The first thing you notice about these is that the Crank Brothers have obviously been thinking outside the box. Instead of copying all the other peddles they have gone with a completely different design. With thinking outside the box it can go very right or very wrong, we tested the egg beaters out to see which it was.

They have a very distinctive look and appear to be quite simple apparently only having 13 parts. The design means that you can clip your foot in on all four sides. The other major advantage of these peddles is the mud shedding ability because they are so simple there is very few places where mud can build up and even if it does there are three other sides to clip into.

Using these peddles they feel very different form other SPD peddles, they are very small with no where to stand on except the clip and because they are the same on every side you can roll your foot along the peddle until it hits the cleat. This is quite a different technique no better or wore really just takes some getting used to. The mud shedding is defiantly a plus point. Another great feature is that they can be serviced very easily to keep the silky smooth.

We did find that there was a bit more float/movement in your foot that we would have liked and unfortunately this is not adjustable (although you can change the cleats to adjust this a little bit). If you want something slightly different and don’t mind always having to put on your bike shoes to ride your bike then these are for you.

The Sidewinders are a full finger glove from Fox. They come lightly padded so that they fit well around the grip they also have protection on the knuckles and are adjustable on the wrist. They are a tight it and are quite stiff from new but loosen up when they have been used a couple of times.

The pad gives enough padding to stop the shocks going through your wrists but not too much that you can’t get your hand around the bars. They have a good surface on the palm that give decent grip even when they get a bit wet and muddy. The only problem we had was that they were very warm even in the winter so we don’t think they will work in the summer. After a few rides the stitching all looked good still and they were holding up well. Good gloves if you get cold hands a lot!

This light comes with a 9 cell NiMH Battery giving it 3 hours runtime on the brighter 13.5watt/675 Lumens setting or 3.5hours if you drop it down to the 10watt/550Lumens level. This gives a enough light to head out for decent night ride and then it can be recharged in 3.5 hours with the turbo charger. The battery does come in a bit heavy at 660g but the light can be either handle bar mounted or our favourite the helmet mount system.

Our on our test rides we found this to give plenty of light, the light mounting kept it solid enough over rough terrain. We kept it on the high light setting and it lasted long enough for us (still bright at 2.45hours). Although there are brighter lights out on the market this one offers great value for money so comes recommended for a more affordable but still capable system. For longer runtimes this can also be upgraded to the Lithium Ion Ultra battery pack.

These bars are made from natural carbon weave tubing and also have Composite Taperwall Technology. They have also been designed to have extra reinforced zones for where the stem and brake leavers are likely to clamp onto.

We are still undecided about carbon bars for mountain biking, they defiantly save weight but is there a risk they can break? Easton have a good reputation for solid bars so if anyone can make a bomb proof carbon bar it them. We fitted these bars on and gave them a shot.

If you have never ridden with carbon bars before the first thing you notice is the slight spring they have. This is not a bad thing its down to preference but we feel they help to give a smoother ride. We nit some major trails and in our opinion they felt very secure never feeling that they would suddenly snap. The only thing to watch for is that they don’t get damage to them either when fitting/refitting or when out on a ride as these could lead to overall failure. But that’s the price you pay for super light bars.

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The XT range from Shimano offers competition level components at a reasonable price. These pebbles fit nicely into that design. They have an aluminium body with a slender chrome-molly axle that make them both light but also strong.

We put these on via the 8mm allen key and headed out, we had heard these are not great in the mud so aimed for some really bad spots. Straight out the box they are nice and smooth and easy to clip in. Once they got covered in mud and grit this didn’t change they were still easy to clip in and out. Depending on user preference you can adjust how hard it is to clip in and out if needed.

We found these peddles bang on for the money I’m sure you can get lighter but probably not for around the £60. They are rock solid so no real fear of reliability issues.

We have had these on test now for several months and thought it was about time to let you know the results. We set up with the 185mm rotors but there are 160 and 203 versions available. Setting these up was a piece of cake they offer drip free bleeding so you don’t make so much of a mess and the indexed reach adjustment meant that we could set them up just as we wanted.

