Category: Reviews

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Extras Reviews

Abus Airflow

Abus Airflow

Is it really possible to pick up a decent bike helmet for under £30? There was certainly a time when spending this kind of money would have involved a trip to a discount bike-shop for a bundle of  ugly bulk and utilitarian polystyrene, but the Abus Airflow has certainly proven Cyclo’s expectations wrong serving up a helmet that’s not just great for the money, but quite simply… great.

 

The Airflow is sleek and attractive without being (or looking) over engineered and weighing in at 287g stacks up well against helmets at nearly double the price. The lack of bulk naturally adds to comfort but this is helped along by the inner rubberised cradle which, whilst hardly a thing of beauty (who cares, it’s out of sight), sits incredibly easily during the ride giving the slight feeling of a free-floating lid. The ‘Zoomlite’ ratchet dial is the simple one-stop shop for tightening and loosening everything which may not give the endless adjustment permutations of top of the line helmets but is quick, reliable and lacks fuss and nonsense.

 

14 air vents keep things cool and with the front three offering protection with an integrated bug mesh you should end your ride with fly-free hair (or at least as fly-free as you started.) The Airflow comes in two sizes: S-M (52-58cm) and  M-L (58-62cm), and in a choice of three colours (blue/white, red/white and black) all with reflective detailing.

 

At £29.99 the Airflow is a downright bargain and an excellent all-round choice that delivers on comfort, weight and adjustability fronts too.

 

Further details and to find a local retail see www.zyro.co.uk

 

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Extras Reviews

Wemmi Expandable Wipes

Wemmi Expandable Wipes

Good things, we are often told, come in small packets. Never truer than when it comes to Wemmi Expandable Wipes, the latest addition to Cyclo’s bag-o-tricks, genius little tablets that expand with the addition of water to give you just enough wet-wipe to clean away the grime of a good ride.

 

100% natural – basically rayon, a cellulose fibre – disposable and biodegradable (making them as environmentally friendly as a disposable item can be) Wemmi Wipes are available in either boxes of four (around the £1.45 mark) or tubes of eight for £2.45 and expand to approximately 230mm x 250mm. Weighing next to nothing, we now invariably tuck one or two in a pocket during a ride to wipe away the gunk involved in a quick spot of puncture repair or chain or mech inspection. Little more to say on the subject, apart from go get some right now – just like this review, good things come in small packets. Widely available online.

 

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Books Reviews

Merckx: Half Man, Half Bike

Merckx: Half Man, Half Bike

Published in hardback in March this year, and due in paperback soon, Merckx: Half Man, Half Bike by William Fotheringham looks deep into the psyche of the cyclist who, for many, is the best there has ever been.

 

One of the key factors that support the publisher’s guff about Merckx being ‘to cycling what Ali is to boxing’…is the numbers. Quoted as a total of 445 victories in the publicity material but as ‘over 500’ and 525 by sources as diverse as the Guardian and Wikipedia. We’d suggest that if you are pinning your story on statistics at least get them right…

 

What isn’t in dispute is that Merckx won more races than any cyclist in history; five Tour de France, five Giros d’Italia, one Vualta a Espana and three world championships. Possibly the greatest achievement was to win, uniquely, the yellow (Overall Winner), green (Best Sprinter) and polka-dot (King of the Mountains] jerseys in a single Tour (1969).

 

Fotheringham, one of the most entertaining of cycling writers, provides interesting historical and political background to the two sides of Belgium and the rich traditions of Flanders cycling. His biographies of Tom Simpson (Put me back on my Bike) and Fausto Coppi (Fallen Angel) may be much more thrilling but, in part, that’s because both characters were flawed and met with personal tragedy. Because Merckx was relentlessly successful and focused the catalogue of rides and wins impresses rather than fascinates.

 

However, what Fotheringham does provide, as always, is a compelling opening chapter that takes you to the heart of the book – Merckx, near the end of his career, fighting for a futile third place finish on a brutal Alpine pass, with a jaw that was broken in two places just that morning. He also presents a rider who always attacked, the first rider to dominate the classics and the tour, day after day. Interviewed by Fotheringham in 1997 Merckx answered the key questions posed in the book: ‘Why the years of focus? Why the need to win so often and so much?’ Merckx replied with a simple soundbite: ‘Passion, only passion.’

 

Fotheringham suggests it all starts with a sensitive Flemish youngster, an outsider who spoke French, and one who was, in a community where cycle racing was key to the culture, ‘too small to win’. It was this fear of failure that led him at times to pursue the needless annihilation of his rivals.

