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Sunday 5 August 2012

Clothing

Apologies to those who were on tenterhooks awaiting the reviews I had promised (I'm sure there are many of you!), I had written the drafts but forgot about them and never got around to posting them up. So here they are at long last:

Shorts are a personal choice and I found the DHB Aeron Race quite comfortable which I purchased a few months back when I needed some new shorts. Therefore I didn’t have any hesitation in going for a top of the range pair of DHB Aeron Pro’s to use on the majority of the ride with the Race’s acting as a backup. The Pro’s have a thicker pad than the Race’s and are also made of a better quality of lycra and they were pretty comfortable for the duration of the ride. The only thing I would say is that I think I come between two sizes with the mediums being too big and the smalls being ever so slightly too small.

I combined the shorts with B’Twin thermal leg warmers on the colder days and Craft lycra leg warmers on the slightly warmer days, both did their job fine although the B’Twin’s have now seen better days! I also purchased some neoprene B’Twin overshoes which kept the worst of the weather out but couldn’t keep heavy rain for more than a couple of hours even when combined with some Polaris Neolite overshoes underneath! I think all overshoes struggle in heavy rain though. The gloves I used for wet weather were Altura Cresta which again struggled in heavy rain – if anyone knows any truly waterproof gloves and overshoes let me know!

When it wasn’t raining I wore Madison windproof gloves which I found probably the most comfortable of the lot and on the third day it was warm enough to bring out the Polaris mitts which are old faithful I’ve had for years and were comfortable but are now falling to bits!

In terms of tops I had various long sleeve base layers including a Crane one from Aldi which is surprisingly good being made from a  light material but still being fairly warm, a DHB one which is warm but lets some of the wind through and one from Prostar which is lightweight and good for when it’s just a bit too cold for short sleeves. I also used a Gore Windstopper short sleeve base layer which does exactly what it says on the tin.

I also ended up taking my B’Twin Membrane Jacket which I didn’t think I’d be needing in May but was a godsend on colder days. It’s an incredibly warm jacket – really anything approaching double digits in Celsius it’s too warm for –  great at stopping wind and fairly water resistant too. It’s also one of the few long sleeve garments that I’ve found long enough in the sleeve in a size small. The only criticism I have of it is that the 3 rear pockets are so tight as to be practically unusable so I have been combining it with a short sleeve jersey for rear pocket storage. For times when it was really wet I donned my Polaris Neutron PBK Waterproof Jacket which is both packable and waterproof but the (cheap) PBK version I have comes in black which isn’t the most visible colour, although having said that it does have reflective elements. When it wasn’t wet I used an Altura gilet which was good for taking the edge off in the cold mornings and evenings and also good for chilly descents without getting you too warm.

My eyewear is a pair of Optilabs prescription sports glasses. These were fairly expensive but are a great alternative to using regular cycling glasses with inserts as you only have one pair of lenses to worry about. They are also reactions so are fine in pretty much all light conditions although I find they make overcast conditions a little gloomy – fine for seeing but not always great for your mood! The helmet I use is a Bell Ghisallo which is now an obsolete model but I found it suited my odd shaped head – big and long – well and has good adjustability.

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