When using the breaks we found them to have biblical stopping power they really do stop the earth rather than the bike. But that leads us to the main problem we have with them they are either on or off there is no real in between with them. We had them set up with semi metallic pads and although we could adjust them they never really gave us the graduated stopping we wanted. The other main issue we had, and this may be due to the pad choice, is that they squeal in dry dusty conditions, not an issue now as its winter drizzle.

These are widely used brakes and for a good reason they work well, if you can afford to keep using organic pads (to stop the squeal) they offer more than enough stopping power for the price.

The MONO hub available from Hope comes in either a steel or titanium cassette body and has sealed cartridge bearings. We have liked Hope hubs for a while mainly for the fact that they are designed with sealed bearing to make it easy to service.

They defiantly look the part machined from one piece they look clean and solid. We built these up onto Mavic XC7171 rims with conventional V-brakes. The reliability from the hope brand has always been good so these are no exception, we used these fro several months clocking up a lot of miles and they were still silky smooth at the end. We have heard reports that they can be noisy but we found them to be ok.

They weigh in at around 355g making them ideal for XC. Overall they are a solid design at a good price, the cartridge bearings are a piece of cake but they are so reliable you shouldn’t be taking them apart too often.

From the specification of these shoes they are built to last. They feature an upper made of ‘Lorica’ which is tougher than leather and obviously its abrasion and water resistant. The also feature mesh inserts to keep your feet cool and optional toe spikes it the going gets that bad (although not included with the shoe).

The main buckle gives very accurate adjustment with a leaver that allows half click adjustment. When you have it perfect it can then be locked down so it won’t move while out on the trails. Our shoes mainly wear on the heel cup from prolonged use so its good to see that Sidi have reinforced this area. The sole has good grip if you need to get off but you wouldn’t want to walk far as its very stiff which is good for when your on the bike.

Out on a ride they felt very comfortable they started to pinch slightly but there is a MEGA wide version available. We also fond that the buckle did get mud in it quite easily which can stop the buckle working but no more than any other shoe. The shoe stayed tight throughout the ride but the mesh let in a bit too much cold but they are designed more for summer use so we can’t complain too much. Overall we have heard good things about these and we have nothing to contradict this, they are a very comfy shoe.

The Fire XC Pro tyres have a square profile with variable-height torch and burning edge side knobs – what ever that means? We thought it best to put it to the real world test.

For our tests we used the 2.1 inch width ones but you can also get 1.8 which would be more suited to summer XC riders. Since these can be used front and rear we put them on both and headed out.

These tyres are designed to be good all-rounder’s and that exactly what they are, the conditions were damp and we got great traction. We hit some sections that had a lot of tree roots and rocks but they still preformed as well as can be expected in the conditions. Cornering we were also presently surprised they feet predictable but they do seem more suited to the rear than the front.

They have snakebite protection against punctures and we certainly didn’t get any in our tests, overall a great all rounder that you can leave on all year – if you don’t want to keep changing tyres there are the ones to get.

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With Shimanos XTR range you come to expect light but expensive components, we put this BB on a bike to see if this was the case and to all see is the extra money bough reliability.
After a couple of weeks riding round on it we found it to be pretty good, it felt smooth right from the start and this carried on even after riding it in some very wet and muddy conditions. However after a couple of months we found that the seal did start to leak. We also had a few problems with the crank bolts working loose but a bit of lock tight soon sorted this out. The major advantage that we found with this BB is that it is actually serviceable so when the seal do go you can get in and sort it out. However the main draw back is that it can be quite fiddly to fit let alone service. In our opinion we would stick with the XT version as the extra money doesn’t make it more reliable.

We tested the 100mm travel version and the first thing you notice is how good they look – we were amazed. This version also has a full lockout and lockout force adjustment, they work using the air spring pressure and come in at around 3.38lbs.

