Review: Gore Bike Wear Xenon 2.0 Shorts

Gore Bike Wear Xenon 2.0 Lady shorts

Everyone has a go-to pair of padded lycra shorts. For me, they're the Gore Bike Wear Xenon 2.0 women's shorts, which I've owned for about a year and a half now. They're so much better than any other shorts I own that when I saw Wiggle suggesting they were being discontinued, I panicked. I'm buying another pair and trying to decide if two is enough! In fact, I'm not sure why I'm writing this review, since if they are being discontinued it would be in my self interest to hoard all remaining pairs!

(The Gore website doesn't suggest they're being discontinued so it may be a false alarm... or maybe that's wishful thinking).

I've always found it really difficult to buy padded lycra shorts, since you can't really know how they'll work for you until you've worn them on a 100 mile ride, by which time they've been rendered un-returnable. So I thought I would review my favorite pair of shorts in the hopes it makes someone else's search a bit easier. Scored out of ten:

The shorts on the Camino de Santiago - when they were new.

Padding: 9
These are far and away the most comfortable shorts I've ever ridden in. The padding is made of a nice smooth material that doesn't chafe, and is nice and thick for good shock absorption. I have ridden a 400km audax with these shorts with minimal amounts of discomfort. I have noticed that they work better when riding in a more upright position, such as on a tourer or mountain bike, than on my road bike (even though I use the same saddle on all three). On our most recent tour of Scotland I ran into trouble because even though I had a perfectly good clean pair of shorts in my panniers, I only wanted to wear the dirty Xenons over and over again. That's how good they are.

Overall comfort: 8
In addition to the padding the shorts are overall very comfortable. The elastic around the legs is very wide which minimises pressure on any given part of the thigh. There is a small amount of silicon to grip the legs, but not a solid band like in some shorts. This is better for me because I find the silicon irritates my skin when I sweat. I nearly always wear these shorts with knee warmers (trying to protect my legs from the sun unless it is so hot as to be unbearable) and almost never have issues with the knee warmers slipping down. The shorts are high waisted, which can occasionally be uncomfortable (normally after I've just wolfed down a massive meal!).

Durability: 6 
I initially bought these shorts ahead of our first ever two week bike ride, on the Camino de Santiago. During the space of that trip (when they were only ever washed in sinks) the cloth that covers the elastic at the legs became somewhat separated from the elastic itself. This doesn't affect the fit at all but it was concerning that it happened so quickly. The reflective diamonds on the side of the shorts also began to come up at the edges fairly quickly into the life of these shorts. However, a year and a half later and nothing much has changed since the initial issues. Neither the padding nor the lycra itself isn't thinning out, which would be the only durability issue that would affect my wearing of the shorts.


Appearance: 6
I'm not really a fan of all the reflective diamonds. They make the shorts too flashy in my opinion. Although they do come in handy for night riding. The above-mentioned elastic issue also makes them look sloppy, especially when worn with knee warmers. But really, you can't have too high expectations of lycra shorts in the aesthetics department.

A view of the reflective diamonds in all their glory. You can also see the strip of white elastic where the black fabric has detached and ridden up slightly.

Overall: 8
If you just take the average of the above scores you would come out at 7.25. However, we're talking about padded shorts here -- comfort is really the only thing that matters. So I decided that the first two categories in this list should count double. That takes the total up to 7.66, happily rounded up to an 8.

PS: In case it isn't already obvious, we don't get paid for our reviews and we buy all our gear with our own money unless otherwise stated!

Film Review: Janapar

Last week, we heard that a bike touring film we had been hearing about, Janapar, would be screening in London. It's not every day we get to see our favourite pasttime represented at the cinema, so we decided to head along and see what has to be one of the most slickly-marketed films about a bike tour that we have seen recently.

The film is a story of one man's round the world cycle tour, which is interrupted when he meets the love of his life midway through the tour. It addresses very well the mental elements of cycle touring, but it's really just about growing up.

