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It’s time for our October round-up of road.cc Recommends, and eight standout products have made the cut – including one that earned a hallowed 10/10 score as well as the road.cc Recommends badge of honour. This month, we’ve been impressed by clever on-bike storage solutions, pro-level pedals, power meters, helmets and more.
Below is the full list of October’s picks, with half a dozen highlighted further down the page:
- Look Keo Blade pedals
- Topeak Sidekick Wedge Pack
- Restrap Switch Pannier 5L
- OpenRock S2 Open-Ear True Wireless Earbuds
- Tailfin Bar Cage and 11L Bag
- Genesis Croix De Fer 30
- Met Trenta Mips
- Favero Assioma Pro RS-2
Tailfin Bar Cage and 11L Bag
It’s rare that we deploy the full five star-rating here at road.cc Towers, but with a perfect 10/10 score, the Tailfin Bar Cage and 11L Bag sets a new standard by which other handlebar luggage systems will be judged, according to our reviewer Mike Stead.
The ‘System’ is made up of the Bar Cage (£110, 315g including straps) and the 11L bag (£60, 248g). If you buy the cage and bag together you’ll get £10 off. So, the 11L bag and a cage with straps on review here will cost you £160 and 563g in weight.
Overall, the Bar Cage works brilliantly. Setup is straightforward, and once fitted, removing or installing it takes just two bolts and about a minute. The bags attach quickly and without faff, the straps cinch down tight and stay put, and any accessories are secure and clear of your bag.
Read our review of the Tailfin Bar Cage and 11L Bag
Favero Assioma Pro RS-2
Buy for £649 from Sigma Sports
If you want accurate power measurement on your bike, the Favero Assioma PRO RS-2 pedals are pretty hard to beat, says Dave Atkkinson. They’re cheaper than most power pedals, lighter than most pedals full-stop, and their accuracy is spot on. Our set weighed exactly what Favero claimed: 247g for the pair, or 123.5g per pedal.
The Assioma PRO RS-2 pedals are SPD-SL-compatible road pedals built around Favero’s Assioma PRO spindle. The clever bit is that the spindle is interchangeable, so if you wanted, you could keep a set of SPD bodies in the shed to swap out for your mountain bike or gravel setup.
The rechargeable battery in each pedal is good for around 60 hours, and you charge it by connecting a magnetic cradle to the spindle which accepts any USB-C lead; Favero provides a double-ended lead so you can do both pedals at once.
Read our review of the Favero Assioma Pro RS-2
Met Trenta Mips
Buy now for £159.99 from Cycle Store
The Met Trenta Mips helmet impresses with its blend of comfort, aerodynamics, ventilation, and style. To achieve this balance, it features a whopping 19 vents to aid airflow and keep your head cool.
The Trenta also features the latest Mips (Multi-directional Impact Protection System) technology, designed to reduce rotational forces in the event of an impact, forces that would otherwise be transferred to your head.
Overall, reviewer Ben Woodhouse says it’s “a versatile and lightweight helmet, suited for racing, training, or a café ride.”
Read our review of the Met Trenta Mips
Restrap Switch Pannier 5L
Buy from Merlin Cycles for £57.99
Our reviewer Steve Williams had no complaints about the Restrap Switch Pannier 5L. These do exactly what they promise to do – securely carry stuff and keep it dry.
They’re very easy to pack and unpack (the bright orange, seam-sealed liner gives good contrast for finding things), plus the roll-top is quick; secure once clipped together; and makes a great handle. The mounting is excellent too, though it does require bolted bosses on your fork or rack.
You can carry a similar amount of stuff for less money, but not with anything like the easy convenience here, and not with the same confidence in its longevity either.
Read our review of the Restrap Switch Pannier 5L
Look Keo Blade pedals
Buy now from Decathlon for £99.99
Since their debut in 2011, the Look Keo Blade Pedals have been a fixture in the professional peloton. The concept has always been the same: replacing the clipless pedal’s traditional steel retention spring with a carbon leaf spring – the ‘blade’. The result is a lighter, sleeker and supposedly more aero pedal, which is now in its third major update.
Reviewer Sam Smith said, “When you’re riding, the Keo Blade pedals feel exactly like what they are: light, stiff and race-ready…Sprinting for a town sign or stamping on the pedals to close a gap, there was no sense of flex or vagueness – just a crisp, immediate power transfer.”