 

If the background and the cycling action are well researched and detailed one aspect has been widely critised: to some, Fotheringham ‘takes a bucket of whitewash to Merckx’s use of performance enhancing drugs’. Merckx was said to be distraught early in his career when he realised that professional cycling was ‘rotten to the core’ yet still went on to be caught doping three times. Whatever your views on that issue this book is yet another quality title from Fotheringham; a fascinating story of, by any measure, the greatest competitive cyclist of them all.

 

Merckx: Half Man, Half Bike by William Fotheringham is published by Yellow Jersey – ISBN-10: 0224074482 – available from, amongst others, Amazon.co.uk

 

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Nutrition Recovery Reviews

ZipVit ZV0 Electrolyte Drink

ZipVit ZV0 Electrolyte Drink

Frequent readers of Cyclo will have noticed that we’re hot on good hydration. If you also spotted our recent review of ZipVit ZV8 Energy Bars it will come as no surprise that we have turned our attention to ZV0, the same company’s sports electrolyte drink.

 

Initially developed to meet the demands of Cervelo Test Team riders, ZipVit ZV0 combines seven key electrolytes to replace those lost through sweat with L- Glutamine, an amino acid whose dietary sources include everything from beef to dairy products, which some (so far quite limited) research suggests can boost the immune system and aid fatigue. These individually wrapped, effervescent, tablets dissolve on 500-750ml of plain water and low calorie (just over 12kcal per serving) and formulated as low-carbohydrate (0.28g) which may also help burn body fat more efficiently during prolonged exercise.

 

Whilst difficult to swear to their efficiency with regards to either fat-burning or immunity building, the ZV0s certainly deliver on the rehydration front and, crucially, taste pretty good too. Free from artificial colours and flavours, the original Watermelon option tastes refreshing (oddly more like cucumber though, we thought) and does a reasonable job of masking the slightly ‘salty’ taste, but by far Cyclo’s favourite is the all-new Cherry flavour, one of the best tasting electrolytes we’ve tested to date.

 

If you’re looking for pure and unadulterated rehydration something more along the lines of Elete Water might suit, but if you want that little extra (and a great taste to boot) then ZV0 is an excellent option. £7.99 buys 20 tabs, enough to make between 10 and 15litres of drink. Further information and online sales at zipvitsport.co.uk

 

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Extras Recovery Reviews

Rocktape

Rocktape

Rocktape is, for Cyclo’s money, far and away the best kinesiology tape available. Useful for supporting injuries in a variety of ways, Rocktape can also be used to apply compression for injuries (potentially reducing inflammation and speeding recovery) and to help fatigued and ‘pulled’ muscles repair – used sensibly it can even allow for the continuation of exercise during a recovery period.

 

We’ve tested this under numerous conditions and for treating and supporting a range of minor niggles and it plays out well right across the board, but there are a number of unique selling points to Rocktape that really raises it above the competition. For a start the huge amount of elasticity means that it can be more accurately applied and provides far better range of motion once in place, it also (crucially) stays absolutely put even under hot and sweaty conditions. Secondly not only is the width generous but because it isn’t pre-cut it can be used at lengths that best suit the injury, so everything from IT band to plantar problems can be addressed. That really brings us neatly to the third thing we love about Rocktape – the manufacturers take the time and effort to clearly and precisely spell out its uses, including a details instructional leaflet and online video guidance to help you get the best from it.

 

For bonus plus-points, and purely on the fun side of things, it is available in a wide range of colours and designs that even includes hard-as-nails looking tattoo or skull options. Aiding recovery has seldom looked so cool… Costing a little more than some of the competition (expect to pay in the region of £10 for 5m, good for around 5-10 applications to injury) but far superior than most. Well worth the extra in Cyclo’s opinion and if you don’t want to take our word for it then note: Rocktape are the official tape supplier to Team Garmin Cervelo, so now you can recover, if not quite ride, like a pro.

 

Available from www.rocktape.net

 

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Books Reviews

Gold

Gold

Gold by Chris CleaveChris Cleave’s latest novel Gold (Cyclo dares you not to burst spontaneously into Spandau Ballet) is set against a backdrop of Olympic Cycling with best friends/bitter rivals Kate and Zoe vying not only for the eponymous medal but, to an extent, the love of good husband/bad-boy Jack.

 

Cleave, already a well established and successful author (Little Bee, Incendiary), works hard here in capturing both the heartache and dedication that becoming a top-flight athlete involves – he took up and became addicted to the buzz of cycling in the process – but despite providing an imagined glimpse behind the curtain Gold pulls more in the direction of heavy-handed melodrama. Kate and Zoe are thinly sketched opposite sides of the same coin – meaning that neither elicit sympathy nor or cheers on the track – whilst both love interest Jack and grizzled old coach Tom are crashing clichés. Worse still, the use of a (potentially) terminal ill child as a plot device is so crushingly manipulative that it quite unbalances any momentary equilibrium achieved elsewhere in the plotting.

