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Blendr Ion road light mount.jpgFive cool products coming soon to road.cc
The road.cc review team are as busy as ever, and here are some highlights of the latest bikes, accessories and components we've been testing...
Bontrager Blendr Road Ion Light Mount
£15.99
This mount provides a clean and simple solution for attaching a light out front and under your stem. Bontrager's Blendr stems can also hold computer and GoPro mounts for a flush integrated system. Is it fully secure, and does it hold your light in the perfect position? Editor Tony Farrelly will be giving his verdict soon.
£550
The Dark Star from Bobbin is a city bike that offers more than your average hybrid, with 16 gears and hydraulic discs for longer commutes or trips on the weekend. A steel frame with subtle branding and matching leather bars and saddle give a classic appearance, while 32mm tyres make it capable of occasional towpath jaunts. Is it the versatile city slicker it's cracked up to be? Our reviewer John Stevenson is currently bobbin' around on the Dark Star with a verdict coming soon...
£49.99
The price point might ring alarm bells with bargain hunters, but Spurcycle are claiming their creation is far superior to the average ding-a-ling. Made in the USA, the precision-engineered bell is fully adjustable to fit any size handlebars, coming in a raw metal or black carbon finish. Small in size and big on sound (45g and just 30mm x 20.5mm) it's purportedly three times louder than a standard bell. George Hill will be telling us how good the vibrations are in his review soon.
Giro Civila women's road shoes
£129.99
These two-bolt women's road shoes are made for the style-conscious cyclist who wants some walkable footwear for when they reach their destination. Weighing 275g, the outsole is made of injected nylon and the walking pads either side of the two-bolt cleat mount is replaceable. A suede heel counter and laced closure make for a classic appearance, with a performance fit inside to ensure a smooth yet firm ride.
£37.99
These tubeless-ready tyres are most at home on technical off-road surfaces, said to offer maximum traction for when the ground is slick and slippery. The tyre has a unique tread design to achieve max grip, coming with the obvious benefits that going tubeless brings, i.e. weight reduction and increase puncture resistance. Mike Stead is getting the Chollas dirty right now, with a verdict coming soon...
To read all the latest road.cc test reports, head to our reviews section
Arriving at road.cc in 2017 via 220 Triathlon Magazine, Jack dipped his toe in most jobs on the site and over at eBikeTips before being named the new editor of road.cc in 2020, much to his surprise. His cycling life began during his students days, when he cobbled together a few hundred quid off the back of a hard winter selling hats (long story) and bought his first road bike - a Trek 1.1 that was quickly relegated to winter steed, before it was sadly pinched a few years later. Creatively replacing it with a Trek 1.2, Jack mostly rides this bike around local cycle paths nowadays, but when he wants to get the racer out and be competitive his preferred events are time trials, sportives, triathlons and pogo sticking - the latter being another long story.
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27 comments
I really like my crane ritan brass bells, more old school perhaps but a traditional bell ring with a beautiful tone. Tarnishing just right. One will be purchased for my new ultimate commuter bicycle.
I liked my red anodised zefal valve caps, do both presta and schreader. Repaced now with middleburn bullet caps, gold presta for the good bike and silver scraeder on the getting to work bike (to contrast with the black Mavic rims). Nice.
"IMHO Its a thing of rare ugliness, but I assume you need a man bun and hipster beard to ride it, so I guess I'm not the target market"
I suspect that bike shops that service the target market will panic at the sight of that way too long hydraulic hose and demand that something mechanical from the seventies is fitted to avoid having to learn to bleed modern technology - there will be much stroking of beards
I suggest a bell group test!
A bell test to end all bell tests?
(Thee must be a pun in there somewhere).
I'm sure a ringing endorsement from road.cc would leave sales of the winner booming, which would make for a 'change', although this might make for a toll on their supply chains
*there were a lot more bad puns that even I thought were too rubbish to be included*
I bought the Chris King ltd edition version of this bell after a few beers. It was too easy with PayPal. After a while I noticed people didn't respond to it when say 20 ft behind them. But at 50ft and beyond both people and dogs turned round. It even brought a tear to the eye of the first violin of the SFPO when he head me ring it. So maybe some smarty pants can attribute this to the physics of the pitch. I'd say it's a great long range bell but maybe not a daily for a hectic commute inner city.
