Unless you’ve been living under a rock you’ll have noticed the continued trend for road bikes with generous tyre clearances. As a result, the days of skinny 23s pumped up to 110psi appeared numbered, replaced instead by wider rubber, often run tubeless and at much lower pressures – and far better for riding over rocks it turns out.
With this in mind, this month we ask just how wide road wheels and tyres may go, picking the brains of Parcours Dev Tate to help us get some answers.
We also compare Tacx and Wahoo’s lastest smart bikes to determine whether they justify the price hikes and look into Silca’s new chain wax that may, or may not, save you a watt or two but will certainly cost you a few quid to find out.
And last but not least is our Bike of the Month, an affordable number from Cannondale that might just be the starter road bike you’re looking for.
Competition
For this month’s Garmin Giveaway, we’ve got the Garmin Varia RCT715. It houses a 1080p camera and shoots at 30fps so you’ll be sure to catch any close passes and reg plates while you’re out on the road.
It’ll be absolutely fine in the rain as it can survive being submerged up to a meter for 30 minutes. It also features Automatic Incident Capture that ensures it continues recording “before, during, and after” an accident.
It can be controlled via the Varia app and footage will be beamed to it as well making it easy to transfer to a computer should you want to. This is all alongside the benefits of the radar system which lets you know about traffic coming up from the rear.
To be in with a chance of winning, simply click this link or fill in the form below. We’ll get in contact with the lucky winner by the end of this month. If you don’t end up being the lucky one – don’t worry, we’ll be running it again next month.
Silca Hot Wax X
(Image credit: Silca)
Silca has developed a reputation for producing premium bike bits. Its range of stylish but expensive cycling accessories, includes pumps, bottle cages and hex wrenches, all beautifully made with price tags high enough to make you wince.
So it should perhaps come as no surprise that its brand new Hot Wax X chain wax follows suit, retailing at $165 or €199 for 300 grams. Clearly this makes it one of the most expensive ways to lube your chain yet, but like all Silca products there is usually some justification for the cost – here it comes down performance.
Silca claim that its latest wax is 0.5 watt faster than it’s…