The Jawbones are Oakley’s latest cycling friendly sunglasses.

I’ve had mine for about 7 months and they replaced Oakley’s Half-Jacket (I think).. which I had for about a year.

I was attracted not necessarily to the aesthetics of the Jawbones, but mostly the interchangeable lens system that it promotes.

On that side of things, I think they have been a success. The light lenses that the glasses came with got me through the winter, and now I use the dark ones. If there is a rainy day, I just swap the lenses accordingly..

From a looks-perspective, the fact that half the Tour de France peloton is wearing these makes wearing them in public with cycling people a simple fit-in. They’re cool. However, leave your cycling social circle, and you could argue that they are ugly.

From a quality perspective, they have lasted well so far, and seem well-built enough, however the lenses scratch easily.

From a visibility perspective is where I’d say I’m a little disappointed though.. firstly, I have the ‘vented’ lenses, and they don’t solve the issue.. I still get fogginess when stopping particularly.. also, because of the overly closed design of the frame, my peripheral vision is not as good as it was with my previous half-open Oakleys. However, this closed design has also prevented a few bugs from entering my eyes from below the lenses! So.. I guess there is always a trade-off.

In summary, I would recommend them, but keep in mind that they are not perfect and you may not need to ‘upgrade’ if you live in a consistently sunny area (like Florida) or get annoyed at fogged up glasses.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Oakley Launching Ultrapremium Sunglasses Line (shoppingblog.com)

I find that I have to wear something underneath my helmet when I ride for several reasons:

1) To reduce the amount of sweat that accumulates in the front of the helmet

2) To reduce the skin irritation of the bacteria-laden padding on the helmet (even if you wash regularly)

3) To extend the life of my helmet

To that extent, I’ve been using Zensah’s beanie, which I’ve found to be excellent during the winter, spring, and fall.. but for the summer, with the sun and all, at times it can run a bit hot.

All-cotton caps can be ok, but they can also run a bit hot and don’t do so well with the sweat once they’re water-logged.

I recently found this company called Walz that just makes cycling caps. They will make you custom caps that have your logo too, which I did.. with faston2wheels.com written on it naturally, but the nice thing is that you can have them made of a moisture wicking material which is perfect for the summer. I got mine in the mail today.. they do ship to the UK. It looks well made and the textile ‘pores’ are definitively large enough to look the summer part.

Check them out.

For this reason, we cyclists use all sorts of waterproof gear. Overshoes are a must just to keep your toes from falling off, but on a rainy day or even puddle-filled day, that can sometimes not be enough. The constant splashing, even with mudguards, can leave you with soaked and cold feet.

Cue in the need for a waterproof sock as the last layer of defense against cold and wet feet.. at least in theory.

Seal Skinz has made quite a name for itself lately as a purveyor of waterproof kit. At the Annual Cycle Forum in Earl’s Court, they have a cute booth attendant stand inside a water tank up to their ankles in water and seemingly stay dry.. quite the sales technique.

So, being that there isn’t competition out there anyway (I haven’t seen a single alternative in a store) I figured I’d give them a try.

I used a pair this past Saturday which was absolutely the wettest winter day to go cycling. Melting snow was everywhere in Richmond park, puddles of freezing water everywhere, and rain coming down hard to boot. What better test conditions than those? I also used a fresh pair on Sunday, which was quite the opposite.. a sunny day.

On Saturday, my feet did end up wet and on Sunday not really that much. Why the uncertainty? Well, this isn’t the first Seal Skinz product I’ve used (will review the other one shortly), and I’ve started to notice the same issue. The material they use to keep the product waterproof (I’ll call it ‘The Shower Curtain’) doesn’t seem to be very breathable, at least not for me. I think for sure on Saturday the socks kept my feet ‘drier’ than they would have been otherwise… the outside of the sock was soaked solid, whereas the inside was just wet, but more of moist wetness.. which still is not pleasant, but far outweighs a full soaking.

In summary, I think that because of the lack of great breathability, the socks create a little bit of clamminess which can come back and haunt you if the day is cold enough… I think I will still use them, particularly on very wet days as they are still better than nothing at all, but a more breathable option would be very nice indeed.

Generally, mom likes to give me shirts for Christmas.. but last Christmas she went out of character and got me some cycling kit. Amongst the kit she gave me was a compression shirt and beanie from a little known company called Zensah: http://www.zensah.com/ from Miami, FL. I have no idea how she discovered it.

Now, I’m not new to the whole athletic clothing bid’ness… I’ve used Izumi stuff, Sugoi, Nike, Hind, Mavic, Nalini, Adidas, and a slew of other brands for all sorts of different purposes. Generally, they all keep you relatively claminess-free and where necessary, warm as well. However, for me at least, synthetics tend to smell quite funky quite fast and can sometimes chafe. I’ve always wanted to find the ‘perfect’ exercise shirt, but have always been only somewhat satisfied, until I tried the Zensah stuff.

From Zensah’s website, their products provide:

• Seamless construction – Eliminates Chafing

• Zensah® Silver Ions- Reduces bacteria growth & Takes Away the Stink

• Soft Hand – Most comfortable workout you will ever have

• Pinpoint compression- Provides compression where you need it

• Moisture Wicking- Faster than the other guys

And yes.. their products do what they say they do. I mean it. Not only have I had a reduction in issues like chaffing, but odors as well. The stuff wears well (it’s almost a year old now) and keeps me comfortable both in warm weather and cold weather (layered of course).

They have a range of compression and loose fitting shirts, shorts, and other accessories. I have the short sleeves and the long sleeves and the beanie for under my helmet (works wonders). I highly recommend them.

Update:

If you live in the USA you can order directly from Zensah’s website http://www.zensah.com, but if you live in the UK, the distributor is:

http://www.synergyaction.eu/