The fact that it's not your typical bike tour film had its plusses and minuses. On the one hand, it was nice to see a well-constructed storyline and the fact that it was a love story of course gives it sentimental value. You definitely find yourself emotionally invested in the people you're watching.

However, we've grown accustomed to the typical format of a cycling film and it was a bit jarring to see all the trappings of one, yet with such a different storyline. Although I enjoyed the creative way the film was edited, Alberto missed the linear nature of a typical film in this subject area. I think we both would have liked to see a bit more of daily life on the road, which sometimes fell by the wayside as Tom (the cyclist) does pensive pieces to camera about his thoughts and feelings.

Despite these little niggles, I would thoroughly recommend seeing this film if you get the chance (there are screenings in the UK over the next few months -- although I don't know that I'd pay £16 for the DVD!). There is also a book available, which I am quite curious about, but again it is slightly more than I'm ready to pay at this stage.

Ultimately, the story is aimed at a wider audience than just cyclists, which means it's a bit different from the cycling films you're likely to have seen before, but on the other hand it means you can watch it with your non-cycling partners and  friends, and they'll probably enjoy it just as much as you will!

Review: Vaude Road I Handlebar Bag

Vaude Road I handlebar bag on the mountain bike in Dartmoor.

It was about a year ago that I won a Vaude Road I Handlebar Bag from Travelling Two. I've had the chance now to use it in an incredibly wide variety of circumstances--on a mini-tour in France and Belgium, on a mountain bike on the Camino de Santiago, and on so many audaxes I've lost count--so I figured it was time to finally write a review.

Overall, I've been pleased with its performance, but having never used a handlebag bar before, I don't really have much to compare it to. So I've rated it out of 10 on a variety of characteristics I'd look for in a handlebar bag.

Storage: 8
At 5 litres, the bags capacity is on the low side--not that that's a bad thing. In general I like the smaller size of the bag as it prevents me from adding more weight to the front of my bike and is easier to carry around off the bike on tour.

But despite its small size, I've been incredibly impressed with the bag's storage capacity. The front pocket is great for things like my wallet and phone, where the fact that they're slightly bulky isn't a problem and they're easy to access. The flat compartment at the top of the bag  is great for storing cereal bars and a packet of tissues for audaxes, where again I can easily access them. On our recent camping trip to Dartmoor I also found that it was the pefect size to store a Kindle. But the big advantage of this bag is that with a little careful arrangement, the main compartment fits an incredible amount of stuff. On the Camino, I cycled for two or three days under the impression that the bag was completely full with my camera, waterproof jacket, buff, snacks, its own waterproof cover, and spare batteries. Then we stopped to buy more sunscreen, and I could only buy a full-sized bottle. It needed to go in the handlebar bag for ease of access, and lo and behold--it fit right on top.

Slightly off-kilter rain cover on the Camino de Santiago

Waterproofing: 5
The bag isn't waterproof and doesn't claim to be -- fair enough. It comes with a rain cover, which is a nice gesture, but unfortunately it isn't truly waterproof and is inconvenient to use. The cover goes over the front, top, and bottom of the bag, but not around its back side (facing the bike). Under persistent rain, the cloth on the back side of the bag becomes saturated, and then the water starts seeping to other areas of the bag. I also noticed the zipper on the bag's front pocket has started to wear tiny holes in the cover. Contents inside the bag become damp, though I haven't seen any actual water pool on the inside.

The cover itself is also a bit fiddly to get on correctly. It has a clear plastic panel on the top to facilitate mapreading, but it's hard to get it to line up properly and the cover isn't easy to take on and off. I'd ideally like to be able to take it off without stopping the bike (if it has stopped raining), but this hasn't really felt possible.

Riding in the UK gives one high expectations for waterproofing and I think setup would be perfectly suitable if you weren't planning on riding more than a few hours in the rain. For me, I'm willing to put up with the lack of perfect waterpoofing because I take precautions with the items that would be really damaged anyway; my phone and camera are always ins a ziploc plastic bag or similar, even inside my handlebar bag.

