The Foot Down

I am a big fan of Knog, their products and their company image are both fun and functional without being too much of one or the other, a pretty rare quality really. The latest light in their range of no-faff accessories is the Strobe, an improved version of the now much copied Frog.

Much like the original Frog the Frog Strobe is the smallest of the lights offered by Knog but unlike before there is not a lot of difference between the light output of it compared to the next one in the line up. The original Frog was 10,000 millicandelas and the Strobe is 25 Lumens, after a bit of Googling I found that 1000 millicandelas is equivalent to 1 lumen, so even though I got an ‘E’ in GSCE maths I worked out, all by myself, that the new one is 2.5 times brighter than its predecessor. Knog claims that they are both visible UP TO 600 meters away, call me cynical but if one is 2.5 times brighter then it should be visible more than twice as far away, the claim is moot anyway because it is unlikely that a road in a city environment will be 600 meters straight with nothing to obstruct the view of you and your bike from Ray Roadrage. These lights are still described as ‘safety lights’ and won’t light the way so you probably shouldn’t use them away from lit roads but they are seriously bright for their size!

As you can see from the photos the Frog Strobes are tiny little buggers, they are pretty much the same size as the original but squarer and with a more secure clasp at the back, I found that the original clasp was prone to falling off and was worried about losing it at times and not being able to fit the light in an emergency, theres no chance of that anymore. There is a subtle Knog logo in the silicone body now which is a nice addition, there are a load of wack ripoffs out there and this adds a bit of extra oomph to the overall unit. The stretchy loopy bit that attaches to the clasp is a bit stiffer this time round and I found it a bit tougher to stretch around my headtube than before but not enough to make me think I was pushing it too far so it’s all good.

The battery compartment door is very basic and just snaps closed, it does seem pretty secure though. The overall build is much sturdier than the Frog and feels like the more expensive lights in the range, this is reflected in the price which is a couple of quid more than before but more than justified.

The battery running time is listed at 50hrs on steady or 80hrs flashing but I don’t even see that as a factor, 50hrs in the dark is a lot of miles, you’d probably get to the bloody moon in 50hrs running a half manly gear like I do. The original Frog had just two modes: constant and flashing, the Strobe has four: Strobe, DISCO Strobe, Epeleptic (sic) Fit Strobe and Constant. I was expecting the flashing modes to be completely wild but they aren’t, they are basically single flash, double flash and repeating flash, I like them all. When you decide on your favourite mode you can hold down the button for two second to store it as your default setting which is a really cool feature.

I left my bike out in my back garden the jungle for a few minutes to try and catch a glimpse of the Frog Strobe in it’s natural environment, I was not disappointed. I returned later in the day and was lucky enough to get to film (in glorious HD) the full mating display of the male, check out the video below…

Knog Frog Strobe Settings from The Foot Down on Vimeo.

…And on that bombshell I shall wrap this thing up, the Knog Frog Strobe is a great upgrade to a classic, it is far better than the original and worth every penny. Hit up the comments with any questions or comments.

A few months ago Surface Clothing, a sister company of Charge Bikes, was launched with the intention of providing clothes that ‘incorporate casual style with technically advanced materials. Perfect on the bike, or strolling to the pub’. There are a few companies out there doing a similar thing, Rapha is an obvious example, but I think Surface offers a little bit more street cred for the young independent modern cyclist. The following review is a guest post by Will Kennard.

Liquistretch Trousers
The first thing that struck me about the trousers was just how smart they are; they are straight leg and well fitted which gives them a distinct neat look. This is something which is great for commuters: worn with smart shoes the trouser is nice enough even for office wear, yet worn with a pair of more casual shoes they look a little more relaxed, making them an extremely versatile piece of clothing.For me this basically eliminated getting changed into different trousers at work, making life just that little easier.

The ‘liquistretch’ material they are made of is awesome; it feels as comfortable as wearing a pair of tracksuit bottoms, stretches just enough for flexibility whilst riding, and beads water away with ease. It is also very breathable, again useful for work as it’s not nice doing a whole shift with sweaty bollocks! The water beading is useful; it repels water on contact and gives some water resistance to the products, so you can cycle in rain showers, but in very heavy rain it does get wet.