 

Cleave has done his homework and writes, at times, with impressive detail about the minutiae of cycling and the bikes themselves, but then applies the same descriptive techniques to things like kitchen worktops; which makes the whole process seem somewhat fetishistic. Purely as a wordsmith he sometimes shines; his description of the velodrome as ‘(the) gladiator’s arenas, encircled by the roaring crowd, where human speed and human loneliness were contained so that they might be witnessed’ is wonderfully lyrical – but the thrill of the drama that can unfold within these World or Olympic level arenas are never matched by the Mills and Boon relationships that he explores here.

 

Cyclo had expected great (or at least good) things from Gold. Cleave is a respected author and the backdrop of pro cycling had seemed an alluring prospect, but in reality watching a handful of rain-drenched Sunday warriors at play at a local track provides abundantly more thrills than this book.

 

Gold by Chris Cleave is published by Sceptre – ISBN-10: 0340963433. Available, amongst other places, from amazon.co.uk

 

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Extras Reviews

Milk Skincare

Milk Skincare

A skincare product review on Cyclo? Have we gone soft? No, but out skin has, and we have three main reasons for wanting to cover this range. Firstly it’s been designed and formulated by World and Olympic champion swimmer Michael Klim specifically for men (sorry ladies) with a passion for sporting pursuits; secondly if you don’t look after your skin you’ll all end up looking like Iggy Pop on a bike; and thirdly it’s just damn good stuff.

 

A range of five components – moisturiser, body wash, face scrub, a pre-shave and scrub/cleanse wipes – built around natural marine-based ingredients (including brown seaweed and algae extracts), all five work well either together or individually. The Moisturiser includes vitamins A, B and E to aid the skin’s healing process and SPF 15+ to give a level of sun protection that never goes amiss even in the UK’s so-called summer. Like the moisturiser, the body wash has a subtle smell of rosemary and mint that stays just on the right side of masculine, whilst the 2-in-1 face scrub uses jojoba ester (chemically close to the skin’s natural oils) and walnut shell to exfoliate and clean. The pre-shave milk combines menthol for cooling with moisturising coconut oils and a peppermint gum aroma for freshness.

 

Our favourite though is the scrub and cleanse wipes which Cyclo has enjoyed packing in our post-sportive bag for a touch of luxury once all the hard work is done. Infinitely nicer than a quick dap down with a sweat-band or bandana…  Now available on the high street at Boots, the range costs from £9.95 for a pack of 25 wipes to £19.45 for 150ml for the moisturiser. Further details at www.milkskincare.com

 

Categories
Nutrition Reviews

ZipVit ZV8 Energy Bars

ZipVit ZV8 Energy Bars

An energy bar packed full of goodness, but almost inedible, is useless. A tasty energy bar so dry it feels you’ve had all the moisture sucked from your body (you know the kind) is equally useless. Step forward the ZV8 Energy Bar from ZipVit – rammed to the rafters with goodness, a range of delectable flavours and almost as juicy as heading straight for a jaffa.

 

Taste, of course, is a matter of preference but with a range that incorporates banana, orange, chocolate, yoghurt coated peach and apricot and chocolate coated strawberry there is probably something here for everyone. The flavours are vibrant without being overpowering and despite being marketed more towards the ‘sciency’ end of the spectrum there is something of a home-spun taste that perfectly balances sharp tang with sweeter fruits – even the chocolate coated option manages to avoid being sickly sweet. The juiciness is the really big selling point for Cyclo. So often on the bike we are left scrabbling for the water bottle to help wash down a bar that it comes as an real treat to discover a product that almost feels as if it’s actively helping, rather than hindering, the hydration strategy.

 

In terms of ‘goodness’ the ZV8 is second to none. Delivering easily digested carbohydrate energy with the addition of 9 supplementary vitamins (Bs 1, 2 and 3, plus C and E amongst them). Exact levels vary slightly between varieties, but taking the uncoated orange as an example the ZV8 will deliver 244kcal, 4,7g of protein, 34.9g of carbs (21.3g sugar, 7.2g of fat of which 0.7g is saturated) per 65g bar.

 

Hard to fault and easy to eat, the ZV8 may well be the Cyclo taste of the summer (should the summer ever actually arrive…) Available individually, but bulk purchasing at around the £25 mark for 20 bars makes sense to us.