckle dragger, my arms can hardly be described as short. When I put these on, they stretched right up into my armpits and over the top of my shoulder. Had I tried to wear them any lower and they’d have been masquerading as ladies’s, long, evening gloves! First off then…beware of sizing.

The blurb that came attached to the garments made all sorts of claims about grippers, here, there and everywhere. Once again, while I am no Hulk, my arms are not really the same as a T Rex’s. My point? They were hard to keep up. The grippers….didn’t, and they were a little generous in their cut. In the end I had to fiddle about with them all the time to keep them up and prevent them being the arm version of Norah Batty’s stockings!

They were plenty warm enough but there again it is hardly winter yet! I’m going to defer passing judgement until the autumnal chill really descends upon us.

To conclude – they seemed to be mid priced…around the £20 mark, are a bit (lot) on the long side, they don’t stay up very well and they kept my arms warm on a couple of ‘summer’ rides. Draw your own conclusions but in my opinion, they are nowhere near as good as my (much missed) Orbea arm warmers.

For muscle bound knuckle draggers only 🙂

RockShox Release 2012 SID 29 And Reba Fork Details

RockShox Release 2012 SID 29 And Reba Fork Details – BikeRadar.

Ghost 2012 Mountain Bikes – First Look – BikeRadar

Ghost 2012 Mountain Bikes – First Look – BikeRadar.

INteresting looking bikes. Sort of raises a question, how come all these Euro bikes are coming over the channel? I’m not bothered that they are coming but more interested to note that they are just unheard of in the UK while they must have been going strong for some time on the Continent. What other jewels are waiting to be unveiled?

Ridley 2012 Cyclocross Bikes

More pictures can be found here

One of the ‘must have’ features for all you budding crossers are the rainbow stickers! For a product presentation that has to be a bit of a fail!

Cannondale Scalpel 29

Pro Bike: Tim Johnson’s Cannondale Scalpel 29 – BikeRadar.

2011 Shimano BR-M988 & BL-M988 XTR Trail brakeset

Review: 2011 Shimano BR-M988 & BL-M988 XTR Trail brakeset – Bike Rumor.

I saw some of these on a 2012 bike and they really look the dog’s. Playing with them in the shop they felt sharp and responsive however, playing in the shop is no substitute for actually getting to use them in the flesh. So, my comments are that they look ace, they are fantastic on the shop floor but who knows how they will live up to UK winter conditions?

Fulcrum Racing 7 Wheel Review (Road)

I bought these for my CX bike towards the beginning of last autumn. While they have not seen any CX races, they carried me through most of the winter, the spring until now, early August in 2011. I am not going to bother with technical details such as weight, spoke pattern, pawls etc (you can easily find that on shop sites if you want to buy some) rather, I am simply going to tell you what sort of riding I have done, how they have performed and what state they are in now. In short, all the things I’d like to know rather than elitist guff which leaves you none the wiser albeit with a lot of anal knowledge that is of no use to man nor beast.

I fall into what our American cousins call the ‘Clydesdale’ category i.e. I am over 14 stone. I’m not really a porker, but ‘big boned’ 😉 or 6 foot 4 with what was always described as a swimmer’s basic physique. I’m a bit over the hill now at 50 but still give kit a hammering. I ride in Suffolk and these wheels have mainly been used either on road or off road on trails I would be more comfortable on with fat tyres. Nothing rocky but certainly enough to knock a poor pair of wheels out of shape. I have done a few mtb races (local, grass roots stuff where you can ride what you like) on a combination of fire road and fast singletrack. The bike (and therefore the wheels) has been thrown about quite aggressively on many surfaces and has also been taken down bombholes, rooty drops etc.

These are not the CX variant of the wheel so there is no additional sealing to keep the mud and grit out. Apart from that, they are pretty much the same, with a semi deep rim which reduces spoke length and therefore should build up into a fairly strong set of wheels. Having said that, I am not sure that they were designed for the sort of use I give them!

Almost a year in then, they are pretty spotless. No marks on the rims, no flaking decals, no peeling spokes, no dings – superficially then, no damage at all. They have remained true from the moment they came out of the box, despite my weight, despite my use/abuse. I have checked the rims, and although I have bottomed out many times on flinty trails there are no notches or nicks.

I have just washed the bike after a ride this morning and I turned the hose up, played it on the top of the tyre, got the wheels up to speed and let them both run. The rear hub remains clicky but just ran on and on, as did the front wheel. Closer inspection revealed no play in the hubs, no subterranean grumbling, no sensation of bearings running dry. All good so far then.

I said I wouldn’t get anal about weight but you need to be aware that these are bargain basement wheels. I got the pair for £114 delivered (I think) so don’t go expecting anything like Hed, Zipp or other high end stuff. These are basic but they are stiff, they seem to be very robust, and the hubs are delivering more than I was prepared to give them credit for.

As a pair of wheels for my CX bike they are pretty damn good. As a budget wheel I must say they are bloomin’ marvellous. I will probably thrash these until they die, then I’ll get some more.

I am going to give these wheels my ultimate accolade – the pint of bitter!