As Tech Author right here at Biking Weekly, I am lucky sufficient to check and overview loads of tech. With a background of motorbike racing, pre-daughter, I’d have all the time hunted down any bike package that promised to make me as quick as potential.
Now in my mid-forties, my priorities have modified. Whereas I nonetheless like going quick, it isn’t the be-all and end-all of a trip. Generally driving must be as light as potential to appease away the chaos of life as a working mum.
To that finish, my driving style is now a broad and various vary of biking kinds. I can flip-flop between a want for a fast racy trip, to needing a chilled-out head-clearing bimble, or one thing inbetween the 2.
What all this eclectic model of driving has in frequent nevertheless is that it doesn’t matter what two wheels I am on, I’ve to be heat and dry.
So here is my decide of the highest gear of the 12 months, all of which helped ship a 12 months of biking enjoyable, consolation, and at moments much-needed headspace throughout 2024
(Picture credit score: Future)
SealSkinz Upwell heated gloves
It’d sound dramatic for anybody who doesn’t endure with Raynaud’s phenomenon, but when do, you’ll know the way painful and life-limiting it may be in winter.
I’ve suffered extremely badly with the restriction of blood circulation to my arms (and toes), and over time I’ve in all probability tried each pair of winter biking gloves in the marketplace within the hope of assuaging the numbness and maintaining my arms heat sufficient to proceed to operate.
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The standard of end and battery life of those heated gloves is great, with greater than sufficient energy for a number of hours of winter driving. As somebody who rides for psychological well being as a lot as health, I had turn out to be fairly depressed about not having the ability to trip outdoors for a big interval of the 12 months, however since driving with the SealSkinz Upwell gloves, I’ve been capable of finding pleasure in biking year-round.
(Picture credit score: Andy Jones)
Liv Langma street bike
Ironing out the smallest of niggles and enhancing on an already distinctive platform, the Liv Langma Superior Professional 0 appears like a motorbike of its era. It truly is the very definition of poetry in movement, and on check I discovered it to be completely flawless.
How the model has managed to ship an extremely agile and fast trip, which is concurrently snug sufficient to trip for hours is like some form of alchemy. Lining up towards equally specced bikes it proves that you would be able to have all of it and nonetheless be worth for cash. The brand new Langma not solely created a brand new benchmark in girls’s bikes, however it has additionally raised the bar for efficiency bikes all spherical.
(Picture credit score: Future)
Santini Guard Neos
Santini has set the usual proving that you would be able to be environmentally pleasant and nonetheless ship extremely waterproof, breathable clothes. The Guard Neos has already turn out to be a go-to biking wardrobe important for me, with its extremely versatile temperature vary, relying in your base layering, and used between 0-15 levels. I’ve already given my model a reasonably arduous life, as a consequence of my mudguard neglectance, however it washes up a deal with and continues to be performing identical to new.
(Picture credit score: Future)
Whyte Rheo 3 electrical bike
I liked how the Whyte Rheo 3 will get me out on a trip for a headspace spin, when the hills and even an outfit change overwhelm would usually threaten my trip motivation. As a smaller different to a cargo bike, it even allowed me to exchange automobile journeys too.
