We’ve got some excellent deals on Maxxis mountain bike tyres (new stock just in)
and Hope ZTR Flow EX wheels. There’s a free inner tube with each Maxxis tyre, and with the Hope ZTR Flow EX wheelset you get 2 free tyre worth up to £60 for the pair. Its worth mentioning that with the wheels we’ll chuck in a set of axle adapters to let you run thru axles – these are worth approximately £30, they also come with a set of spare spokes, but in our experience you’re unlikely to need these!
We’ve got the Minion DHF tyres in 2 versions, with different compounds, the Medusa mud tyre and High Roller II 29er tyres. Â We’re also expecting folding High Roller II tyres in due middle November. Â The Minion looks a good bet as its faster rolling than the High Roller II and just as grippy if not even more so.
Been a little while since our last blog, so here’s a quick one about this years most popular bikes.
The Saracen Urban range has something for everyone who is looking for a hybrid – and for the most part, around here, a hybrid is a good choice of bike for either commuting or leisure.
These hybrids have more of a mountain bike style geometry to them, so they are more relaxed and upright than a road bike, and offer more agility and control for sharper corners, whilst the larger wheel size still means they are quicker than a smaller wheeled mountain bike.
Studio 74, fitted out with rack, mudguards and secure D – lock for a customer
The Saracen Urban Studio 74 is the most popular of the range, and for good reason. It sits  second from the top in the Urban series at a reasonable price of £539. It features 3 x 9 Shimano gears in a wide range capable of making even Baths hills seem easy (or at least tackle-able for the new to cycling), hydraulic disc brakes, a lightweight alloy (rigid) fork and good quality tyres from the off. As with all the Urban series it can be fitted with full mudguards and a rack, so really is a good choice for a commuter.
Clever Mike
Our own personal town bikes are the Clever Mike – the top end of the series. For £899 you get an 8 speed Shimano Alfine hub, so a bit of a luxury, but a handy low maintenance one! You also get Shimano hydraulic disc brakes, hardy kevlar tyres and high quality over sized handle bars.
The top two models have been popular, but so have the lower end models – here’s a quick summary of each:
The Urban Esc has been our hire bike of choice for three years now . At £299 they are lightweight and come with good quality components including Shimano 3 x 7 easy shifting triggers and strong double walled wheels.
Next in the range is the Myth, which for £369 features an extra gear, lighter alloy fork and a suspension seatpost. At this price point there is also the Urban Cross 1, essentially the same bike but with a suspension fork.
For £459 and £539 there are two more Urban Cross bikes – the 2 and 3 respectively. These two have the added advantage of hydraulic disc brakes, whilst the 3 features 3 x 9 gears along with extra Shimano components.
Prices may vary depending on offers and availability
The Zesty is without a doubt Lapierre’s flagship model, certainly the most successful. Â We’ve got a 327 AM in the shop in medium for sizing up, other sizes and models are available to order in should the medium or model not suit. Â Stock with the supplier is building, but slowly, and with Lapierre entering the US market this year scarcity might be the name of the game. So if you have you eye on a particular model and size bag it early!!
Its quite a different frame from all previous incarnations of the Zesty – more swooping tube shapes than the previous angular and straight tubing, although that was lovely as well. Â It all looks pretty strong in the right places, but overall bike weights are not any higher. Even considering that the frames, tyres, rims etc have to be ever so slightly bigger to accommodate the bigger 27.5 wheelsize that a pretty nice thing.
Lapierre never seem to skimp on their components like some big brand names (Road bikes included). Â So the AM 327 has faultless shifting thanks to Shimano SLX Â and amazing braking from the Formula RX brakes. Â You even get an XT ‘clutch mech’ for rear shifting duties. Â The clutch mech is a revelation. I’ve been using one for 12 months and it means your chain never comes off the front rings or clangs on the bike frame – amazing!
Regarding wheelsize, I think its probably a storm in a tea cup. I’ve read various experts say that with a big volume tyre on 26″ wheels you can replicate the sizing of a 27.5 wheel. So its not so radical as a 29er wheel size and if you’re thinking of a new bike but don’t want a complete surprise in changed ride character than a 27.5 appears to be fine. Â I’ll update this when I’ve actually had a chance to ride one for some time!
