Things I like

I've had a couple of days off work preparing for this weekend's race. Part of what I like to do is get all my kit sparkly and polished, washed and dried and then suitably packed up nice and early. No last minute panics; we've all spent too much time doing that, haven't we!?

Some of my favourite bits of kit surface the week before a race. Some are little tiny things. Others fairly major pieces of equipment. Here's a few to begin with:

Gore Ride On sealed gear cables. I fitted these things a YEAR ago to my Superfly. I have treated them to zero maintenance and they feel just as smooth and as light in action as the day they were first put on the bike. Yes, they're at least twice as much buck compared with standard cables but I think the fit-and-forget nature of said item more than warrants it and when considered in the big picture of the go-faster, all the bells and whistles race bike, the price is not such a big outlay. For the record, I replaced the rest of the drive train half way through the season as it was ruined beyond use but kept these cables!

Bontrager tubeless tire system. I have enjoyed the on-trail benefits of using tubeless tires for many years. Bontrager's system is the first group of products I've actually enjoyed setting up. Without naming names, I've used most of the big competitors offerings but none have been so simple in set up and as reliable in use as Keith's. Semi-solid rim strip, valve and compatible tire. Providing you're running Bonty wheels you cannot go wrong!

ESI Chunky foam grips. I started using these a couple of years ago after seeing loads of pro's use them. The blown silicon grip slides on with a little bit of a battle, following the manufacturers guide and using window cleaner is a big help here, but they're still tight when new. But once they're on, they're on. I've used ESI grips on my courier bike (as well as my MTB's) in all sorts of weather and suffered only minor 'throttling' only toward the end of wet Welsh deluge days. There is an asymmetric cross sectioned version, Racer's Edge. I'm not sure if its that our riding in S. Wales is tough or if it's just me having wimpy arms but I prefer the fat-all-over version - Chunky. In short, these're super comfy grips which you can use bare hands on if you really want to.