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It’s time for our (rather belated) March edition of road.cc Recommends, and while the weather looks to be on the up here in the UK this week, many of our highly rated products receiving the Recommends badge of honour in March had a wintery theme, with cold-weather kit and smart lighting featuring.
Here is the full list of March’s picks, and there’s some more info about six of them further down the page:
- Lusso Paragon Deep Winter Jacket
- Moon Helix Sense (150lm)
- Cycplus R200 Smart Trainer
- Ravemen K1000 Front Light
- Coospo TR70 Smart Radar Tail Light
- Koo Nebula glasses
- Assos Winter Gloves P1
Coospo TR70 Smart Radar Tail Light
Up to now, the gold standard for radar/lights has been the Garmin Varia series, and the Coospo TR70 matches many of the performance aspects of the Garmin radar-wise, it has a great app, and it absolutely blows all of the competition out of the water with its battery life.
Garmin claims up to 16 hours in day flash mode for the RTL515, while the Coospo TR70 offers a claimed 30 hours in day flash mode and up to 40 hours with radar only. In testing, reviewer Paul found to Coospo’s run-time claims to be reasonable.
Overall, it’s a really impressive bit of kit which also happens to be priced very competitively.
Read our review of the Coospo TR70 Smart Radar Tail Light
Cycplus R200 Smart Trainer
The Cycplus R200 Smart Trainer seriously impressed with its accuracy, reliability and its budget price. There aren’t too many viable smart trainer options at £400, let alone under it.
To test the accuracy, reviewer Michael paired a set of Favero Assioma Pro RS power pedals to a Wahoo Roam V3, then the trainer to Zwift through his laptop. For a 45-minute workout, the accuracy wavered between 1-2% for the most part, which is extremely good for a trainer at this price.
It’s a compact, no-fuss trainer that works just as well at home as it does for pre-race warm-ups in a car park. It’s significantly lighter than most wheel-off trainers, yet remains impressively stable. Michael says, “It really didn’t budge, even when heaving the pedals for a hard-fought five seconds of 1,000W. Likewise, with sustained efforts above 4-500 Watts, the trainer didn’t feel unbalanced or unstable”.
Read our review of the Cycplus R200 Smart Trainer
Moon Helix Sense (150lm)
If you’re looking for a small and versatile unit, the output of the Moon Helix Sense is pretty impressive, offering up to 150 lumens. Charging in just under 2.5 hours, the lowest setting delivers up to 130 hours of flashing at 5 lumens. The Sense mode, which reviewer Dave chose, auto adjusts for daylight and nighttime operations, which means the flash option used during the day will get you a total of 14 hours in the right conditions.
The Helix Sense 150 come with all the attachments meaning it’s easy to get the light to sit in the right place. The fixing options are a seat post mount with rubber band loop, with two options to cater for both aero and traditional round seat posts, a clip for attaching to clothing, a pannier or a backpack, and a seat rail clip.
Read our review of the Moon Helix Sense
Prestacycle TorqRatchet Elite Lite
While not the cheapest, the Prestacycle TorqRatchet Elite Lite is an easily pocketable multitool that comes well-presented in a wallet with twelve bits, and ensures you don’t overtighten your fastenings.
The Philips PH1, Torx 10, 20, 25 and 30, and Hex 2, 2.5, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 8mm bits cover pretty much everything up to and including pedals. The Elite Lite delivers the widest performance of Prestacycle’s range, and with the most detailed, granular scale.
If you are looking for pocketable, wide-ranging torque ratchet that also functions as a normal and very tough ratchet (something most torque wrenches absolutely won’t do), this is a great option.
Read our review of the Prestacycle TorqRatchet Elite Lite
Ravemen K1000 Front Light
There are a growing number of well-priced lights with good output, but this is reviewer Dave’s pick of the mid-priced units he’s tried. The Ravemen K1000 is a great light for anything from commuting about town to a full night’s riding. The beam shape is excellent, the run times are great, and you can mount it either way up.
It offers two smart modes: Daytime mode uses a light sensor to switch between Pulse and 500-lumen output and turns off after two minutes of inactivity, while AI mode adjusts brightness based on conditions and ride duration.
Effort is now being focused on making lights that are bright, easy to use, and affordable, and the Ravemen K1000 successfully delivers on all three.
Read our review of the Ravemen K1000 Front Light
Koo Nebula glasses
Buy from Balfe’s Bikes for £136
These Nebula sunnies from Koo sit close to the top of the cycling sunglasses market but reviewer Jack thinks their performance justifies the price. They are extremely lightweight at just 22g, with a frameless design that leaves your vision completely unobstructed. The weight won’t transform your climbing times, but it does make the Nebulas barely noticeable on your face.
The Zeiss toric lens is also impressive. Zeiss says its nylon/polyamide lenses are lighter than polycarbonate (another common material), and they’re very clear. Impact resistance is also good thanks to the material’s flexibility.
Read our review of the Koo Nebula glasses
To see the full archive of products that have been awarded road.cc Recommends badges over the years, head over to the road.cc Recommends section.
