It was all about the new bikes this week, Cannondale and Ribble updating their Synapse and Ultra-Race respectively. In Ribble’s case the British brand claimed it’s now a Tour de France-quality bike that “bridges the gap between pure aero and ultra-lightweight”, while Cannondale’s endurance model now has space for 42mm tyres.
When it comes to Tech of the Week we’ve got more cheap cycling stuff from Aldi, a root beer-coloured Madone, Rapha and EF’s latest switch-out kit, a sandwich-inspired bag, plus loads more to bring you, so let’s dive straight in.
Aldi’s selling a £24.99 bike rack and portable tyre inflator
In the middle aisles of Aldi (where you’ll find their famous treasure chest of miscellaneous goods) there’ll soon be another budget-friendly cycling product, the supermarket adding a £24.99 bike rack from next week.
It’ll be in store from Thursday 15 May and, like previous cycling-themed drops in Aldi, appears to be a Tru-Tension product (that’s the brand behind the Fillfast tubeless valve system). We recently shared news of Aldi selling a whole host of Tru-Tension cleaning products and bags, so no real surprise we’re seeing more of the brand’s products in store now.
At £24.99 this is significantly cheaper than many other bike racks on the market. In fact, our round-up of the best racks for transporting your bike/s on the back of your car includes just one sub-£100 option, and that was a £55 rack from Halfords, so we’re certainly intrigued to see if a much cheaper design can compete.
The spec on Aldi’s website is hardly the most detailed and simply tells us it fits “most cars” and can take “up to three adult and child bikes”. A “secure, versatile, and convenient solution for transporting your bikes”. We’ll have to nip down to Aldi to find out for ourselves, before of course reporting back in time for summer holiday season.
Aldi’s latest Specialbuys also feature a £14.99 portable tyre inflator which, while more of a motoring product, is apparently also “great for motorcycles, bikes, inflatables and balls”. Given the size, you won’t be fitting that in your back pocket for a ride, so we’d probably stick to our trusty track pump.
Fancy a root beer-coloured Trek Madone?
Trek’s Project One premium bike paint schemes now include… root beer?!
The popular Chroma finish is now is available in eight all-new colourways: Black, Gold, Ivy, Pink, Ruby, Sapphire, Violet and… root beer…
It’s only available on Madone SLR purchases at the minute, Trek saying it’s: “A modern nod to a metallic icon, Chroma brings that lustrous chromatic look made famous in the 90s to carbon frames for a glow-up of epic proportions.”
This might be the most expensive root beer in the world, however, the Chroma customisation adding £3,850 to your bill. That means for an £8,500 Madone SLR 7 AXS, Trek estimates the price as built would be £12,350. Have a play on the Project One bike builder if you’re intrigued.
Bike porn: Watch Q36.5 build Tom Pidcock’s Addict RC for the Giro
How good is it to have the Giro back? Tom Pidcock is hoping to be one of the stars of the opening Grand Tour of the season, the Brit’s Q36.5 team taking the plunge at the race for the first time.
Scott tells us Pidcock rides an extra small Addict RC bang on the UCI 6.8kg weight limit. It’s kitted out with SRAM RED AXS, his gearing of choice 54/41 up front and a wide 10-33T spread at the back. There’s a Quarq Power meter, on-trend 165mm cranks, and Zipp 454 NSW Carbon wheels set up tubeless with 28mm Vittoria Corsa PRO tyres.
Obviously some of those choices will probably change throughout the Giro, the race hitting the mountains in the third week and taking in a Strade Bianche tribute in week two as well.
Q36.5 launches its “lightest fastest road shoe ever”
The clothing brand Q36.5 has news too in the form of its “lightest and fastest road shoe ever”. Come on guys, you should know it’s not a true cycling product launch if you don’t claim its lighter, faster AND stiffer. Anyway, Q36.5 is happy with its new Unique pro Shoes and says it features “market-leading thermoregulation”, a “record-breaking” 4.4mm stack height and “cutting-edge ventilation”.
The sole is just 2mm thick and another fun design point is the mesh panel across the bridge of the foot, replacing the traditional tongue and “significantly increasing ventilation and eliminating pressure points”.
The confidence continues, Q36.5 telling us: “No other shoe on the market offers this level of airflow and thermoregulation.” They weigh 225g each in a size 42 and are available in black or white, if you’ve got £550 to spend on a pair of cycling shoes.
Rapha reveals latest EF switch-out kit
Not as striking and headline-grabbing as the famous Palace collab of 2020, but we think this is an understated but clean and classy look for the EF riders at this year’s Giro. The switch-out has become something of a modern tradition, the team unable to wear its conventional pink colours due to a clash with the race leader’s maglia rosa.
