Gear News

Tech in brief: new gear from Torq, Lazer, Topeak and more

Here's a look at the latest products that have landed at RCUK HQ this week. Coming soon to a bike shop near you...

With the Tour de France approaching its crescendo and sportive season at its peak, a summer of cycling is in full flow – and that means there’s also plenty of new gear for us to feast our eyes on.

Here’s a selection of products which have landed at RoadCyclingUK HQ this week from Torq, Lazer, Topeak and more. Coming soon to a bike shop near you…

Torq Snaq

Torq are a British nutrition brand that have developed a well-deserved reputation for making sports nutrition from all natural ingredients that tastes great (seriously, have any of you tried their strawberry yoghurt gels? Wow!). They say everything they use in their products is either derived from a natural source, or occurs naturally in the human body, so you won’t find any artificial sweeteners in Torq’s products.

Meant as a delicious treat for the hard training athlete, Torq’s Snaqs contain whey protein and maltodextrin to help improve recovery

Anyway, their latest and greatest product are these Torq Snaqs. They’re not strictly performance nutrition in the sense that they’re not designed specifically to be eaten while you train, more as a high quality natural snack – a treat, if you like – for people who train hard.

They come in three flavours – dark chocolate and banana chip, white chocolate and raspberry fizz, and dark chocolate and orange – all of which sound pretty fantastic. Torq say there are two ingredients in the Snaq ‘to support a healthy lifestyle’: whey protein crisps and maltodextrin. The former is to help recovery of damaged muscles and the latter to help replenish your liver glycogen. So even though they’re not technically performance food, they’re still designed to aid your body’s recovery.

You can grab these snacks in boxes of 20 for £35.80 (individual flavours or a mixed box), a sample box of nine bars for £17.90, or they’re £1.99 each. Check them out on Torq’s website.

Lazer Z1 Flash Orange

The Z1 is Lazer’s top end road helmet that you’ll currently see being ridden in the Tour by Lotto-Soudal and one of my personal favourite riders, Marcel Sieberg.

Popular for it’s exceptional ventilation, strong look and low weight (our medium weighs in at 239g), the Z1 also comes with an aeroshell (adding 45g) to make it a little more aerodynamic. The Z1 also uses the ‘Advanced Rollsys’ retention system that sits on the crown of the helmet and makes things extremely easy to adjust with one hand.

Lakers top-of-the-range Z1 is now available to buy in the Flash Orange colour as used by Madison Genesis in this year’s Tour Series

One other team that’s been using the Z1 this season is Madison Genesis – who rode in the Z1 on their way to overall victory in the Pearl Izumi Tour Series – and their lids have been in this amazing ‘Flash Orange’ colour. The Belgian company have decided to make the design available to the public, and it sits alongside ten other colourway options in the range. Check out the Z1 on Lazer’s UK site.

Cycling Climbs of South-East England

If you haven’t heard of Simon Warren’s series of books about cycling climbs that so far includes 100 Greatest Cycling Climbs, Another 100 Greatest Cycling Climbs and the invaluable guide to cobbled climbs that is Hellingen, then you need to get involved. They’re great little books that’ll help you seek out the best climbs near where you live, and anywhere in the country. Or Belgium. Or France in the 100 Greatest Cycling Climbs of Le Tour.

Climbs of the South East is the first in a new eight book series from Simon Warren covering the whole of the UK

Warren has now zoomed in even further with his latest offering Cycling Climbs of South-East England. Pretty specific, I think you’ll agree. But before complaints about the Bucks/Surrey/Essex/Kent-centric nature of the book, this is just the first in a series of eight new books that will go round the whole of the UK so, in due course, there really will be something for everyone.

As ever, all the climbs in the book are fully detailed in terms of length, height gain and approximate climbing time (although the latter will obviously vary in terms of ability), and all given a toughness rating out of 10. There’s also a handy little map in the corner of each page showing you how to get there as well as a full page photo giving you an idea of what it looks like a road surface quality.

If you’re a serious cyclist looking for new training climbs, or just want to challenge yourself on some of Britain’s toughest roads, the books are a great read and a lot of fun. You can check it out on publisher Frances Lincoln’s website here.

Fibertec cleaning products

Cycling can be a pretty grimy, smelly business sometimes. Not necessarily out on the road, where the air moving past you thankfully removes that smell of sweat from your immediate vicinity, but when you get home it becomes clear pretty quickly that you, your clothes and you bike could all do with a good clean.

Fibertec have an extensive range of cleaning and care products for both yourself and your technical bike clothing – including the Green Guard designed to waterproof garments

The folks at Fibertec – a German company – are experts in cleaning. To the point where they make specific cleaners for specific materials like the ‘Down Wash’ pictured in the range above. Their highly engineered cleaning range is available in the UK through distributors Madison and they’ve sent us a selection of products made for cleaning and maintaining clothing.

There’s the Pro Wash, a detergent designed specifically for technical apparel; the Down Wash for, well, down products; the Green Guard, meant to waterproof your clothing (potentially very handy for bike jackets) and the Smart Wash, a water-free outdoor shampoo for your person. The three cleaning products are £3.99 each and the Green Guard is £12.99. You can find out more about Fibertec on the website, or visit UK distributors Madison to find a stockist.

Topeak Transformer RX Pump

Winner of awards at the Tapei Cycle show and Eurobike, Topeak’s series of Transformer pumps are fantastic, smart and simple bits of kit. Basically, it’s a track pump with a built in bike stand, which means no more leaning your bike against the wall/hedge/lamppost to inflate your tyres.

The RX is the most portable version of Topeak’s Transformer pump. It weighs just a kilogramme but can hold bikes up to 20 times its own weight and comes with a handy carry bag

The RX is the most portable version of the pump Topeak make, that packs right up to an easy-to-transport size, and although you won’t be taking it with you on a ride it’s certainly easy to pack in a kit bag, bike bag or to chuck in the back of your car – ideal for a race, sportive or when travelling abroad with your bike. It comes with it’s own carry case too.

Pump-wise, it’ll inflate to 160psi/11 bar (there’s a neat fold-out pressure dial) and can support a bike that weighs up to 20kg, while the pump itself is only a svelte 1kg. It has attachments for Presta, Schrader and Dunlop valves and there are bladder attachments for footballs and the like included as well.

RRP for the RX is £79.99 and you can check out the full spec on the Topeak website.