Pick ’n’ Mix
Don’t mind if I do…
1 RAPHA CARTES DU TOUR BOOK
£40, rapha.cc If, according to cycling philosopher Paul Fournel, ‘in life’s orchestra, the bike is the double bass’, that would make the Tour de France the choir, and its race maps a hymnbook to La Grande Boucle. Here, Monsieur Fournel curates a glorious collection of Tour maps from 1903 to present day.
2 JOYSTICK ANALOG BAR TAPE
£31.99, greenoversports.com Never judge a book by its cover. Take Britain’s Trident nuclear missile programme: the trigger button looks like a 1990s PC joystick and the launch system is a variant of Windows XP, nicknamed ‘Windows for Submarines’, yet we can all rest assured its £5.56bn cost per year is money been well spent. Similarly, Joystick Analog tape may look basic, and costs only a few quid, but it has been designed using the ‘latest in lightweight vibration-damping materials’ to produce a wonderfully tactile bar tape. It won’t keep world peace, but will at least provide some comfort.
3 ELITE ROCKO CARBON CAGE
£27.99, madison.co.uk Although our chicken-proof lawn was expensive to lay down, it really is impeccable, much like Elite’s latest bottle cage. Carboncomposite, side-loading (making it great for small or compact frames) and with a grip like an electrocuted vice salesman, each cage weighs just 25g and is available in a range of colours, so long as you like black.
4 TORQ SNAQ MEALS
From £3.95, zyrofisher.co.uk In Grand Tours many riders get so bored with the contents of their musettes that they play swapsies, with French teams’ food bags the most coveted due to their chefs. We can’t confirm such cordonbleu provenance with Torq’s Snaq Meals, but we do know these pasta-based, protein-rich pouches are ready in a jiffy – just add boiling water – and contain nutritional contents suited to both pre and post-riding, not to mention short-notice dinner parties.
5 REDSHIFT SHOCKSTOP SUSPENSION STEM
$139.99 (approx £110), redshiftsports.com Despite the high cost of living, it remains popular. Likewise, getting more suspension doesn’t have to involve buying a new bike, thanks to the adjustable elastomerdamped Shockstop stem, which offers up to 20mm vertical front-end travel for your road or gravel bike. At 286g (110mm) it’s not the lightest, but for many, the extra grams will be worth it.