I’d recommend these trousers for most riders, especially for the urban commute to work. However the fit of the trouser might not be to everyone’s taste; it is very slim fit, so if you’re used to a loose jean they might not be your thing.

Liquistretch Shorts
In terms of the fitting the shorts are a little more forgiving than the trouser; there’s more room in general, yet they still remain quite smart looking with a straight fit. Unlike the trouser, the back pockets of the shorts are zippered so you can keep stuff safe whilst riding.

The performance of the short is brilliant for the longer weekend ride as they are extremely breathable and look great on and off the bike. If you’re serious about riding but don’t quite fancy the lycra treatment, these are perfect.

At £49.99 for the shorts and £54.99 for the trousers, both products are affordable and there’s no doubt they will be popular with fixed gear riders.

Pros
‘Liquistretch’ material is brilliant.
Affordable.
Plenty of belt loops – good for Fabric Horse/hip bag users.
Smart fit.
Good quality and branding in general.

Cons
Trousers may be tight on the bigger rider.

-

Both these products sound pretty rad and I’m gonna go out this week and hunt them down to try on, I’d love to try out the Surface Clothing Snugflex hoodie too (hint hint, Surface!). Nobody loves a technical fabric more than me but other than on jackets they usually look super wack, clearly Surface have managed to avoid the look of the 3/4 length zip off shorts that you see in Millets or on your dad.

For more info about all the Surface Clothing pop over to their site. Are you rocking any of the Surface clothes? What do you think?

I am a big fan of cycling caps, they may look a bit kooky and be a magnet for a million jokes but the fact is that they are absolutely brilliant for cycling in. I wrote a bit about my first couple a while back, they were just run-of-the-mill cheapo ones and they were fine, or at least that’s what I thought.

This weekend a few of us went up to London to do some riding. After blasting through Saturday afternoon rush hour I ended up racing some punk ass hipster who was wearing braces and boat shoes. He was pretty bloody fast actually but was useless at the lights so as I reached my destination (Look Mum No Hands!) I made sure I got in front of him and did some weaving so that he couldn’t get past me, I emasculated the shit out of that dude. I sat outside the cafe/workshop to wait for the rest of my gang and got a call from Owen telling me to turn around and go back to the Rapha Cycle Club pop-up shop because it was amazing. I did just that…

I’ve always kind of ignored Rapha as a brand because I am a council estate boy and we don’t tend to dig shirts that cost 90 quid and stuff like that. The shop is proper good, it has a big TV with racing on, loads of books to read, a coffee machine, free water in little plastic cups with mountains on, classic jerseys, bikes, a lovely lady working there and a bunch of other stuff to look at. It wasn’t long before I discovered the cycle caps and I just couldn’t resist trying on the all black one even though I was never gonna buy it. Just imagine for a second that my head was a hand and the hat was a glove, the hat fit my head like a glove. Out of curiosity I asked what the price was, £25 is about 3.5x more than your average cotton cap but it just fit so damn good, I carried it around for a bit, tried it on again and then, I assume, due to a mix of smog, temporary madness and the remaining adrenaline of taking a hipsters’ manhood from him I laid down the cash.
When I got home the next day I went to the Rapha product page to do some research about my new headwear, I was delighted to find that my new hat was “highly water resistant, windproof and breathable”, running the tap on it proved their claims. The other major feature of the cap is the “moisture-wicking, anti-bacterial tape for maximum comfort” which sounds like a load of old bollocks but having done some heavy uphill riding in the blazing sun this week I can confirm that what that means is that your cap won’t be fucking soaking wet and disgusting every time you get home, honestly now, there really is a BIG difference in how it handles sweat. I’m guessing the Schoeller® 3XDry® cotton will have something to do with its magic powers.

The shape of these is slightly different to a cheaper, traditional cap, I suppose it’s a bit squarer. I find that it fits my head much better, there is no floppy bit at the back, that could be due to the fact that they come in 3 different sizes and not ‘one size fits all’ though more than just the general shape.

I love this cap, I honestly can’t see how I could possibly go back to a normal cap now, it would be like me trading in my iPhone and going back to Nokia, it’s just not gonna happen. The price of Rapha may put you off, I know it put me off, but in the case of the Rapha Cap the extra cost is well worth it if you always ride in a cap. It is often too easy to just go with the cheap option, you’ll probably even be more than happy with it but when you experience the other end of the spectrum you realise what you’ve been missing.