Ease of use: 9

I've found the bag to be incredibly easy to use both on and off the bike. The Klick-fix mounting system is easy to operate meaning that I can easily pop the bag (which usually contains all my valuables) off the bike to take into a shop with me if I'm leaving the bike unattended. The zippers also mean that I can access the main compartment and the flat compartment at the top easily even while riding. This has made a huge difference to my overall average speed as I don't need to stop everytime I want a few M&Ms or a cereal bar.  I can  even use the two zippers to zip up each of the sides and keep the bag unzipped in the middle so that I can snack even more continuously. The map sleeve which attaches to the top of the bag with velcro is also easy to use. The size of the bag means that the viewing area isn't very big, but the map sleeve can be unfolded for a bit of a bigger area for the map if needs be.

Durability: 7
Given that I've used the handlebar bag on the majority of my rides this year, I reckon I've put at least 4,000 km on it. That includes 1200km off-road on the Camino de Santiago. So I must admit it has held up well. However, I can see that the outer cloth is starting to fray at the back near the mounting mechanism. It's entirely possible that this is because I tend to put too much weight in the bag or overstuff it, but it's still worth mentioning that it isn't indestructable.

Handlebar bag on the road bike in the Peak District.

Overall: 8
This gives the bag an average score of 7.25--I'd give it the benefit of the doubt and round up to 8 out of 10. I haven't experienced any major issues with it and it has definitely made a positive contribution to my rides. It's hard to imagine what I would have done without it over this past year!

PS: In case it isn't obvious, we don't get paid for our reviews and we only review products we have bought ourselves unless otherwise stated!

Film Review: Endurance at the Adventure Film Festival

On the Camino de Santiago, our own adventure!

A few weeks ago we heard that the Adventure Film Festival would be taking place across the UK and knew we had to check out some of the films. There was a choice of three evenings of film -- High Altitude, Adrenaline, and Endurance. Given our soft spot for long distance cycling we thought we'd give Endurance a try.

There were four films featured in Endurance, three shorter ones and the hour-long Crossing the Ice. We loved Crossing the Ice but were disappointed by the rest of the films, and unfortunately the last film was the worst, leaving us less than thrilled about the evening. But let's start at the beginning.

The evening begain with A Story for Tomorrow, a quick piece that was more about capturing the spirit of a journey than telling any kind of story. I quite liked it, but as it was only five minutes long it didn't leave much of an impression on the night as a whole. Still, it was a nice introduction. It made me look forward to our upcoming adventures, big and small.

Crossing the Ice was next, a great story of two friends attempting to be the first to journey from the coast of Antarctica to the South Pole, and back, completely unsupported. This film had it all--humor, pain, suspense, desperation, and kindness. We loved it. Even though their adventures are so much more extreme than the ones we find ourselves on, I could relate to the emotions they experienced. It also convinced me that there is definitely a limit to my own adventurous spirit. My first words to Alberto when the movie ended were, "I am never, ever, doing that."

Next up, and with a tough  act to follow, was Chasing Water, about a man's search for the final destination of the Colorado River. This was an excellent environmental documentary, and it is an abomination that, after millions of years, since 1998 the Colorado River has not drained to the sea due to humans interfering with its flow across the southwestern US. Unfortunately it had virtually nothing to do with endurance, or even adventure for that matter! It just didn't belong.

Finally, there was 5 Races, 5 Continents. Here's where the evening really fell down and left us questioning why we had even come. Instead of being an interesting documentary about trail running, it turned out to essentially be a twenty minute Salomon advertisement. There was no arc to the story, just a series of interviews with sponsored trail runners, interspersed with admittedly impressive shots of the scenery through which trail runners get to travel every day. It did serve the purpose, however, of reminding us why we stick to Audax UK and our own touring events rather than sportives or even charity rides. The commercialisation that is a big part of lots of sports these days is just not appealing to us. We prefer the non-profit mutualism of the audax/touring community.

With the final film making us question even whether the film festival was too commercially oriented for our tastes, we were less than wowed with our evening. Still, it gave us lots to think about as the 2012 season comes to a close, as we start planning our own adventures for 2013!