Woof – what a week it’s been on the good ship BikeRadar!
On Thursday we launched MBUK TV – our all-new home for mountain biking videos, with the BikeRadar YouTube channel now focussed on road and gravel riding.
Expect mountain biking adventures, reviews of the latest kit and interviews with the sport’s most exciting riders from the new channel.
While our mountain bike videos have a new home, the team behind the new channel features familiar faces – mountain bike presenter Tom Marvin’s sweetie wrapper-covered content cave and technical editor-in-chief Rob Weaver’s forboding desk still loom large mere feet away from me.
I trust you’ll all head to MBUK TV to tickle that subscribe button so you can keep check on their antics.
Our second Rider of the Year awards also took place on Thursday, with over 100 of cycling’s finest road, gravel and mountain bike riders making merry in our Bristol office.
Head to our Cycling Plus Rider of the Year 2024 and MBUK Rider of the Year 2024 articles to find out who took home the coveted awards.
Finally, Cycling Plus and MBUK’s wonderful creative designer Georgie Sturge smashed our internal Bake Off challenge out of the park with her incredible/horrifying ‘Tom Pidcake’.
The chunk of chin I munched was moist and undoubtedly deserving of a Holywood Handshake.
Now onto First Look Friday – your weekly roundup of the very best cycling kit to land at BikeRadar.
Snowpea electric shoe dryers
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Apologies for the spoiler but this shoe dryer from the charmingly named Snowpea will sit at the top of my Gear of the Year roundup for 2024.
A kind birthday gift from my dear friend and commendable colleague, Felix Smith, I can’t believe I suffered the pre-Snowpea cat pee-like stench of slow-drying wet cycling shoes for so long.
The shoe driers comprise two oval hard plastic aerated shells. Each contains a ceramic heating element.
These slip into your shoe, drying at 55°C for three, six or nine hours.
Three hours is sufficient to dry out slightly sweaty shoes, with the full nine hours required for soaked-through kicks.
I’ll admit to having no other experience with shoe dryers. However, given these cost only £24.99 and come with a ringing endorsement from a pair of keen winter riders, I see no reason to recommend anything else to readers and friends alike.
In fact, we’re so enamoured by the dryers that we decided the codename for our undercover spy ring would be ‘Snowpea’. Make of that what you will.
- £24.99 / international pricing TBC
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Sportful SRK Thermal Jacket
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Sportful’s SRK range is a tastefully styled, reasonably priced collection of minimalist road and gravel cycling kit.
From summer jerseys to water-resistant thermal jackets, the range covers most riding conditions.
The SRK Thermal Jacket is a handsome long-sleeve medium-weight jacket designed for cooler conditions.
The fleece-lined face fabric is luxuriantly soft and the mesh-lined collar is a nice touch, providing a layer of separation to reduce sweaty buildup.
A bonus chest pocket in addition to the standard three back pockets enables easier Instagramming on the go.
Available in black, the pictured olive green or teal blue, the jacket costs £160 – around standard for jackets of this ilk from a premium brand.
- £160 / $169.99 / €169.90
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Better Bike Lever tyre levers
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Better Bike Lever describes its 3D-printed carbon fibre-reinforced plastic tyre levers as a “radical new approach to removing and refitting tyres”, claiming they overcome common frustrations with regular tyre levers.
The levers are first used as a pair in the same manner as any other tyre lever.
The levers are then separated and a hex key is placed into the pivot moulded just behind the lip of the levers. The end of the lever can then be squeezed to spread the tips, helping to lift the bead off.
If required, the hex key can be placed between the pivot point to spread the tips further. From there, you should be able to remove the tyre.
The tyre lever can be keyed together to re-seat tyres.
- Road/gravel version: £8.50
- Mountain bike version: £11.50
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Coros Pace Pro smartwatch
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The Pace Pro is Coros’ newest smartwatch. It sits above the Pace 3 with an always-on AMOLED touchscreen, a faster processor and a huge claimed 38-hour runtime.
Coros is making a name for impressive battery life – its Dura bike computer has a claimed run time of 120 hours which, despite the dreary UK climate, appears to be accurate.
The Pace Pro’s plastic body doesn’t feel quite as premium in the hand as a metal casing, but this brings the weight down to 32.5g, which is exceptionally light for a smartwatch this size.
The contrasting light and dark grey body and strap paired with the conspicuous red button lend the watch a distinctly Nintendo SNES aesthetic. A black version is also available.
- £349 / $349
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