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When you're thinking about upgrading bikes and bike-related kit, it's probably fair to say that upgrading your track pump is probably not the first thing that springs to mind. Which is a bit mad, because as people who have spent years struggling with sub-standard pump heads, and since a pump is something you use more frequently more than almost any other piece of kit, the pump is something that you really, really want to be easy to use.  Pump heads come in all shapes and sizes. Some screw on (not a great idea as they almost always end up unscrewing the valve core when you remove them), some press on with a lever that flicks up to hold it in place, some press on a rely on that seal to keep the air in and very few are practically perfect in every way. The Truflo Track Mate is, happily, in the latter category.  The great thing

Indoor training has changed so much over the last few years. What used to be the domain of only the most committed has evolved into something that - whisper it - might even be called fun. Online training games (okay, Zwift), interactive turbo trainers and an ever-growing array of accessories mean that while indoor riding still isn't quite as fun as being outdoors, it's certainly moulded itself into a genre all of its own.  But there is still one fundamental that makes indoor riding different to the open roads: airflow. When you're out on the bike, the air moving past you helps to cool you down and regulate your body temperature. When you're indoors, you're not moving so the air isn't moving either which means you'll warm up incredibly quickly, and a hot body is not an efficient, performance ready body.  Fans are the solution to this problem. But a standard fan with a few settings that you have to constantly change yourself can be a bit of a pain. That's why Elite

Most of you are probably familar with the idea of a dream build video by this point. Basically, it's a person building a bike with either very calm music in the background or only ambient noise as the soundtrack. Well DT Swiss have taken that idea and built on it with the help of Jean Brun in Switzerland to make a dream wheel build video. It's exactly as it sounds - man builds gravel wheels onto the latest DT Swiss 350 hubs while you sit there and admire both his handiwork and the loveliness of the video in general. It doesn't need much more of an introduction than that, to be honest, so sit back and enjoy. 

Before anyone gets hung up on our use of the term 'saddlebag' this isn't just about neatly organising whatever you hang off your saddle rails. It's about what to take with you in whatever you use to carry spares be that jersey pockets, a hip pack, frame bag, bar bag, hydration pack or any other form of storage short of a team car.  Riding bikes is great, but every now and then - just like with cars - something unfortunate will go wrong and require some kind of on-the-fly repair. Fortunately bikes are much easier to fix by yourself than motor vehicles, and 90% of things can be at least temporarily mended by the road or trail side.  So here we're going to discuss what it might be nice to have with you to cover the greatest variety of potential mid-ride issues from punctures to bolts to chains and back again. Here we go...

Over the years Genesis Bikes have had some fantastic collaborations. We've had all sorts of bikes painted for all sorts of people, but there are a few that really stick out because, well, they're just fantastic. The Genesis Volare 931 we have here is a particularly wonderful example. Painted by the mega talented Colourburn Studios in Bristol, it was dubbed the 'nonconformist' features one of the most incredible paint jobs we've ever seen.  The Volare 931 is, if we do say so ourselves, one incredibly good-looking bike and to take it and make it even more eye-catching isn't an easy task. There's defintely a risk of going over the top on a stainless steel frame and taking away from the natural beauty of the materials, but Colourburn took that canvas and made it into the masterpiece you can see below. Enjoy. 

If you've never watched downhill mountain bike racing, then you've really been missing out. As far as pure excitment goes there's almost nothing better and the terrain the athletes cover - combined with the speeds they're going - is probably the most astonishing in the whole world of bicycle racing.  World Cup downhill returns this coming weekend with the racing in Lenzerheide, Switzerland and the Madison Saracen race team will be in action with Matt Walker and Greg Williamson in the men's elite event. Qualification is on the 9th and the race itself on the 10th. With that in mind, we figured that now is the perfect time to have a look back at some of our favourite Saracen downhill race bikes - called the Myst. Check them out below. 

If there's one man on planet Earth that knows his way around a bike, it's Calvin Jones from Park Tool. More years in the business than he'd care to remember, more bikes built than you could possibly count and still more enthusiasm than almost anyone else we know. This is a slightly different video than the standard fare that Park Tool upload in that it's not directly instructional on any single part of bike building or maintenance. Instead, it's Calvin building a bike and talking his way through it for your viewing pleasure. Enjoy. 

