Bikes Etc Magazine September 2018

Tour de France champ and Olympic cycling legend Sir Bradley Wiggins has joined forces with Le Col, the premium British cycling brand to launch his own cycling collection ‘Le Col by Wiggins’. To celebrate we’re offering one lucky reader the chance to win this absolutely stunning jersey worth £120. The Le Col Pro Gold Stripe Jersey is part of Le Col’s Pro range and is based on the Pro Air Jersey – the lightest and coolest of all the jerseys in Le Col’s arsenal, making it perfect for hot-weather rides. The boundary-pushing technical fabrics it’s made from will also help maximise your speed and performance, while it’s good looks will definitely turn a few heads. That’s in part down to Sir Bradley. A chap with a serious passion for fashion,…

According to a chap called Heinz Stücke, ‘You meet people when you’re on a bicycle as you are considered a good person. Bicycles are a wonderful passport.’ And Heinz should know. As his name suggests, Heinz is a German gent, although given how he’s spent most of his life, it’d be more accurate to describe him as a citizen of the world. You see, Heinz holds the world record for having travelled further on a bicycle than anybody else in history. In 1962, aged 22, he jacked in a dead-end factory job, jumped on his bike and pedalled away from his home town of Hövelhof, telling his family that he was off to see the world, promising them he’d back in time for the 1972 Munich Olympics. Such was the…

GERMAN INNOVATOR CANYON MAKES A STUNNING GRAVEL BIKE DEBUT WHAT IS IT? It has taken Canyon a while to get on board the gravel bike bandwagon but it’s been worth the wait. While the popular Inflite remains the choice of cyclocross racers, the Grail is aimed more at those who want to take to the trails for long days out or bikepacking adventures, and might even want to enter a competitive event such as Northumberland’s Dirty Reiver (see dirtyreiver.co.uk for details). With a full carbon frame weighing just 1,040g, and with a similar ‘sport geometry’ to their speedy endurance bike, the Endurace, the Grail is no slouch whether you’re riding on tarmac or rougher terrain. In fact, the whole bike weighs just 8.44kg – impressively svelte for such a rugged machine. Carbon components…

Ribble has become one of Britain’s favourite bike builders not least because its online business model allows it to get amazing bikes to market at affordable prices. But the swing tag isn’t the only thing about its latest bike that’s got us excited. Not only is Ribble’s CGR Ti one handsome devil but it also promises to perform brilliantly whatever you throw at it. Let’s look at the evidence. Exhibit A is that frame. Handmade from seamless, triple-butted 3AI/2.5V brushed titanium, it comes with a five-year warranty (although it should last a heck of a lot longer than that). Its geometry is also designed to make you last longer, too. Squarely aimed at the endurance market, this is a bike that intends to save your back on monster rides, while still…

Poring over cycling’s past is a bit of a passion for us here at BikesEtc, but we’re not the only ones. The good folks at Prendas also clearly find much to inspire them in the sport’s history books judging by their latest clothing collection. Called ‘Forgotten Races’, it pays homage to three once-celebrated events that have vanished from pro cycling’s calendar – the Omloop Van Vlaanderen, Trofeo Baracchi, and the Bordeaux-Paris. The first was a Belgian cobbled race first held in March 1945 while the Second World War was still raging, continuing for the next 64 years until a change of sponsorship brought a change of name. Both the jersey and cap sport a cobble pattern in the design while the red, black and yellow colours mirror those of the Belgian…

The middle of a flippin’ fantastic summer is an odd time for an indoor cycling specialist to announce an overhaul of product range but that’s exactly what Wahoo has done. And it’s a measure of just how impressive that overhaul is that we’ve taken our sunglasses off for long enough to have a look at it. So what are the headlines? Well, first up its Kickr Smart trainer has had a revamp. As with previous incarnations, you can pair it wirelessly via Bluetooth or ANT+ to your mobile device to work with Wahoo’s fitness apps or third-party training platforms such as Trainer Road, and record accurate power readings up to 2,200w. What’s truly clever about it though is that it’s been radically redesigned to drastically reduce noise. The Kickr Smart is…