In this week’s Five Cool Things, we’ve got one of the most vibrant gravel bikes on the market, as well as freshly updated lights from Exposure. On top of that, there’s Rockrider’s budget-friendly gravel and cross-country helmet, a techy saddle from Specialized, and BBB’s entry into the bouncy stem market. But first, let’s take a glance at this week’s news.
- Mountain bike size guide – how to get the perfect fit
- What is a gravel bike?
- Can you use a road bike helmet for MTB and gravel riding?
The week kicked off with Steve’s round-up of the 2025 UCI Mountain Bike World Championships. Taking place over two weeks, this year’s champs brought some of the most exciting racing we’ve seen for years. With venues spanning the Swiss Valais region, it had it all, from mega-techy downhill courses to some surprise results. Hot on the heels of all of that action, Yeti unveiled its updated 160E, which is now called the LTe. It dons some top-shelf kit from Fox as well as Bosch’s newest Performance Line CX-R motor. I managed to get some time on the bike ahead of its launch, so here’s the Yeti LTe T4 Race first ride review.
With August out of the way, the news had been heating up as not only was there the new Yeti to talk about, but Orbea claims to have made ‘the world’s first Smart Dropper’, and DT Swiss unveiled its ‘Degrees of Freedom’ technology. Trek then stepped into the e-gravel game with the new Checkpoint+, and we reckon we’ve caught a sneak peek of Amflow’s upcoming sequel to the PL.
As for reviews, we checked out Ride Concepts’ Hellion shoes, crowning them the best shoes the brand has created to date, as well as Prestacycle’s Prestaflator GO, the brand’s own electric pump. Lastly, with everything going all aerodynamic all of a sudden, Matt delivered his verdict on Castelli’s Sanremo S Speed Suit.
Vielo V+1 Race Edition 2.1 Force XPLR AXS 13 Speed
From £5,899
Although our friends at road.cc have already taken a good look at Vielo’s V+1 Race Edition gravel bike, the 2.1 model brings a host of new features that make it more modern and racier. To start, it gets a wider top tube in a bid to promote an extra bit of stiffness, and its rear triangle has been tweaked to encourage more compliance for comfort.
As well as a stiffer bottom bracket, the 2.1 bike promises a lower centre of gravity and clearance for up to 50mm tyres, which is bang on trend for up-to-date gravel racing.
The bike you see here is the SRAM Force XPLR AXS-equipped model that grants 13 gears in a 1x setup, and of course, that’s bolted to an all-carbon frame. It uses Vielo’s own integrated bar and stem, while the SRAM theme follows through the bike with deep Zipp 303s XPLR SW carbon wheels (a £650 optional extra) and fat Schwalbe G-One tyres. But enough about the spec, we’re big fans of its striking Teal Green colourway.
Rockrider XC Mountain Bike Helmet Race Mips
£70
Mountain bike helmets can get super pricy, but Decathlon’s off-road going brand, Rockrider, aims to buck that trend with its to-the-point XC Mountain Bike Helmet Race. At a rather friendly price of £70, it comes equipped with a Mips Evolve Core cradle to boost protection.
Thanks to heaps of vents, its air circulation has been designed especially for the slower speeds of MTB, and the brand reckons that this medium helmet weighs 320g. It then complies with EN 1078, which has been achieved both through its Mips tech and in-mold EPS construction. If the white is a little too flashy for you, it’s also available in seafoam green… Though we’re uncertain of whether it’s any tamer.
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BBB ActionStem
£80
With a whopping range of parts and accessories, BBB is certainly no stranger to stems, and the ActionStem is its suspension-equipped offering. Compared to many, it’s relatively inexpensive, and it offers up to 20mm of travel, depending on the elastomers you choose. There’s a selection of elastomers, too, allowing the user to fine-tune the firmness of the stem’s shock absorption.
Touted for gravel, road and commuting, the ActionStem is available in 60mm up to 100mm lengths and is designed to accommodate bars with a 31.8mm clamp diameter.
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USE Exposure Sixpack 15
£495
USE Exposure is one of those brands that is constantly working on and refining its products, releasing a fresh batch of lights ahead of every winter. Where in previous years, those upgrades may have seemed small, the Six Pack 15 poses a serious overhaul.
Now knocking out 6000 lumens, the light promises up to 36 hours of run time, which can be monitored via a new colour screen. It’s rechargeable via USB-C, too. The Six Pack 15 brings a new version of Exposure’s Reflex tech. As usual, it automatically adjusts the light’s output based on how you’re riding, but this time, it’s said to be a little cleverer.
Although the light comes with the standard Exposure mount we’ve become accustomed to seeing, the brand now offers a range of mounts, so the light can be attached directly to the bar or under the stem via a special stem mount, and it can be bolted directly to the steerer’s cap.
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Specialized Phenom Pro with Mirror
£275
Saddles are getting mighty techy these days, and as it uses Specialized’s Body Geometry concept, the Phenom Pro with Mirror looks to follow suit. This saddle is built to take on anything, whether it’s lengthy road jaunts or mega serious downhill racing, but thanks to that Body Geometry design, the brand reckons that it provides 28% less pressure on the sensitive bits of your body.
Utilising Mirror tech, the saddle is 3D printed and uses a honeycomb interior structure that’s said to boost sit bone support. Elsewhere, this saddle uses a reclaimed carbon fibre shell that’s injected with nylon, and to shed weight, the rails are built from hollow titanium.
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