As a cyclist, the search for newer and better gear is constant — there's always something else out there. Premes, Picks, Promos will highlight both the next big thing and the sleeper deal.
As much as I'd love to cater to the high-end roadie crowd, our customer base is more along the lines of the recreational rider, or mid-level road rider. That's not to say we don't have our $500-per-visit customers — they're just not our bread and butter.
But everybody gets treated the same, and everybody has similar needs in the war against chafing ... ummm ... down yonder. As such, I have to nominate DZ Nuts as the most embarrassing product to attempt to explain to a 50-year-old woman.
The brainchild of Garmin-Transitions rider (and U.S. national time trial champion) Dave Zabriskie, DZ Nuts chamois creme has been out for around a year now. Since I had a pretty ridiculous stockpile of Assos chamois creme kicking around, it's taken me this long to get to DZ Nuts.
After a week or two of testing (read: riding the trainer a lot), I've come to some conclusions.
1. As much as I thought I'd like having a tube of cream, I like the little cans (like from Assos) better.
2. DZ Nuts has the little tingle that Assos used to have (when it was white instead of blue).
3. DZ Nuts is a little bit lighter than Assos, which also makes it a little slipperier.
4. That lightness also means it doesn't last nearly as long. On longer rides, I find myself noticing a bit of friction down there. That could be because DZ Nuts is a bit more expensive ($22/4 oz. vs $20/4.7oz for Assos), and I feel like I'm squirting a tube of money into my shorts before every ride. And I'm cheap.
5. Explaining to customers that Assos isn't pronounced "Ass-os" is less embarrassing than saying, "No, ma'am, it's not D Z nuts. It's deez nuts."
Of course, I could have just saved some time and said this: Assos is better.
Christmas, listed
Bike shop guys don't ask for bike stuff for Christmas, generally. It's way better to ask for money, with which we have more buying power. Part of my money went toward some super-trashy carbon cages for my new bike.
I've been adamantly anti-carbon for a long while now, mostly because most don't hold bottles nearly as well as their plastic or metal counterparts. (Read GamJams Ambassadors' bottle-cage opinions here.) I've found an exception in Bontrager's RXL carbon cage ($50). Yes, they're definitely gaudy, but if you have a similarly gaudy bike (think Euro graphics), they'll go well.
It's essentially the same design as the plastic Race Lite cage I'd been using for years. Bottles are held securely but the sides flex enough to get the bottles in and out. Before I took them home, I rode around the parking lot, pulling bottles in and out of the cages to see how they fared.
I do this in the name of science, people.
Also for Christmas, my custom Oakley Jawbones arrived just in time. (Make your own here — $195 and up.) I've only had 'em out once (we got 18 inches of snow the next day), but I'm impressed. They feature plenty of coverage — even compared to my long-favored M-Frames — and, of course, look pretty sweet. I went with black and white. Simple, classic, safe.
Plus, look at me. You think I can pull off bright orange?
In addition to being GamJams Tech Editor, Bryan Redemske manages the Trek Bicycle Store of Omaha, is a professional writer and a Cat 3 racer. He drinks a lot of coffee.
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