There are a lot of great things about carbon wheels. They're light, they're aerodynamic, they look great and, yep, they make a really cool 'whoosh, whoosh' sound as you ride along. Carbon wheels have been a thing in road cycling for at least two decades now and although the wheels you can get today look ostensibly similar to the ones ridden back then, the technology has been refined over and over again through the years making carbon wheels a practical (and durable) every day choice rather than something you'd only stick in the bike for race days.  The main thing to change in the last couple of years is the move from rim brakes to disc brakes on road bikes. With rim brakes, every time you brake you're wearing the carbon rim away slightly which means that depending on how much you ride there is a a clear and finite lifespan to that wheelset. Not that most of us ride enough for that to be a real concern in the short term, but the beauty of disc brakes is that braking wears the

Ah nostalgia, it's just not what it used to be. Looking back fondly on the past is big business these days - just look at the sheer amount of throwback jerseys available for every sports team ever - and so we figured we'd get in on the action by taking the occasional look at bikes we've loved that are no longer with us (in the range, that is, they haven't all been banished to the big bike shed in the sky). First off is the Genesis Mantle, a carbon XC race bike with the speed to back up those oh-so-tempting looks.   These days, though, unless you're an actual XC racer, the lines between what is an XC bike and what is a gravel bike have blurred together further than ever. It's left pure-bred XC bikes like the Mantle in a difficult position becuase although they're incredible fun to ride they dont have the same on-road/off-road capability that a gravel bike does, and a lot of trail riding in the UK lends itself to something longer, with bounce at both ends like the Saracen

Bike stuff, it's expensive, right? Well, yes and no. Like everything, bike kit ranges from expensive enough to make your eyes water right down to really rather good value for money. The thing is, just like every aspect of consumer life, there's something for everyone at pretty much every conceivable price point. Still though, we're all just trying to get the best we can for the money we have to spend. What that means is you have to look through what's on offer and try to find the real sweet spot when it comes to value. For Lazer and its bike helmets, that's the Strada Kineticore.  The Strada is £89.99. That puts it firmly towards the more affordable end of Lazer's road helmets that peaks with the Vento Kineticore (same helmet used by Jumbo-Visma pro cycling) which comes in at £249.99 and goes all the way down to the Tempo Kineticore at £39.99.  What so great about the Strada? For a sub-£100 helmet it contains a lot of the features that its more expensive counterparts hav

Okay you got us. This isn't really a collaboration, it's more of a combination. But describing it as such makes it sound like two things we really, really, really like - being tan wall tyres and tubeless tyres - have got together to make our riding lives a better place to be, and we like that idea.  In reality, we have the wonderful people at VIttoria to thank for this. Makers of the Worlds Most Beautiful TyresTM , Vittoria have in the past only offered an either/or option when it comes to tan wall or tubeless tyres. As in, you can have tan walls or you can have tubeless but you can't have both. All this changes with the new Corsa Pro, a tyre designed to marry the highest level of performance with the loveliest aesthetics in a potent blend of style and substance.  So, what makes the Corsa Pro so good? Let's start with the 320TPI cotton casing. which now has a 100% seamless transition between casing and tread compound, and this increases suppleness

Of all the bike-related tasks that are both essentially, boring and potentially messy, chain lubrication might be the worst. And maybe the only one too, but that's not the point. Anyway, the perfect way to lube a chain has been a hotly-debated topic for about as long as chains have been a key component of the bicycle (so forever, basically). But what if we told you that someone has developed a cheap, mess-free and very smart way to make sure your chain is clean and lubed thoroughly. Interested? Yeah, us too.  Enter Ryder Innovations, a South African brand with a well-deserved reputation for making very smart cycling solutions at even smarter prices. Dont believe us? Well the product we described above is called the Ryder Luberetta and it costs just £5.99. How does it work? To start, the Luberetta has a 15ml capacity that you

Puncture-proof tyres - that's the dream, right? Well tyre inserts are a relatively recent invention that helps to bring that a little closer to reality. Vittoria's new Air Liner Light is a tyre insert designed for XC, trail and down-country riders to give them that run-flat capability without adding too much weight to the bike.  Working with mechanics and riders from the BMC MTB Racing, Santa Cruz FSA and KTM-Vittoria MTB teams, Air Liner light has been developed to be extremely light and fast while still providing rim protection and run-flat performance.  Just 50 per liner, it's shaped to be a perfect fit with rim channels between 25-30mm wide. That fit means that the insert is always properly fastened to the rim so there's no additional rotating mass moving around inside the tyre.  One other smart of the Air Liner Light is the enhanced suspension characteristics it brings to the bike. Basically, the insert allows for the progressive compression of

The Levarg is a gravel bike, but a gravel bike done the Saracen way. This isn’t one of those road bikes masquerading as a gravel bike, that’ll spend half it’s life with skinny tyres in. This is a bike designed for off-road, with the geometry and spec that’ll turn your mind to trails and adventures rather than tarmac or commuting. The new Levarg comes in three different models: The Levarg, Levarg SL and Levarg FB. All are based around the same Series 2 custom butted and hydroformed 6061 alloy frame and UD carbon fork with 12mm thru axles front and rear. The base model Levarg features a 2X setup in the shape of Shimano’s 10-speed Tiagra shifters paired to GRX400 mechs and mechanical TRP Spyre C brakes.

The Spring weather may not have arrived quite yet, but that hasn't stopped us from getting out on the bike almost every opportunity we have and trying to summon that sunshine with a good old dose of pedalling. The weather has to get better soon, right? But whether it does or not, we've compiled a short list of a few of our favourite products for this time of year. Check them out below. Madison Stealth Glasses Cycling sunglasses are like pretty much everything: they come in cheap, moderate and very expensive varieties. It used to be