Did you know a cyclist who regularly rides at high-intensity will live up to three years longer than a cyclist who rides for longer but at average intensity? Or that a rider wearing nylon-soled cycling shoes will displace his heel up to 40 times more than a rider wearing carbon-soled shoes?  (That’s a lot of foot bending, i.e. wasted energy) Or that Chris Boardman's hour record would stand at only 33.752 km ...

Believe it or not, the photograph above was taken on the east coast of Scotland at the end of February.  It’s been snowing ever since.  And I’ve just read that the current spell of freezing weather may last until the end of April. So probably not the ideal time to be reviewing a new range of T-shirts from Glasgow-based Route Clothing. But if I never get a chance to wear them in warm weather, there’s always ...

Gore Bike Wear have deservedly been one of the leaders in the cycle clothing marketplace for many years. They’ve consistently made high-quality wind and rainproof garments for riders prepared to pay premium prices. But after testing a recent addition to their range, I’m wondering if this success hasn’t bred a degree of complacency.  Or is it a case of their competitors being quicker to embrace new technolog ...

Bike clothing manufacturer Pearl Izumi are based in the US “sunshine state” of Colorado, so they ship all their “cold weather” prototypes to the UK for testing.  It’s safe to say their rain jackets must have taken one helluva beating during 2012… As for their budget-priced winter jackets, well they’ve probably never tested them north of the M25.  Here in northeast Scotland, it’s been single figure temperatu ...

Bamboo is not a material that automatically springs to mind when I think of a performance cycling jersey but it turns out, that when blended right (in this case with Merino Wool) it's a fantastic material and very much underused. To be precise, what we are talking about here is Bamboo Charcoal. Bamboo Charcoal is made up of pieces of bamboo, which are taken from plants five years or older and burned inside ...

The instructions that come with the Crud RoadRacer Mk2 mudguards are not for the faint-hearted.  And the video tutorial at Crud’s website is even scarier. If, like me, you have the mechanical aptitude of a tree, you might want to consider smiling sweetly at your local bike shop owner and offering to leave him your entire collection of CyclingPlus magazines in your will.  But he’ll probably still end up char ...

It used to be the case that cold weather cycling meant looking like a fugitive from fashion.  Waterproof jackets came in only one colour – bright yellow – and were as breathable as a plastic bag.  Legwear was a trawlerman’s overtrousers, gloves were a pair of ski mittens, and the whole, stylish ensemble was topped off with a bobble hat.  Or was that just me? Fast forward through various revolutions in fabri ...

They breed ‘em tough in North Yorkshire.  That’s the home of Altura, who produce a range of cycling clothing and bags for commuters, off-roaders and racers. They claim to test their products – which range from technical MTB garments to classy retro jerseys and accessories – in the demanding landscape and climate of the Yorkshire Moors and Dales. Ha, so they think that’s tough?  I took to the edge of the Cai ...

Louis Garneau is a retired French-Canadian racing cyclist whose career spanned 13 years, 150 victories, a Canadian national title in the individual pursuit and the 1984 Olympic Games. But his most notorious achievement was asking the Queen if he could have his photo taken with her when she paid a state visit to Canada in 2002 – and then putting his arm around her as if she was one of the Spice Girls! Off wi ...

For something on wheels, bikes aren’t half a pain to transport if you’re not riding them. You either have to take them apart or buy an expensive rack/carrier to transport them by car; reserve in advance if you want to take them on a train; and you might as well forget it if you want to take them on a coach - operators such as National Express will only accept folding bicycles. Then there is air travel, whic ...