I cannot rate this cap highly enough, I demand that you treat yourself to one right now!

If there is one thing that drives brakeless fixed gear riders mad it’s tyres, mainly because you pay for something that you instantly go out and destroy, it’s a losing battle right from the second you hand over your cash money. MMA Sports very kindly sent me a set of Maxxis Re-Fuse to try out a couple of months ago, this is an account of what I thought of them.

The first thing that struck me was that they were foldables, I felt like a real pro when I opened the box cause I’d never had a set of ‘posh floppy’ tyres before. After a bit of unfolding, wiggling, shaking and squeezing they were nice and round and went onto my rims pretty easily. I hate super tight tyres, I’ve got a Vredestein on the front that sent me into a blind rage once cause it was such a hassle getting it on, these are just right, they don’t go on so easily that you worry about them coming off but also don’t make you look away in fear of your levers snapping and piercing your cheek when trying to get them on.

I just put one on the back to test and pumped the sucker up to 120, there’s nothing like a nice rock hard tyre. I hit the road, nothing was out of the ordinary and then ZEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE I did a skid, what the hell was that? I did another and ZEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE it happened again, ‘what an interesting sound’ I thought to myself and went about my business. That night I was chatting to Dan from MMA and told him about the wacky skidding noise, he went on to tell me that it was a feature designed by Maxxis as an early warning system that let people know you were performing an emergency skid. I couldn’t wait to write my review and tell people about this, unfortunately Dan was just taking the piss and left me feeling like a total sucker, haha. After a few days riding the noise stops when the ‘Diamond knurled slick design’ wears in a bit which is a shame cause I kinda liked it.

I did a lot of riding in the rain during the test month and I was really impressed by how well the Re-Fuse gripped in the wet, my brakeless commute is often a pretty scary affair, I ride with great caution when its wet but skidding often results in very little reduction in speed even at low speeds. The excellent gripping was really  noticeable and filled me with confidence when commuting to and from work. Although grippy they certainly aren’t ‘sticky’, they skid well in the dry and better than normal in the wet, don’t ask me how they just do.

On to wear. As I said at the start, when you ride brakeless your back tyre doesn’t last, for me a shitty tyre lasts two weeks and anything around about a month is worth buying again. These very much fall into the ‘buy again’ category. I usually employ the rotating trick to make my tyres last longer, which, for anyone new to this means that I take the chain off and rotate the wheel a few teeth then attach the chain again which moves the ‘skid spots’ and lengthens the life of the rubber. For this test I didn’t rotate, I wanted to push this tyre to see how well it stood up to the downhill skid onslaught I would be giving it every morning on my way into town. It took three weeks before the top layer finally wore through and another week again before it reached the state you can see in the photo below. There was life left in the old dog, it was nowhere near through to the tube but I was going on a long ride so I decided to whip it off and fit the second of the test tyres just in case. I am only two weeks into using that one and will be rotating to see how long it lasts under my normal maintenance routine, I will update this review in due course.

Most other reviews of the Maxxis Re-Fuse tyres talk about how great the puncture resistance is, I haven’t had any punctures yet but I also haven’t had any on the front which is the Vredestein so I can’t really comment on it. The general consensus is that it is one of the most puncture resistant tyres on the market. I have mostly dealt with grip and wear in this review because that’s what I feel are the key points for a fixed gear rider, for a more bike geeky mini-review check this out on the London forum. The one negative thing I have to say is that the graphic on the tyre is pretty crappy but thats just personal preference.

In conclusion, the Maxxis Re-Fuse tyre is very grippy in all conditions and pretty hardwearing even if you skid a lot. They are available from as little as £17.99 which is a lot less than a months worth of petrol or bus tickets. Full technical data can be found on the Maxxis website.

Finally, MMA would like your opinion on which coloured Re-Fuse tyres you’d most like them to stock, check out the colours below then post in the comments which ones you like the most, I’ll pass the message on, cheers.

So, you’ve got your fixie, you’re all hip and cool, people make fun of you for riding the latest trendy bike but you don’t care because you actually really enjoy riding. You had no idea that you were gonna love cycling this much, in fact you ride everywhere now and you start to wonder how many miles you ride in a week so you start looking into cycle computers. You notice that they are all boring and ‘electronicky’ but soon you come across the Knog N.E.R.D.

