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.
Short of a freak September snowstorm, nothing will snap a bike shop into thinking winter quicker than receiving the first shipment of fall/winter clothing. We got ours about a week ago ... on a 90-degree day.
The first wave was from Pearl Izumi, but we have Capo, Castelli and — possibly — another shipment from Pearl on the way, along with various odds and ends from smaller companies.
Even though it means a fairly stark change in weather, it's always nice to turn over the inventory and get something different on the floor. Regular customers need something new to look at, but so do we. Here are three things worth checking out if you should happen to stumble into my shop (or anybody else's, really):
Pearl Izumi PRO Softshell Lite glove ($55): You can say what you want
about Pearl Izumi (boring is the first word that comes to my mind), but the company does a couple of things very well: gloves and winter accessories. The PRO Softshell Lite glove is a nice combination of the two, and should be well-suited to that first blast of chilly air.
It has windstopper material on the back and a longer cuff than most lightweight gloves. There are a few nice details, too — Pittards leather palm, reflective thumb material (think of how your thumbs fall over your hoods) and a nice, long snot wiper on the rest of the thumb. When trying it on, you can instantly tell it's a warmer glove, but I'm guessing it'll be fairly versatile — low 50s to low 40s, and maybe upper 30s if it's not too windy.
Capo LE Wind Vest ($80): Is there any piece of clothing more valuable than a nice vest? I say no, but I dress pretty lightly when it gets cold. A jersey, vest and arm warmers will do the trick for me down into the upper 20s. As such, that takes care of most of my winter riding conditions.
For people who run a bit cooler than me, a vest can span conditions from the mid-30s on up into the mid-50s. The Capo LE vest is made of, essentially, tent material. It's wind and water resistant, packs very small and has stretchy side panels to create a fitted look. What's worse than wearing a sail for a vest or jacket? Riding next to someone who's wearing a sail and having to listen to it the entire time. Like other Capo tops, it has a full-length lockable zipper.
Mad Alchemy Embrocation ($18.95): To answer your question, no — there's nothing more pro than embrocation in cold weather. And though I have a fairly large tub of Qoleum embrocation left over from last year, I'm looking forward to trying some of Mad Alchemy's goods.
The Qoleum embrocation seems a bit heavy-handed, like they mixed two tanks of stuff together: burn and strong smell. Mad Alchemy products come across with a bit more subtlety but tend to keep the burn. I could use a bit more subtlety. Should the temperature dip below, say, 80, I'll let you know what I find.
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There's plenty more new stuff, obviously, but these are the early highlights. You may have read yesterdday about the Schleck brothers jumping onto Treks for 2011 (if you haven't, go here). We heard rumblings of that while we were in Madison, Wisc., in early August. The most interesting nugget in that release is the helmets — the team will be wearing new Bontrager helmets. That's another Madison tidbit — Trek invested a lot of time and money in new lids over the past year. We were told more than that or shown anything, so the unveiling should be pretty interesting.
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In addition to being GamJams Tech Editor, Bryan Redemske manages the Trek Bicycle Store of
Omaha, is a professional writer (he's in the middle of a bacon-centric writing project right now) and a Cat 3 racer. He drinks a
lot of
coffee.
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