Many years ago, back in a time when tightly fitted fluoro billboards were the status quo, New Zealand company Ground Effect offered an alternative. Their clothing was designed with a loose casual cut, no branding and the fabric had a natural feel. I was first introduced to the brand with their Manta Ray jersey.

A little while back we had Magellan’s Switch Up multi-sport GPS device on test. It was a compact and robust unit and served a number of users well, including cyclists. Made to be worn on the wrist or attached to a bike, the Switch Up was truly the jack of all trades, master of none. Versatility was what the Switch Up was all about. While it worked as cycle computer, the sacrifices that made it appeal to a multi-sport audience meant that it wouldn’t be our first choice as a dedicated cycling GPS.

Once a major player in the tyre game, WTB has recently been on a mission to reclaim their glory days from the 1990s. With a recent overhaul of their line-up, they’ve made a big push into tubeless ready construction (TCS in WTB parlance) and also shown a willingness to embrace every wheel size available. The latest edition to the stable is the all new Vigilante, a model that’s designed to bridge the gap between general purpose trail tyres and full-blown downhill rubber.

For at least the last five or six years the lines between cross-country and downhill disciplines have been getting increasingly blurred; most 130-160mm travel bikes can be pedalled on an all day adventure, and then thrown down a trail that wouldn’t seem unsuited to a DH rig. The problem is that protective gear, and particularly helmets, have changed at a much more sluggardly pace.

Back in 2012 when SRAM first entered the wheel market we put their Rise 40 wheels to the test and found them wanting in a number of key areas. It seems we weren’t the only ones because the latest wheel offerings from SRAM address all our key concerns, namely tubeless compatibility, ease of maintenance, freehub pickup and axle convertibility.

We take a look at the main XC-trail tyre from Italian brand Geax.

Ten years ago the only people who ran slammed and flipped stems were those riders who were (or at least thought they were) serious contenders on the XC circuit. Then along came 29ers; the bigger wheels required longer-legged forks which naturally pushed the front end of the bike higher. With this change, more riders found it hard to get their handlebars low enough for an efficient cockpit setup.

Offering more protection than a regular road/XC helmet without going all the way to a full-face lid, the Trabec is another addition to the trail/all-mountain helmet market. It comes from Swedish protective gear company POC, and while this model was released overseas a few years ago, it’s only just reaching the Australian market.

With any bike part there’s an element of personal preference that can make or break its success. This is especially so when it comes to saddles. They are a very personal and individual item, and what feels comfortable to one can be the source of great pain for another. As a result, finding a comfortable saddle can be a real hit and miss process that gets pretty expensive if you land a few duds along the way.

Thomson Elite and Masterpiece fixed seatposts have been benchmark items for years, with many riders fitting them for their durability, low weight, ease of saddle angle adjustment and their long-lasting, quality finishes. But with dropper posts rapidly gaining popularity, Thomson’s and every other manufacturers’ fixed seatposts are becoming less desirable on trail and all-mountain bikes.

Probably the first fork I ever drooled over was the original RockShox Pike; perhaps the earliest light, longish travel, thru-axle fork to reach the market, it both created the category of hard-hitting trail forks and dominated it for nearly five years. After being essentially replaced by the Revelation it’s had a brief absence from the RockShox range, but for 2014 the Pike is back with a ground-up redesign that sees it lighter, tougher and more controlled than ever before.

French brand Look’s clipless pedals are well represented in the road bike scene but to date they haven’t made the same inroads into mountain biking. They’re hoping that the all-new S-Track pedal will change that—it’s got some clever ideas behind it, so Look certainly isn’t churning out just another MTB pedal.

There’s been plenty of effort made in the last few years to help keep your bike’s chain in place and to reduce chain slap; traditional DH-inspired roller-guides have always worked but the weight, complexity and inherent drag are bitter pills to swallow on a trail or all-mountain rig that needs to go against gravity as much as with it.

Self-contained lights are easy to mount and great for frames that lack a suitable battery mounting point. While most are aimed at commuters and roadies, some pack enough punch for fully-fledged off-road use. Here’s a look at some of the newest and brightest.

Trek’s in-house component brand, Bontrager, have certainly been stepping up their game lately with the aim of offering aftermarket components and accessories that appeal, not just to Trek owners, but to the broader MTB community (see our review of their Lithos Helmet on page 42 for another example).

Over the past three years I’ve been a big fan of the Garmin 500 GPS cycling computer. Its easy to use wire-and sensor-free design is a no-brainer and being able to upload and view your rides becomes quite addictive.