There’s plenty mud clearance on rear of the frame and the Fox forks have loads of room to run a front fender bender or similar under the fork.  The rear brake calliper is also tucked inside the rear chainstay giving improved crash protection! This model is a lovely colour, coordinated grips, SDG Duster saddle and red anodized cable holders compliment the look. This model should appeal even in a couple of years. The next model in the range the AM427 is mostly yellow with some black and is less easy on the eye! After that you get into the £3000 plus carbon and alloy and full carbon models which are all lovely.
We’ve got this bike (plus all others) in our festive sale, so its £2299 is now with 15% off £1954. Or you can have a voucher for 20% of the value for £460 to spend in the shop on accessories etc. Not a bad deal!
Earlier this year Paul Coupe, who makes some rather high end audio equipment (http://referencefidelitycomponents.co.uk/) bought a Lapierre Sensium 300 from us, and was kind enough to send us a his thoughts about it after a few rides.
We had this up briefly before on the old site, but thought I’d get it back.
He wrote,
“Thanks for your time and patience yesterday when I popped down to buy the Lapierre. Â Couldn’t take it out yesterday but went out this evening for a 20 mile spin and I have to say it was a fabulous ride…better than the higher up model, the 500 and surprisingly by some margin. Â The elastomer frame insert on the 500 I reckon softens the response too much. The 300 rode much better. Â Big gap between ratios which takes some getting used to and the SRAM gear change mis-changed several times which was very annoying, plus brakes not much cop until bedded in (nearly ran across a roundabout at 30mph after coming down a hill!). Â Fabulous climber. Â That SRAM compact gear train is just the ticket for hilly terrain and the San Marino saddle is great. Â I’ll be changing the seat post for the Ritchley Carbon model but other than that, that Sensium I reckon is the nearest I’ve ridden to a full works bike in ride quality…very racey but comfortable…superb. Â You’re onto a good thing with those Lapierres”.
and later,
“For this area (and Bath) the 300 is the pick of the whole range I reckon. Â You get an awful lot of bike”.
It was great to hear that he had gotten on so well with the bike right from the word go!
Even better to find out that Lapierre had continued with the Sensium range, although the polymer insert frames have now been replaced in favor of the ones without, and Shimano has been used for all models.
‘I would thoroughly recommend Tom at Green Park Bike Station. If I need some advice, a bike service or to pick up some kit for my bike he’s always extremely helpful and takes the time to answer my questions. Tom serviced my bike for JOGLE recently and I didn’t have a problem with it for the whole 982 miles’
A new top for this year from Madison, these act as an alternative for the Flux top, and have come on a fair few leaps and bounds.
The Flo top is a lightly fitted jersey, with more breathable panels under the arms and on the back. It also has a small side pocket for keys/ bars etc. and has a glasses wipe on the inside. It comes in three colours- black, coral and aqua.
Overall I found it to be a really nice top to wear, despite the high temperatures combined with the backpack and protective arm/ leg pads it never felt too hot, especially with the 1/4 zip to keep extra air flow when climbing. The glasses wipe was also handy for taking off mud and sweat!
I had my doubts about coral, but it turned out to be a bright, fresh colour!
First, ignore the price Madison’s clothing site has listed them as, they are £19.99.
Bamboo has antibacterial properties, so makes for a great combo when combined with wicking materials for helping to keep smells at bay. This seemed particularly useful on such a hot weekend, where sweat was definitely a factor.
I really really enjoyed wearing these, and actually wished that I’d had them to wear over the four days instead of just for two (I had the standard Madison liner for the other two days)
The liner that Madison include in many of their shorts is actually already of a good quality, I’ve used on several rides with no problems. Where the Bamboo liner steps forward is that it’s actually shorter in length down the leg, so a tad cooler, and doesn’t use rubber grips on the legs, which makes it much less noticeable when wearing.
The material is softer, and the waist band is wider, so again just makes it less noticeable when moving.
The pad seems fairly bulky when walking around, but actually on the bike fits perfectly, and certainly helped to prevent saddle soreness over the four days of riding.
My new bike. It’s had quite a few test runs around Bath now, as a bit of off road practice before going away, so it was great to get out on some “proper” big trails.
I was surprised at how easily the bike climbs – on technical sections the rear suspension is actually really handy for extra grip, whilst on fire road sections of climb it still feels stiff enough to get some good power down.
Of course going down is the important bit, and this bike sure gives a huge amount of confidence through even the trickiest of areas! The 150 mm travel at the front and 140 mm at the back are more then enough to happily get over even the bumpiest of descents, a great confidence booster for someone like me!