The N.E.R.D comes in both 9 and 12 function models with the following features (bold ones are only on the 12 function model):

Since getting this computer riding any kind of distance is much more fun, it’s great to see exactly how far you’ve gone and watch your average speed drop as the hours go by and you become weak, pathetic and far less attractive to the opposite sex. It’s so easy to use, there are no buttons as such, the entire screen acts as a button so each press of it moves on to the next display making it really easy to change to what you want to see as you are riding.

Both N.E.R.D’s are wireless, the transmitter and the receiver are extremely light and housed in 100% waterproof medical grade silicone. There’s no fucking about putting these things on your bike, you just wrap the thing around it and hook it on, I’ve never experienced any movement when riding, some people claim they have but they must be a bit slow in the head and managed to attach them wrong (they must be REALLY thick).

The transmitter and the receiver are not really that small but does that matter? A cycle computer is not meant to be a fashion accessory (although this is as close as they get), it’s there to show that you are a total saddo who is probably wearing cycle shorts under your jeans (yes you!) because as much as you want your performance to improve there is no way you are flashing your junk in public (but you know that chicks are thinking about your rock hard thighs). The N.E.R.D is like a cool looking pair of thick rimmed glasses worn by a hot graphic designer rather than a pair of National Health specs on the face of a lycra-clad, overweight roadie wannabe. What I’m trying to say is that it’s not small but it’s good looking.

This review is not going as smoothly as I would have liked, I’m talking more crap than sense. The receiver which is also the display can be removed from the silicone housing and rotated so you can mount it on your frame/stem or your bars, something not possible with a lot of other computers due to the mounting hardware, I prefer mine on the stem so that I have all the bars for my hands. The silicone housing also makes it really easy and painless to remove them when you wanna go into Costa to buy a vanilla bullshit thing.

Both parts take a single little round battery each which are super easy to replace (see pix), Knog reckons they should last 1-2 years of normal use which is great either way. You’ll see that I’ve used mine a fair amount, the spoke magnet has a bit of surface rust on it which is no big deal. I thought the white one would have got really dirty really fast but that’s not the case at all. I can see this lasting me for years. Actually this was attached to my bike when I got hit by a car last year, I broke my collarbone and a rib, tore a huge whole in my thigh muscle and smashed the car window into a million pieces but the computer didn’t budge and still works perfectly. If that isn’t a good reason to get one then I don’t know what is.

Have I covered everything? Are you sold on these things yet? Oh yeah, the price. These are NOT cheap but neither are Macs and you would never buy a PC now would you? If you want a computer that functions flawlessly, looks good and is made by a truly creative, innovative brand that deserves to be supported then buy a N.E.R.D. If you wanna be a cheapskate then buy a crappy one from Tesco but end up getting one of these anyway in a couple of months, the choice is yours.

For more info and full specifications go to the Knog product page.

The large display is easy to read

The one piece design makes mounting easy

The unit can be removed from the silicone and rotated to go where you want it to

The transmitter can be attached to thin or wide forks

The spoke magnet is easily attached or removed with a coin

Receiver, spoke magnet and transmitter

Receiver and transmitter removed from their silicone housing

The rear of the receiver (note the button at the bottom)

The Transmitter takes a single LR44 battery

The receiver takes a single CR2023 battery

Have you got a N.E.R.D? What do you think of them? Hit up the comments with your own little reviews and questions.

I’d been on the lookout for a decent set of toe straps for a long, long time, as a vegan my options were pretty limited. I researched until I went stir crazy, I chased phantom links from Google, I found what looked like great ones but were now either out of production or only readily available in far of lands, I even corresponded with a dude but that came to noting too. So with my options now filtered right down to the MKS Fit Alpha Spirit or the Pake Space Straps, the Space Straps were easier to get hold of so last payday I treated myself.

I’ve always used your run of the mill nylon straps, we all love to complain about how they fray, tear, slip (especially in the rain) and just generally SUCK. These Pake straps are made of nylon too but they are coated in a nice thick rubbery urethane which means that they suffer from none of the problems that their poor weany cousins do.

