Review! Ryders caliber photochromic sunglasses!

One of my favorite booth at the sea otter every year is the Ryders eyewear booth. Those guys are super creative with their booth set ups, this past year was no exception they made a fully functional lighthouse to promote their new line of anti-fog glasses and goggles. While i didn’t pick up a pair of the anti-fog glasses i did get a pair of the photochromic glasses.

Ive been riding since i started with a generic pair of interchangeable  glasses i got at a bike swap for $5. They served there purpose but with all the new sunglasses on the market i was looking for something cool. Depending on the weather conditions i will some times bring at least one and some times 2 extra pair lenses if its overcast or dusky, with the photochromic lenses you don’t have to do that any more. Ive been wearing these on my my road and MTB rides and I’ve even played a round of golf in them. They are a great pair of glasses, perfect for my part of california on the coast, it can start off very cool overcast and it will end up being hot and sunny.

If you’re looking for one pair of glasses that you don’t have to switch lenses out for every weather condition i highly recommend the ryders photochromic. They are well made, good price point and look great too! Go check out ryders for their full line up of classes MTB goggles and snow goggles

Review! Infinity bike seat!

Im pretty stoked to do this review on this saddle. The infinity saddle was developed by     Dr. Vincent Marcel, a chiropractor and tri-athlete from El sugundo ca, He was on a mission to develop a saddle after training for a triathlon and was developing saddle sores despite the use of padded shorts and chamois cream and saddle fitment, after a few prototypes and a very successful kickstarter campaign, there were seeking $25k and were funded for $188k top 5% of kickstarter campaigns.

The infinity seat was brought to my attention by my good friend Jake, featured in the middle of the above picture, who was a patient of Dr. Vince and also a triathlete, and used it on his cross country trip this past summer. Right before Jake left for his trip he set me up with an extra seat he had, he had been trying to get me to try it for a while but i was hesitant due it its unconventional design. I ended up trying it out, replacing my WTB silverado ti which i liked but wasn’t in love with it was the best fitting saddle I’ve found but im always searching for a better fitting saddle.

The infinity seat installs just like a traditional bike seat no adaptors or special seat post needed, weighing in at 210 grams with steel rails, only about 13g heavier than my trusty silverado. It took me a few rides to get it dialed in but when i did get it in the perfect spot it locked me in while sitting on it, you don’t slide around like a traditional saddle and distributes the pressure more evenly.

The infinity seat comes in a couple different option, I’m running the bare nylon version with zero padding, longest ride I’ve done is abut 30 miles and i was vercomfortable the whole way. The seat also come in a slightly padded and leather covered version with the cutouts and a padded leather covered version without the leather cutout looking a bit more like traditional saddle

Infinity only has the one size at the moment but they are working on 2 more sizes, a small and large  version, they are still working on the molds and they are going to be offering titanium rail options, that should put it way under 200g. This is a really cool seat and if you have saddle fitment issues this could be a really good option. Check out infinity bike seat web site for more info and pics.

Review! Chris King r45 hubs and HED Belgium rims

I was looking to upgrade my 2014 Scott addict 10, it was pretty much stock with the exception of the saddle and the pedals, while the stock wheels were pretty nice, syncross  RP 1.5, a nice wheel set is always a great upgrade. I was researching wheel sets and i was pretty interested in the magic Ksyrium Elite. As i was talking with my friend Jon from my local bike shop he told me that i should have a set built for me, being a regular customer they give me a pretty good deal on everything. So Jon showed me a pair of HED Belgium laced to chris king r45 hubs and i was sold!

I have always liked pretty much everything Chris King makes, i had one of their headsets on my bmx bike that lasted through 3 frames and was butter smooth the entire time, i had always wanted a set of wheels with their hubs and it only took 15 years to make it happen.   I opted for the r45 28 hole rear and 26hole front with the ceramic bearing upgrade with DT Swiss spokes and brass nipples laced to the HED Belgium + so i could run a 25c tire . I read reviews of this build online and read nothing but great reviews. So i put a deposit down and Jon ordered the parts. After a couple weeks i got a call saying that the were done. I felt like kid on christmas.

