road.cc Recommends Spring Special: 27 great new products added from Specialized, Scott, Ribble, Mason + more

road.cc Recommends is back for 2023, and we’re kicking off with a spring spectacular; a whopping 27 products that we’ve reviewed over the past couple of months have been added this time around. We have bikes from huge brands like Specialized, Scott and Brompton, components and accessories from the likes of Exposure, Apidura and Bontrager, and clothing from Endura, Showers Pass and Altura.

You know all about road.cc Recommends, right? It’s the section of the site devoted to the very best stuff we review. Products get in only if they’re really, really good.

Here’s the full list of everything that’s just been selected, broken down into sections because there’s so much this time around:

Bikes

• Boardman JNR Hybrid Bike - 24 inch Wheel, £380 
• Brompton C Line Explore, £1,640 
• Carrera Intercity Folding Bike, £380 
• Mason SLR SRAM Force, £5,200
• Orro Terra E Shimano GRX 1x E-bike, £3,899.99 
• Ribble Gravel 725, £2,899 
• Scott Foil RC Pro, £10,499 
• Specialized Turbo Vado SL 4.0 EQ, £3,600 

Components

• Bontrager R3 Hard-Case Lite TLR tyre, £52.99 
• Panaracer Agilest TLR Road Tyre, £59.99 
• Prime Doyenne Shorty Saddle with Ti Rails, £59.99 
• Scribe Race-D Wide+ wheelset, £510 

Accessories

• Apidura Packable Backpack (13L), £46 
• Bell XR Spherical Road Helmet, £209.99 
• Craft Cadence Backpack, £94.99 
• Exposure Link+ Mk3 Front and Rear Combo with DayBright, £90
• Great British Gravel Rides Cycling the wild trails of England, Scotland & Wales by Markus Stitz, £25 
• Liv Relay MIPS Helmet, £44.99 
• Rudy Project Egos helmet, £169.99 

Clothing

• Altura Grid Women’s Half Zip Softshell Hoodie, £85 
• Endura GV500 Thermal Bibtight, £154.99 
• Galibier GrandTour Jacket, £82.34 
• Giant Surge Pro shoes, £299.99 
• GripGrab WindBreaking Thermal Short Sleeve Base Layer, £55.95 
• Lake MXZ304 Winter Boot, £280 
• Pearson Women’s Polartec Insulated Gilet, £110 
• Showers Pass Men’s EcoLyte Elite Jacket, £245 

We reviewed the Mason SLR SRAM Force right at the end of December and it won the road.cc Recommends Bike of the Year award for 2022/23. It’s a massively versatile road machine that gives the comfort and confidence of a big-mile tourer, while offering the fun of something much quicker. This is a hard-to-categorise bike that reviewer Stu Kerton described as “faultless”.

Among the other bikes to feature is the super-high-end Scott Foil RC Pro aero road bike – which is an absolute speed demon – a gravel e-bike from Orro and “the ultimate folding commuter bike” in the shape of the Brompton C Line Explore.

If you don’t want to spend that much, the Carrera Intercity Folding Bike is hugely practical and folds in seconds. Priced at just £380, it proves you don’t have to spend a fortune to get a great bike.

On the component front, we were hugely impressed by Scribe’s light, stiff and durable Race-D Wide+ aluminium wheelset (£510) and two outstanding sets of tyres have got the seal of approval from our hard-nosed reviewers.

The Panaracer Agilest TLR Road Tyre (£59.99) is light and fast while also providing confident and predictable grip...

...and the Bontrager R3 Hard-Case Lite TLR Road Tyre (£52.99) is an excellent option for crappy roads and long distances, and it’s highly puncture-resistant too.

Highlights among the accessories include a couple of superb backpacks. The Craft Cadence Backpack (£94.99), aimed at commuting cyclists, is waterproof and very well built...

...while Apidura’s Packable Backpack (£46) is a lighter-weight alternative that squashes down to almost nothing when not in use.

We’ve added three helmets to road.cc Recommends too. The Liv Relay MIPS is priced at just £44.99 but it packs in plenty of quality...

...and the Rudy Project Egos (£169.99) is low profile with vents that direct the airflow really well.

In terms of tech, the Bell XR Spherical Road Helmet (£209.99) is the high flyer. It’s supremely comfortable and well-ventilated while the Mips is integrated in a very subtle way. Check it out if you’re in the market for a new lid.

> All you need to know about Mips 

Finally on to clothing and Endura’s GV500 Thermal Bibtights (£154.99) put in a stunning performance, reviewer Tom Price saying “they provide a near-perfect answer to the challenging terrain of gravel rides”. High praise, indeed.

The Galibier GrandTour Jacket (£82.34) is another highlight product. It provides excellent comfort and a high level of warmth. It might now be March but it’s still worth a look.

Speaking of winter stuff, Lake’s MXZ304 Winter Boots (£280) really impressed us. Very warm, very comfortable, good water resistance… Lake isn’t messing about here!

At the other end of the footwear spectrum, the Giant Surge Pro shoes (£299.99) are all about light weight, stiffness, ventilation… you know the deal. They put in a high-level performance across the board and reviewer Stu Kerton reckons the soles are some of the stiffest he’s ever used. And believe us, Stu has reviewed a lot of shoes over the years. We rate the Li2 BOA reels too, and Giant provides two on each shoe.

That’s a quick whistle-stop tour of some of the new products in road.cc Recommends, our dedicated section of cycling specialness. Head over there now to see the lot.