Overall, these deliver pro-level performance, low weight, long-term durability and at a reasonable price.
Read our review of the Look Keo Blade pedals
Topeak Sidekick Wedge Pack
Buy from High on Bikes for £24.99
More on-bike storage makes it into this month’s Recommends with Topeak’s Sidekick Wedge Pack. It uses a clever clip mechanism to fix quickly to your bike, offers solid weatherproofing, and will last you for years.
The Sidekick is structured a bit differently to most saddle packs – the sides are made of semi-rigid moulded EVA foam. The top is made from a Cordura-type of fabric, and the underside has a plasticised coating for added protection against road spray.
With a 0.75-litre capacity, there’s enough room for the essentials. Our reviewer notes it can even fit one of the smallest mini pumps, up to 15cm in length.
Read our review of the Topeak Sidekick Wedge pack
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.
8 thoughts on “Tailfin scores a perfect 10 and Favero’s lightweight power pedals impress: road.cc Recommends updated with 8 great cycling products”
Handlebar bags are stupid and
Handlebar bags are stupid and pointless, adding drag, affecting steering and restricting access to the bars. What happened to the old model of having them on a frame, so you could still use the bars properly?
If you bothered to read the
If you bothered to read the review, the Tailfin system doesn’t affect access to the bars – and in fact adds extra mounting points for lights/cameras/GPS units. Don’t care about drag, i’m about as aero as a tree trunk, steering is defintely not affected. I’ve used both this and the heavier Tailfin bar bag, neither affected the steering.
For me a bar bag should be
For me a bar bag should be the last resort for luggage. Start with rear panniers, then frame bag, top tube bag, front panniers. If you still need more space rethink your packing priorities
Somewhere along the line we
Somewhere along the line we seem to have defined ‘bikepacking’ as ‘anything but panniers’.
“Touring” innit, done by the
“Touring” innit, done by the ancestors (or at least crumblies and bimblers).
I guess if you’re going all-out, or tackling the most technical terrain there are benefits to a more aero or balanced distribution. And everyone wants to look like the cool kids, even if their own adventures are more quotidien.
The_Ewan wrote:
Well seeing as Tailfin and many other similar companies also make paniers, that’s patently not true. Modern bikepacking though has definitley moved away from the 1970s bulky panniers style setup and went back to adopting the more varied forms of carrying stuff on bikes, which actually long predated panniers.
Plus our necessay luggage is now much more compact, so we don’t even need those massive panniers. My current light and very roomy two man tent is just 5L when packed, compared to my light and roomy tent for its day from the 1990s, which is probably 12+L and more than double the weight and pretty sure in its time was still smaller/lighter than tents from the 1970s. That goes across the board with gear needed for travelling by bike. My very waterproof top and trousers are about clenched fist sized when packed down. Large panniers can also get in the way for narrow off road trails, plus the more room you have, the more unnecesary gear and weight you tend to take.
My Ortlieb handle bar bag is where I keep all the stuff I need access to during the day. I can very quickly get to my camera kit, sun/bug cream, snacks, waterproofs etc, without even getting off bike. Handy if weather suddenly changes or a brief photo op presents itself.
A bar bag also helps distrutes weight better than the heavy rear biased suggestions above. I barely notice my kit, even when riding techical off road trails – bar climbing obviously.
SimoninSpalding wrote:
I thought that despite the drag, impact on steering and stability, and the odd appearance, the one saving grace of a bar bag was that you could get quick access to whatever is in it whilst riding e.g. snacks, phone, SLR camera with zoom lens, catapult etc. With this bag you have to fully dismount, prop the bike up, and then open the bag, so you’re only going to really put stuff in there that you won’t need during the ride. And you still have to find another solution for the quick access stuff.
Quote:
Interestingly, if you are buying directly from Favero’s website and you want to end up with both pedal body options, it’s cheaper to buy the complete MX-2 pedals and spare RS bodies, than to buy the complete RS-2 pedals and MX bodies, even though you end up with the exact same items.
I would caveat that with saying I probably wouldn’t buy directly from Favero if you’re based in the UK, as (I believe) you have to pay VAT and potentially other duties and charges on top of the quoted price, which means it’s almost certainly cheaper, and definitely easier, to buy from Sigma Sports (the only UK-based retailer I can find that stocks them). But Sigma don’t currently sell the RS bodies by themselves, so you are forced to buy the complete RS pedals and the separate MX bodies if that is the path you want to go down.