Full send: Rapha adds trail to the kit arsenal

To state the obvious, the big R is a juggernaut in cycling circles. The kit. The vids. The clubs and clubhouses. It’s some real evil, awesome empire kinda stuff.

Today the brand adds “trail kit maker” to the list of superlatives with the launch of the company’s first MTB-specific kit. A longer length review in the future perhaps. But for now, the imagery does the collection justice. Progressive fits and Rapha’s distinct style feature prominently. Happy Thursday out there.

REVIEW: Pirelli nails second generation P Zero road tire

QUICK SPECS Four years after the launch of the first P ZERO (the clincher that marked Pirelli's return to road riding), the company releases an updated version for 2021. The tires come with enhanced claimed grip, smoothness, and comfort and are aligned with modern sizing and compounds. The P ZERO Race clinchers (comes in an identical TL version) blend functionalized polymers with "intelligent" behavioral characteristics, each offering levels of performance on dry and wet surfaces and rolling resistances. Adapted for new ETRTO 19c rim standards (inner channel size). Available in 24, 26, 28, and 30 mm sizes in black or with para rubber sidewalls (Classic). $69.90 P ZERO RACE.

POINTS OF INTEREST Pirelli shipped the new Classic P Zero Race for this review. Upon opening the well-designed boxes, the stench of new rubber wafts into the nostrils, akin to coffee beans first thing in the morning. It is the unmistakable smell of speed. The box comes with a handy tire pressure guide (helpful if you aren’t already using this one). Kudos to Pirelli on this one. Not many manufacturers have gone through the pfaff of making it dead easy for all rider types to get tire pressure this dialed-in.

ROAD FEEL We’ve gotten intimate with the Pirelli’s over the last four weeks. Plenty of rides on mainly dry, exceptionally well-maintained mountain roads, mostly. No grit. No rain rides. This is Switzerland after all.

Aesthetically - because it matters - the P ZERO Race is a beautiful step away from traditional black sidewall tires. Classics as stated on the box. From Canyons to Scotts, the two bikes on which we had a chance to ride them, the visual appeal is that of good ol’ fashioned bike racing. Hard not to like.

As far as installation goes and perhaps due to their adherence to the ETRTO (European Tire and Rim Technical Organization) standards, the P ZERO Race tires are an absolute pleasure to work with. The beads are stiff but not tight; installed and inflated in five minutes. The tire carcass is also pretty thin to the touch - interesting given how seemingly durable the tire feels when on. So, are they worth the upgrade?

These are the performance version of the P ZEROs - the faster rolling, lower resistance version in the range. The ones you want if you race bikes or just enjoy top spec. Cornering. Smoothness. The complete package. Not surprisingly they are also not cheap at 70 euros each. Yet given that they are the primary contact point between bike and road, and capable of dishing out an incredibly smooth, supple, and fun to ride feel at a meager 225 grams each, the case can be made, which we’d support, that they’re worth it. No lab tests. No fancy side-by-side video comparisons. Just our POV about an awesome, fast-feeling road tire that fans of the Vittoria Corsa 2.0s and the like will love.

One part classic, one part modern. An appreciable contradiction that will make these very popular.

Stitches in Time: these jerseys have seen things

It is rather amazing how several stylized images of cycling jerseys can give one the feeling of sitting inside one of Rapha’s London-area clubhouses, drinking coffee and watching bike racing. Yet that is exactly the effect with Stitches in Time: a just-launched exhibit celebrating the reopening and doubling of its footprint of Rapha’s Soho hang out.

Some pay homage to cycling royalty. Some honour the grit of riding in cities and cols. No garment encapsulates the history of an entire sport however quite like it, and this first exhibit meditates on that rather unique fact. A curated exploration of the archive Londoners will love.

Stitches in Time. From 12 April 2021: https://www.rapha.cc/ch/de/raphalondon.

Stitches in Time. From 12 April 2021: https://www.rapha.cc/ch/de/raphalondon.

Buy the original & other musings

Lots of interesting news from the cycling world this week, including MVP’s third straight cyclocross world championship win (chapeau), a clever counterfeit-focused campaign, naming missteps and EF’s pretty-in-pink 2021 designs. (Slow burn to the start of the road season, ok?)

Let’s start with the counterfeit campaign and La Passione - the Brescia-based kit co. that caters to cyclists with bold colour blocks and DTC-priced kit. Sent Wednesday to their mailing list, La Passione designed a clever one-minute short titled, “If you love it, buy the original,” which discusses counterfeits in the kit biz and what it costs to create originality.

While counterfeit frames are an open secret in the cycling world, it’s less so in the apparel biz. Quality has a cost, of course — something we’ve written about before on HNH. While it’s hard to nail down specifics on cycling apparel, trade in counterfeit goods stand at 3.3% of global trade, according to the OECD and the EU's Intellectual Property Office. One can assume most in the cycling universe are affected, too, even if only marginally.

The video on the company’s FB visualizes originality, theft and faces that create brand names. It’s something few think about, really; lots of people show up to club runs with “Rapha” sunglasses made in Shenzhen. It’s an issue however that merits investigation as the impact is apparently being felt by brands both large and small. Good for LP for kicking off the discussion.

Next, simple nomenclature. Why does racing kit for men get labelled, “RACING” and racing kit for women get stuck with the name, “WMN?” Do women not race? Who approved that copy?

I’ve never raced or ridden in Black Sheep stuff. Others I know have, though. They seem to dig the design and vouch for the quality. But this seems like a bit of a miss. Not apples to apples, so to speak, and another reason why brands like Machines for Freedom are so necessary. If women don’t race hard enough to get their own speed-inspired naming, I give up.

Yes, Black Sheep has this specific WMN collection and initiative, and that’s great. But contrasted against a racing line for men focused on speed and the other on gender, it underscores yet another dichotomy in cycling. As the sport evolves, hopefully blips like this will also cease.

Lastly, it is new kit day over at EF. Simple and beautiful as ever and resplendent in pink, a design both sponsors and fans can agree is, well, awesome. Is it February 27th, yet?

Gaerne updates benchmark road shoe with G.STL release

In a busy week for road shoe drops, where Specialized executed a very well coordinated release of their S-Works Ares that made waves across the internet (not Bernie-meme big, but still) — Italian specialist brand Gaerne also issued its G.STL for road, a feature-rich pair of kicks that takes over as the brand’s flagship road offering.

Weighing in at a meagre 274 grams in size 43, and coming in killer colours like classic white, black, grey and my favourite — oil-slick fade iridium (pictured above and below) — the shoe gets several notable upgrades. Most notably is the an updated heel cup, an “infit” system with “eight fixing zones” to snug up fit, the latest BOA dials and a more considered tongue, which varies thickness and uses seamless construction. Building on Gaerne’s background in carbon boot manufacture, the ultra-light and ultra-thin sole is designed to optimize power transfer when hammering down on the pedals.

Not sure what that oil-slick fade looks like on, but on paper we have what looks like a very modern colourway from the traditional Italian brand.

TBD on an actual review of the G.STL shoes (we’re trying secure a sample pair) but from past experience, Gaerne makes some of the best, most under-the-radar shoes in the road universe. Every bit as performance-driven as some of its major competitors with simple Italian styling for which the brand is known.

Save your pennies if you’re in the market: retail price starts at $449 USD. More at Gaerne.