Gear

Well, no tiffin today, our afternoon sustenance has come in the form of some lovely Easter nests. Still, it's all the sugar rush we needed to crank up the randomising machine and pick a winner from among the nearly 900 of you that have joined us on Facebook. Not bad odds but there can only be one winner, and that winner is...

We went to get a see the new range of Verenti bikes for a pre-launch sneak peek a few weeks back now two of them have come to us, we'll show you the Kilmeston soon, but first out of the box is the Rhigos 03.

We tested the Cotic Roadrat as a singlespeed drop-bar machine back in March of last year, and it received high praise from tester TR McGowran who called it "possibly the ultimate 'do it all' bike". That's partly down to the different ways you can spec the frame, but one that's never been available has been the excellent Alfine eight speed hub. Until now, that is.

The Fixie Inc Peacemaker turned heads at Eurobike and the London Cycle Show when they unveiled it at the end of last year… now it's about to hit the streets and we've got an exclusive on the first one to hit Blighty. Not only is it Fixie's first belt drive production bike, it also incorporates the world's first belt drive flip flop hub, the Kickflip.

Park Tool were keen to show us around their stand at IceBike but by the time we actually got round to it the after-show party had already kicked in and we'd stashed our camera behind the bar and replaced it with a cold one. No matter though, as the friendly chaps have sent through some studio shots for us to use as we tell you what's new in silver and blue...

We've been getting all excited at the prospect of the Ridgeback Ti Flight for quite some time now… since IceBike 2009 in fact when we saw the first prototype. Now the wait is nearly over cos at this year's IceBike Ridgeback were showing off the second prototype and no, that doesn't mean the final version will be here for the back end of 2011. Production bike with a couple of slight tweaks are "on the water" now and will available in April.

Things that are good about rollers: they're simple to set up, quiet and easy to stash under the bed when they're not being used. For most people the main downside is that fact that you need to keep your wits about you - one slip and you're off and careering into the sideboard/sofa/wall/plate glass door. We've heard apocryphal tales of over excited roller users watching the Tour on rollers, coming off in the cut and thrust of the final sprint and riding straight through their telly.

To IceBike in the frozen wastes of Milton Keynes, more rainy than frozen actually
and what did we see? Among the many lovely items on display we glimpsed the future of cycling that's what and it's got drop bars, cross tyres… and a hub gear. It hasn't got a name yet but the Genesis [insert name here] will be coming to a bike shop near you in 2011.

Carbon bikes, how long have they been around then? 10 years, 15? 20 tops? Well we visited Raleigh recently and and they showed us their first carbon effort – from 1969. They thought it might be the oldest carbon bike in the world… we think they're probably right.

This image was uploaded with the post Rapha 2010 Spring Summer range launch.