When fitted on the bike (they still look good) we found the forks to be very stiff even why going round corners. We found the lockout threshold to work really well it has 12 levels so you can really find what suits you and what terrain you are on. We found them plenty hard enough on the climbs but responsive enough on the descents it also coped with the small stuff really well.

Overall this is a great fork its got all the functionality needed and its light enough to use for XC and looks fantastic. The only negative they might be out of the price range for some people.

When the winter starts taking hold having cold wet numb feet is not nice on those long rides. There have been Shimano winter boots around for years but these are the latest and we recon the best they have to offer.

They feature a Gore-Tex liner which works well to keep out most of the smaller splashes but inevitable the weather does seep in though the Neoprene cuff eventually. The shoes also have an insulated liner and Polyurethane coated leather uppers which makes them comfortable right from the start. There is also the usual toe and heel protection for when you have to walk. The Sole offers enough grip to stay upright on the rock and mud with a reinforced sole offering a good response while peddling.

If you are fed up with wet feet on winter rides these are a bargain!

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After looking at this frame is clear that a lot of work has gone into the design, every tube seems to have been individually designed including hydoforming and curving. This all works together to produce a very stiff frame and using Kinesis own Kinesium alloy it is very light too tipping the scales at around 3.5lb. The frame is designed to work with longer travel forks and even with 130mm travel forks it can be set up to have suitable frame angles.

It is obviously designed for use on single track short sharp climbs and technical descents and in our tests worked very well and tailoring the riding angles it feels a very fast frame.

Overall this is good value for money but we would have preferred to see a more standard headset and it to also include bottle cage bots and a seat post clamp.

With the Garmin Edge 705 Garmin have married the previous ‘training aid’ features of the Edge 205 and 305 with full on navigation. The unit is slightly bigger than its previous bake specific units but features a colour screen and navigation mainly using a joystick.

The maps are getting better and easer to understand, they are stored on a Micro-SD card that slots neatly in the base.

Although there is enough information to relate to where you are the detail is not as good as normal OS mapping. This is due to in part the system using Vector based maps to reduce the data size down.

There are various map upgrade packs to get but doing this often can cost quite a lot. For road use there is full routing capabilities that even take into account that your on a bike and want to avoid the main roads obviously this isn’t available off road but the PC interface allows you to plan rides.

The battery life is improved giving approximately 15 hours. Overall an impressive bit of kit that has many features however it is a lot of money (£359.95) to spend just to get a small map on the handle bars and a lot of stats you may not want.

There are a lot of glasses already on the market but Giro have added their take on them. Giro being better known for making helmets have applied their knowledge to the design of the pure performance option the Havik.

These are a good light pair of glasses that have obviously been designed for wearing with a helmet on and this means that they don’t interfere with the helmet straps as well as minimise them knocking together.

The lenses are sharp and clear and come in various colours that can be changed with new lenses being around £35. The glasses them selves come in at around £100.

Shimano XT has always been pushed as a much more affordable alternative to XTR but with still good performance and reliability and these wheels are no exception.

These wheels at 2kg+ are defiantly a bit more solid than others in the same market. The hubs are cup-and-cone type that allows the usual amount of adjustment if needed for a Shimano hub. The hub also offers flanges for 24 straight pull spokes on the front and rear. The Centerlock brake rotor interface has a good solid feel helping you feel secure.

The quite wide rims have a distinctive white on black graphics that help them stand out and we think look good. Overall a good set of wheels with hubs you can service yourself, although they are a bit on the heavy side.

After installing the levers and setting it up it seems that these leaves will not appeal to everyone. This is due to the levers running very close to the bars, but if you like that then they are ideal!

They do also feel different to use than others we have used it may be due to the mono-block calliper but more likely due to how the lever works and the actuation ratios it uses. All together they give a very responsive braking system for £120 .

Personally we would go for the more expensive carbon option as the leavers are more comfortable. Both versions have the same stopping power and now have rounded clamps to stop the leaver clamps scraping carbon bars.