Arundel

Shining like a National guitar amongst their clutch of carbon and composite bottle-cages is Arundel's Stainless Steel cage.

Made from polished 4.2mm stainless tubing it's artfully bent into the same trademark mandible shape as the rest of the Arundel range, and then welded to a stamped embossed spine to fix it to the bike, the lower mounting hole of which is ovalised to allow for any Friday afternoon bottle-boss placement errors.

Arundel's 'The Dual' seat bag is so called as it's designed to carry two of each essential, two innertubes, two CO2 cartridges and the inflater. It's a tight fit but it all fits none the less. My preferred selection was one tube, CO2 inflator and canister plus a small multi tool.

The Arundel Dave-O carbon-fibre cage is fairly light and it holds onto your bottle securely without any road buzz.

Despite the castle featuring prominently in their logo, Arundel come not from the fortified yet sleepy Sussex town but from Fort Worth in Texas where they create a small range of cycle bits and bobs but mostly bottle cages, the Dave-O being one of the carbon offerings plucked from their quiver of eight models.

Arundel Gecko Fur handlebar tape sounds the stuff of pimped Lambretta, not everyday road bikes, but after a quick Quadrophenia moment I dressed another set of bars and found myself justly impressed by its tenacious grip and tactile nature come, rain, sleet or shine. Crossers and the rough stuff faithful should plump for the standard Gecko, though, since ingrained dirt, grime and even chocolate calls for more than a superficial cat lick.

Arundel Gecko Grip bar tape and I got off to a bad start thanks to our test sample's hit n' miss adhesive and ineffectual finishing strips. However, things improved and while it's not quite on par with my all time favourite Lizard Skins DSP it does have a similarly reptilian name. It also does much the same thing at a lower price and is easily rewound should you need to replace a control cable, add an interrupter brake lever or indeed change bars.