Let me warn you that getting the straps through the holes in my pedals resulted in a lot of growling and screaming like a 5 year old girl as I tried in vain to get enough of them through the hole to grip with a pliers and pull, do not try and fit these if there are any young, impressionable kids around. The flip side to all this misery is that when they are in they wont keep moving around and fucking up your bikes fen shui. They are pretty rigid when they are fitted and sit in a nice wide arc that makes it easy to slip your foot into which is always handy.

I went for the black ones because I’m the type of guy who likes to ride in a good old fashioned black Bruce Springsteen t-shirt but they come in all sorts of colours to match your own shirt: Yellow, Pink (which will go lovely with your cut off Tegan & Sara top), Orange, Duct Tape Silver (for all you punks), Maroon, White, Green (which would set off your eyes as well as your Fairport Convention tee), Yellow, Goldenrod, Bright Blue, Navy Blue and Red.

So to summarise: they are made of nylon with a strong, non slip urethane covering that resists the rain; they are nice and thick; are available in loads of snazzy colours and have a nice buckle too. I have absolutely no reservations in recommending these straps to you.

They are available from a few places but I got mine from Velodrama cause they are lovely and provide a great personal service.

Jiro Belts are made from recycled tyres but they aren’t just for hippies, these things are actually pretty classy. Each and every one is handmade in Italy from used tyres so no two are ever the same, they come complete with marks and scratches but are extremely well constructed and will last you a long time.
The guts of the tyre are removed so there is no kevlar or whatever in the middle, at first I was worried that the holes would stretch out or rip but after using one for a good while I can’t see that happening, it is super tough. They are curved inwards so the end doesn’t flap about like some belts, it just sits there not making a fuss which is great.
Jiro will even make you a custom belt, all you need to do is e-mail them with your choice of buckle style/colour, tyre type and loop colour, you really can’t go wrong. I’d even go as far as saying that if you got a black one it would look so good that you could wear it to a funeral and only a fellow cyclist would be likely to notice. They now have a selection of really sturdy looking keychains available too, nice.
There are a few different companies out there making tyre belts but with Jiro you know you are getting a quality product handmade in Italy and we all know that all the good cycling gear is made there!
- €30 for the belts
- €12 for the bracelets
- €15 for the keychains
Hit up the advert over on the right >>> to go to the Jiro Belt website where there are loads more examples of their stuff and when you order one tell them that The Foot Down sent you.

The Charge Slice are just one of a million different bullhorn handlebars available out there so why should you buy them? Well get comfy and I’ll tell you why…

25.4mm clamp diameter - 440mm wide

1. They are extremely well priced at around £20 and as low as £18 online.
With a price as low as that you can try them without breaking the bank, you really can’t go wrong. Even if you don’t like them you could flog them on for a tenner and you’ll never even notice that you bought them in the first place.

2. Charge is a British company and it’s good to support them.
In general I don’t give a damn where a product comes from but Charge is a cool company that makes cool stuff and just happens to be British. Buying these bars is the equivalent of buying potatoes from a market stall rather than a supermarket, they just taste better. In bike terms you’ll enjoy riding with these bars more.

3. The low price doesn’t reflect the quality which is actually really good.
These aren’t a crappy set of cheap bars so don’t worry about that, in fact I ran bars first into a car that pulled out in front of me a month ago, my collarbone was smashed to pieces and so was the car window but the bars are fine. If they were made of cruddy, cheap material then surely they would have bent at least a little bit.

The most important factor in any handlebar is the size and shape. These aren’t like the Nitto RB-021 which has that super cool drop but next to no flat along the top, these bad boys are 440mm which is WIDE! Now I know it’s hip and cool and fly to have the chopped down risers and the 380mm wide drops but you haven’t lived until you’ve ridden with wider bars. I’ve ridden with the skinny bars and thought it was fine until I got some nice wide drops like they had in the 70′s, it’s a completely different ride, I think the word that sums wide bars up is ‘sensible’. If you are bombing through London traffic delivering parcels then keep your chopped risers but YOU AREN’T DOING THAT. Stick a set of the Charge Slice bars on your bike and you’ll ride faster and you’ll climb hills with far less effort. It’s a no-brainer, they are affordable, they look good, they are well made and they are sensible.

