Pick ’n’ Mix
Ride up grades and ride upgrades Words JAMES SPENDER Photography ADAM LANGDON
1 ZIPP TANGENTE RT TUBELESS TYRES
£71, zipp.com While Zipp Tangente might sound like a slick detective from a comic book, who investigates crimes in an alternative universe, it is in fact an all-new tubeless tyre from the Indianapolis-based speedsters. Available in 25mm and 28mm, Zipp claims they’re the fastestrolling tyres in their category – an amazing storyline in itself.
2 B HIDE SADDLE
From £110, b-hide.com There’s only one thing worse than people talking about your tatty saddle, and that’s people not talking about your saddle at all. So make sure your posterial perch is the subject of gossip and renown in cycling circles by having it reinvigorated by B-hide, which will re-cover any saddle – such as this once-battered Fizik Antares – in custom leather and with hand-stitched detailing as per your own custom designs.
3 WAHOO ELEMNT MINI
£79.99, wahoofitness.com If Miguel Indurain was a fish he’d probably be a wahoo, which like Big Mig is typically close to two metres long, 83kg and capable of speeds of 97kmh. And if the wahoo fish was a bike computer, well, it would be nothing like the Elemnt Mini, an all-singing, verily can-can-dancing 50mm-wide GPS computer boasting 300 hours of battery life and weighing just 31g.
4 JAGWIRE PRO KIT AND INTERNAL ROUTING TOOL
£39.59/£26.39, todayscyclist.co.uk When Ernest Monnington Bowden patented the Bowden Cable in 1896, the cycling press marvelled at both his wonderful name and his game-changing wound steel wires, used instead of rods to transmit mechanical force. More than a century later, Jagwire is still refining Ernest’s invention with its ultra-slick Pro cable kits, now a claimed 50% lighter than most regular cables and given easy internal routing installation with a nifty magnetic tool.
5 KUAIFIT SPORT HEADPHONES
$159 (£118), kuai.fit Do you want a tiny cycling coach living in your ear? You can with the Kuaifit Sport headphones, which sync to an app database of coaching sessions from professionals. Using clever algorithms and metrics such as power and heart rate, they are personally tailored to your training goals, with the Kuaifit broadcasting the coach’s instructions to your ears. They call it ‘Smart Coaching’; we call it the future.