Specialized to make 272 “golden season” S-Works Tarmac SL8s in tribute to Remco’s golden year
To mark Remco Evenepoel’s 2024, a year when the Belgian sensation won two Olympic gold medals and the TT world champs again, Specialized is bringing the golden SL8s to the masses… or at least the 272 people willing to pay £12,999 for one.
There are plenty of nods to Evenepoel and Soudal Quick-Step here, Spesh telling us the S-Works Tarmac SL8 ‘Golden Season’ LTD “takes the Soudal Quick-Step ‘Make the Break’ motif, developed for the 2025 season, and flips it to gold and carbon”.
“The wave moves seamlessly between the bike’s carbon base and the two-tone gold overlay. The Remco logo and Wolfpack icon are added to the top tube, along with details highlighting the young man’s incredible achievements during our Golden Anniversary.”
Anyone want to buy us one?
-1024x680.jpg "“Clear anti-cyclist bias”: Lawsuit filed against Toronto police after cop doored cyclist… before ticketing rider over incident")
17 thoughts on “Would you trust Aldi’s £24.99 bike rack? Plus check out Trek’s root beer-coloured Madone, Rapha’s latest EF switch-out kit + more”
road.cc wrote:
No.
I had one of these cheap bike
I had one of these cheap bike racks. I didnt like how the rack rested on the top of the plastic rear bumper. Thats a lot of concentrated weight for 1 let alone 3 bikes.
It was also necessary to remove the pedal of the bike nearest the car because there was not enough clearance between the bike and rear hatch.
Thank you for video of the
Thank you for video of the mechanic really doing his stuff. It’s worth fifteen minutes of your time. The skill, knowledge and technique is just a joy to watch. I particularly enjoyed the jig for the brake levers and the pad wearing in machine. And the saddle weight.
The video was mesmerising.
The video was mesmerising.
Don’t you mean bike carrier?
Don’t you mean bike carrier?
Where does the light board fit or is that now considered optional ?
That’s another £24.99. Of
That’s another £24.99. Of couse you have a socket for the lighting board and number plate, don’t you?
TIL what colour root beer is.
TIL what colour root beer is.
Although given that I don’t think I’ve ever seen ivy that colour, I’ll maybe take it with a fair pinch of salt (which sounds pretty disgusting).
“Given the size, you won’t be
“Given the size, you won’t be fitting that in your back pocket for a ride, so we’d probably stick to our trusty track pump”
You can get a track pump in your back pocket?
Do you have a suitable 12V
Do you have a suitable 12V socket on your bike?
The colour root beer(or
The colour root beer(or Travis Brown as it was also called) takes me back to getting my Trek 69er singlespeed MTB back in the noughties. Still love that bike and its still going strong!
Using that bike rack like it
Using that bike rack like it in the pictures would get you pulled over for an obscured number plate if we ever had any traffic police. There’s a reason the thule ones come with their own separate number plate mount and lights.
My neighbour got nicked a
My neighbour got nicked a couple of years ago for an obstructed number plate whilst on a family mtb day out to the FoD. Given his fixed penalty fine, I went and got a spare plate off ebay for a tenner…which arrived 3 days later with no checks whatsoever. It made me realise that a) the average copper really can be an arsehole and b) the rise in cloned number plates is happening due the lack of any control whilst the incentives (due to camera based enforcement) are growing daily.
When that driver close passes
When that driver close passes you or left hooks you and you have it all in video only to find the number plate is unreadable are you going to say “ah, never mind” ?
Or will you wish there were traffic police to enforce the laws?
Also could/should be done for
Also could/should be done for an unsafe load or whatever the charge would be by the looks of it; it appears that the bike is loaded well off centre with the rear wheel sticking out to the left. More than once I’ve been clipped on the back or helmet (always at low speed, fortunately) by badly-fixed bikes on that type of rack. When we had a Smart car, which is pretty narrow, with that type of rack a full-size road bike would overlap both sides; I used always to take the front wheels off and store them in the boot to make sure they couldn’t damage anyone else and vice versa.
Shame you forgot about the
Shame you forgot about the mudguards!
I only ever use a Xiaomi car
I only ever use a Xiaomi car pump for tyre inflations with a cyclami plus for in the seat pack 👍 – tho I do have a zefal for emergencies!
I had a cheap bike rack like
I had a cheap bike rack like that about 20 years ago when my kids were young.
Used it twice before getting roof bars and Thule racks. Fitting 4 bikes on the roof was a challenge but they’re so much more secure. I wouldn’t put any bike I cared about in a rack like that, drive any significant distance, or at any kind of speed.
The Thule racks got all our bikes to France and back several times. My favourite moment was when I attempted to pull out of a motorway service station in my French people carrier with a motley selection of kids’ MTBs and adult hybrids on the roof. The inside lane was chock full of some sort of a convoy of vehicles, many with bike racks more crowded than mine. Luckily for me a white convertible flashed and slowed down to let me out of the slip road. And that’s the closest I’ve ever been to participating in the Tour de France.