I went with the red hubs and black spokes and black rims it matched my bike great with the red speedplay pedals. I was really stoked on how these came out, the wider 25mm rim lets me run a 25c tire and still have allow profile. The tire i chose was the Michelin pro 4 endurance 25c. This tire and rim combo is a prefect fit i can run a lower tire pressure while still having good grip and ride. i usually run about 90-95psi and opposed to 100-110psi with my old 23c tires. I’ve put about 300 miles and these wheels and i can say that they roll smooth as glass

This wheel build is very popular right now for a few reasons

Price- these wheels are right around $1000 depending on the upgrades you choose and spoke choice, I got mine for $950 out the door, try finding a better hand built wheel set at a cheaper price

Weight- At just a hair over 1600 grams these are pretty light for a rugged aluminum rim

Reliability- these wheels can take a beating, I’m 6’0″ 275lb and I’ve never had to have these trued. the r45 hubs are pretty much bulletproof and the ceramic upgrade makes them roll smooth as glass, and easily tubeless ready

Looks- They look great! The red king hub with the matte black rim and black spokes look awesome.

I highly recommend this wheel set its a high quality extremely solid and pretty light weight wheel set for a great price. And with a r45 disc option they make a great cx wheel too. And the r45 hub comes in a bunch of different colors to batch your bike and kit. If your looking for a new wheel set consider this build! Check out the Chris King site for a complete spec list

Review! TOGS (thumb over grip)

So i first saw TOGS at this past seaotter, they were kind enough to send me home with a pair to try out. i was rather impressed with the simplicity of the product. I tend to ride my road bike more than my mtb, with my road bike i have may different options with grip position. I ride on the hoods about 80% of the time the other 20% is split between the drops and the flat bars. Mtb really only has one riding position for your hand weather your climbing descending or riding on the flats your hands are in the same position, until now….

(Cue triumphant music) TOGS are a really cool simple product that gives you another riding position for climbing and riding on the flats. Its a great way to rest and not have a death grip when your climbing and flat riding and still have complete access to break levers and shifters. Installation is pretty easy i had new grips installed by ESI and while they were doing that i had them slide on the TOGS, i had to move the dropper post button over  less than 1/4″ but other than that it was easy.

Togs are designed to act similarly like a hood on a road bike, its great to have another position to have your hand especially while climbing which i need all the help i can. gone is the death grip while climbing i can now relax and focus on spinning the cranks rather than holding the grips. These are light and come in various colors to match your ride. While riding these the past few months all i could think of to improve them is to make them hinged so you don’t have to take the grip off, and when i checked the web site….

BOOM!!!!!! hinged carbon version, that are super easy to install and there made of carbon so there faster too! Togs are a great product they are out of salt lake city and  made in the USA (merica’), at only 18 grams for both the hinged and ring style they are ridiculously light, do your self a favor and check out a pair of togs fire is 25$ for the ring version and $35 for the hinged carbon version. Order them here and support an american made product, if you don’t the terrorists win……

Bicycling Bangkok

Well its been a while since my last post, I’ve been pursuing my other passion in life. For the past couple months I’ve been traveling through Thailand training muay thai (thai kickboxing). I started training muay thai around the same time i started cycling and fell in love with both. So i saved up for a while and decided to go to thailand and see where it originated. While i was over there pursuing my other passion i was seeing bikes and cyclists every where. I was taking a short flight from Bangkok to Chiang Mai and flying Bangkok air and their inflight magazine had a great article on on how Bangkok is poised to become the next big cycling city. This was a great read and really got me itching to go for a ride. So enjoy this rad article!

Be sure to check back often i have a ton of product reviews to catch up on from rad companies like origin 8, ryders eyewear, selle italia, pedros and more!