"three times louder than a standard bell"
I call bullshit. Why wouldn't they just replace Big Ben with this?
And the difference between a "precision-engineered bell" and a bell would be what, exactly??
The differences are: The very important marketing hype words, which stimulate the wallet-opening fingers; the feeling of queer pride swelling the breast of the purchaser as they give not-so-subtle nods towards their bit of wallet-thinning precision marketing, hoping to make their compatriots green with consumer envy.
Where have you been, that you cannot grok these important post-modern cultural rites and the emotions they induce in we lucky consumers?
Perhaps we might all, at this moment, in the conversation, make a list of the hyped over-priced (and perhaps not-so-functional) items adorning our bicycles or even their owners? I will begin with the red-anodised valve caps and one or two other red bits that have replaced perfectly functional not-red bits upon my best velocipede.....
But here I must also do an inverse-consumer-boast thing: I have avoided all forms of electro-gizmo, especially the ones telling me what a poor cyclist I am compared to "the professionals". Also, my silly cycling hat is a £5.99 cotton cap rather than one of those scuptures that looks like an inverted brain made of garishly-coloured polystyrene.
But I digress.
A bell is very important so best to get a good one. That Crane version of the precision-hype item is inexpensive and very effective. Even grannies on two sticks have plenty of time to hop aside and give me a nice smile as I go past with a grateful, "Thanks gorgeous". (They are too old-fashioned to take this as anything but a compliment).
Cugel
I can list entire bikes that are OTT hype with very little justification: I'm on my 3rd TT bike.
I love marketing hype so much that I became a triathlete. To the superfluous bikes and three pairs of pedals, three pairs of wheels, and two saddles more than I've got bikes, just gathering dust in my garage, and various bike-specific gadgetry, add:
two garmin multisport watches (I've got two wrists, right?),
wetsuit no.2 that is almost identical to wetsuit no.1,
a couple of ultramarathon vests/jackets for carrying your ultramarathonny stuff (for when one just won't do),
four tri suits,
a headtorch that I've used once,
and five pairs of running shoes (I've got ten feet, right?).
If you want to win at buying stuff, I can thoroughly recommend triathlon.
precision engineering?
£45.00?
One works after two months and one doesn't
Are there actual people who bought this bell for 50£ when the ebay copy costs the 1/10th? I wish I felt that rich!
I've bought half a dozen bells before and they've all failed. Spur Bell hasn't
£50!!!!!!!!
The Bobbin is a thing of rare beauty, save for the insane loop of rear brake hose, which I'm sure can soon be fixed.
IMHO Its a thing of rare ugliness, but I assume you need a man bun and hipster beard to ride it, so I guess I'm not the target market
Can I just say at this point? It was a gift from a well-meaning relative
.
Uh huh.
I have a Spurcycle bell and the noise it makes is so quiet and high pitched that even dogs don't hear it. Don't waste your money.
At £50.00, there's no danger of money being wasted.
Absolutely... Thing is you can always SHOUT if the need arises!!!!
I have a Spurcycle bell & it's plenty loud enough. Also, the tone is rich & melodic, with a full range of frequencies, making it very audible. My experience has been that **everyone** hears it, & from a good distance (20 - 50 yards). I'd suggest StraelGuy might have mounted the bell touching something, so the vibrations are damped.
& yes, it's worth every penny - nothing else sounds remotely as sweet.
Wow. My experience is exactly the opposite of yours. Other cyclists hear it. Pedestrians hear it. It's well made. It's definitely a keeper.
Yep, like the others have said, you're either doing it wrong or yours is a fake..
Mine is loud, clear and rings for ages.. It really is a thing of quality.. It'll outlast all your bikes.
Isn't the Spurcycles bell the one that got, ahem, "slightly copied" by Crane? Huge IP issues apparently, but the Spurcycles is the original. That said, I've read reviews which reckon that the Crane sounds better, so go figure...