Lapierre Zesty 314 with Hope/ Stans wheels
Hope/ Stans Arch rims wheel set with Continental tubeless tyres
An upgrade to the wheelset that came with the bike (Mavic Crossrides) the Hope/ Stans wheelset come out as lighter, and with the tubeless capability. The Hope hubs are also the Pink version, which looks pretty cool too!
These were hand built in the shop by Tom!
The wheels themselves felt really nice, just that bit smoother and easier to turn, whilst they have the benefit of being sealed cartridge bearings (for extra weather protection) that are more readily available than replacement Mavic parts.
It was also really interesting to try tubeless out myself for the first time. Having gotten a pinch puncture the other day from the lower pressure combined with a big drop we hoped it would be less of a faff to get it set up before heading to Wales. The system seemed to work really well – happily ran the tyres at a lower pressure then I would with a tube, and had no issues at all, whilst benefiting from loads of grip.
The tyres themselves were a Continental Mountain king (black chili, folding, UST 2.2)Â on the front and a X king (black chili, folding, UST 2.2) on the rear, which was basically the combination I had on my previous Zesty and got on well with. Again they both seemed to perform well – I had been a bit unsure about the 2.2 as opposed to a 2.4 on the front, but I think being able to run at the lower pressure meant it actually rode fine overall.
Pink Hope Pro Evo 2 hubs with Stans not tubes Arch rims
We recently took ourselves off for a trip to the Afan valley in Wales for a bit of field testing (well, holiday) where we tried out many items that we sell now or were consideration stocking.
The trip was a mountain biking based one from the various trail centres in the area, with the weather being well on the toasty side!56
I’d never worn any protection for mountain biking but as we were tackling table tops and steep berms in the Afan bike park I thought it sensible to try some.  I have been wearing the iXS Carve knee pads and the Flow elbow guards.  The knee pads were pretty irritating to wear at first, until Becci pointed out the tiniest label under a velcro flap showing which was left and which was right!  From that point on the knee pads have been incredibly comfortable.  The extra length down the shin is a nice idea to protect from pedal strikes, it has prevented a couple of these so far! The elbow guards are very lightweight virtually all highly breathable mesh apart from protection on the elbow and down the back of the forearm.  Becci’s had a couple of crashes and the elbow pads have definitely saved her from more serious injury, whilst I slid on a large slab of rock and my knee pads prevented grazing etc.  So all in all they have been a hit, if not adding a bit of extra warmth in this mini heatwave but surprisingly not to an unpleasant level.  In the shop we have the slightly cheaper version of the knee and elbow pads these are the Hack elbow guards and the Slope Series Evo Knee pads, if the pricier ones are what you want they can be ordered in.  We’d certainly recommend trying these on as the mediums which the iXS size guide recommended for me are right on the cusp of just about too small for me!
iXS protection
Madison Zenith shorts
I had to buy some new shorts this year as my previous 4 year old shorts were pretty worn.  Luckily Madison have a new range of shorts out this year, and the Zenith shorts have been the first to come into the shop.  The material is really soft and whilst this seems a bit odd for a mountain bike short I can guarantee that having crashed and slid in them twice they are very hardwearing.  The nice thing about the soft material is it stretches when pedalling, under the thighs and above the backside. The short has four large pockets which can be left open as venting and a small water resistant pocket.  They come in bright blue which makes a change from boring black!
Colourful Zenith shorts
Madison Zenith and Flux tops
These two tops were great in this mini heatwave, very breathable and they did not get damp even when riding quite hard.  They felt great worn under a backpack, no bunching or riding up.  They are very well priced too at only £26.99 so they’re pretty much a bargain. They come in a range of bright colours with contrasting zips which is funky, but they both come in black if you’re more stealthy
Tru flo mini track pump
I needed a larger volume pump for inflating the mountain bike tyres, as my minipump would just take too long to inflate the tyre.  TheTruflo mini track pump seemed ideal as it has a ‘telescoping’ barrel, effectively doubling the stroke of the pump but keeping the whole package down to a manageable size for carrying in a backpack.  I have used the pump quite a lot, even to inflate a tubeless tyre onto a rim, and it has worked amazingly well.  One of the best features is the valve attachment.  The valve head presses on firstly and then you screw it on to the final bit of the valve to secure it in place.  Its easy to use and a bit quicker than the Lezyne equivalent it seems, also I’ve had no issues with the pump unscrewing the valve core – although recently I have discovered this tool which ‘sets tight’ valve cores in the valve stem by hand, a job which is impossible to achieve with finger power alone!
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