The angle on the bars is really sharp so you won’t get them through every stem, you’ll need one that is a bit thinner on the underside or you’ll end up scratching them to bits, you have been warned.

You can probably get them from your LBS (another bonus of Charge being a UK based company) so go there first, if you have no luck then click here.

Check out the CHARGEBIKES.COM too.

I started riding with plastic toe clips and I was happy with them but the overlap on my new frame meant that I needed something a little less bulbous so I got a set of metal ones. After a few days of using the things I decided I couldn’t live with the pain of them pushing into my toes anymore, seriously, how can people use them???

I started looking through all the UK based online shops and found the MKS Deep toe clips which seemed perfect so I took the plunge. The quality of the clips was apparent as soon as I opened the packaging, the metal is super strong and the finish is beautiful as expected from MKS. They are not NJS stamped because the shape would not be used on the Keirin track but they’re are manufactured out of the same materials as the stamped ones.

Deep on the left, standard on the right

The only difference between these and ‘normal’ toe clips is that these are a bit higher at the front so bigger kicks like skate shoes fit into them much better but believe me that extra bit of height makes a massive difference. Right away I was back to the comfort of my old plastic clips with none of the pressing toe pain of the more angled regular metal ones. I’m pretty amazed at how pristine they stay even though they get a load of floor scraping when I’m trying in vain to learn tricks too.

Perfect for use with skate shoes

The fixed scene is chockablock with skaters and all other sorts of ‘non-cyclists’, these really should be attached to the peddles of every one of their bikes, why change your shoes when you can change your clips? Head over to VELOSOLO to buy a set.

Have you used these clips? Hit up the comments with your opinion on them…

Like all serious cyclists I have tried loads of different oils on my chain with varying degrees of satisfaction. There are 3 things that I look for in a lubricant: low noise, smoothness and cleanliness, it’s fair to say that most oils do not come anywhere near accomplishing good marks in all three areas. I was always making a sacrifice, a nice quiet, smooth ride always came with getting covered in oil and staying clean always came with a noisy drivetrain.

Chain-L No.5 accomplishes the seemingly impossible, it makes your ride quiet and smooth yet stays pretty damned clean. The first thing you’ll notice is just how thick it is, sort of like cooking oil, but that’s fine because it “soaks into chains using the same capillary action as thinner lubes — It just takes longer”. During it’s development they found that adding thinners and solvents compromised the overall performance of the product.

“Chain-L is a blend of extreme pressure (EP) lubricants in a high film-strength mineral oil base, formulated to provide the maximum possible lubrication to the tiny bearings that make up a chain. Chain-L also contains rust inhibitors and other additives to improve its longevity and wet-weather performance.”

Low Noise: Every fixed gear rider wants a quite chain, it’s part of the whole experience, I’d had quiet chains before but this is something else. On smooth ground I have actually experienced the nearest I believe it is possible to get to a silent bike using Chain-L. It’s the kind of quiet you get when your chain is absolutely drowning in wet lube and you’re riding in the rain.

Smoothness: Low noise and smoothness usually go together, but not always. I have had a relatively quiet ride but with a kind of gritty feeling which is not nice at all and with my Sram chain I have found it prone to vibrating when under high pressure. Since using Chain-L there is no gritty feeling and the vibrating that used to drive me nuts is gone which is cool cause I was about to buy a new chain.

Cleanliness: This is really the icing on the cake for me as I’m sure it will be for you. If you apply this correctly then you are going to be one clean legged cyclist, “being a sticky oil (it) has the potential to be extremely messy. But if applied correctly, with the understanding that it works inside the chain and not on the surface, it’s surprisingly clean”. I applied a single drop of oil to each link of my (cleaned) chain and left it to soak in before spinning the cranks, this would usually shoot oil everywhere but this is so thick that it wasn’t an issue. The first real ride resulted in a pretty filthy chain after a few hours as the excess worked it’s way out so I gave it a light wipe with a cloth and voila!

I’ve been riding Chain-L for a couple of months now and not needed to lube the chain a second time. Every now and then I give the outer a wipe, usually after riding to work in the rain. I really have no complaints about this product which is kinda hard to believe. Everybody has their favourite oil, this is mine and it will be yours too after you try it.

You can read loads of info on their website then head over to Urban Hunter to get yourself a bottle quick sharp!