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NiteFlux is an Australian brand of bicycle lights, offering a full range for commuters to racers.  We tested the Photon 4 Commuter light, which is the starting point for their line.

All NiteFlux lights are crafted from Aluminum Alloy, black anodized with laser etched logos.  Inside, all of their lights have an electronic brain that controls the power to protect against total discharge, alert you when the battery is too low and keep “Constant Wattage” going to the light.  This last bit is helpful when the battery starts getting low…it keeps the light at full brightness. Instead of dimming, it’ll blink every few seconds to let you know you have a limited amount of time to get where you’re going.

We’ve got about two solid months of night riding and commuting with the light, and we’re extremely impressed.  For a straight up Commuter light, you’d be hard pressed to find a better light that has so many mounting options, has a lot of upgrade options and is so darn bright!

Even if you’re looking for a racing or mountain bike light, read this review, because the technology and features in the Photon are the same for their higher end lights. If you’re into 24 hour racing…you’ll like being able to piggyback chargers to reduce charge time to just 2 hours!  Check out video, pics and the full review when you read “more“…

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Campagnolo’s “75 Years of Cycling Passion” was released a couple of months ago, and we’ve had the chance to review it in depth.  Coinciding with the company’s 75th anniversary, the book covers more than just Campy’s contributions to the sport, it provides a revealing look into the history of the bicycle and its evolution to the modern, carbon spec’d race rigs of today.

There’s plenty of self congratulatory prose to be had, which is understandable since it is Campy’s book, but they do fairly describe the contributions of other brands through the years and acknowledge some of their competitor’s accomplishments.  And while the writing can at times sound as though it were translated from Italian first, it does paint some pretty vivid pictures of what the Tours de France of the early 1900’s were like.

If you’re looking for something to adorn your coffee table, or you just don’t know what to get that cyclist that has everything, here’s your answer.  Click “more” to see some pics, including close ups of a Campagnolo electronic derailleur and hints at a mountain bike group…

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Reelight is a Danish company that makes the first magnet-powered bike lights.  Yep, magnets…is there anything they can’t do!  Seriously, though, there are some great benefits to these lights.

Reelights are sold in a set, one for the front and one for the rear (more pics after the break). At first glance, the absence of batteries may seem like the biggest improvement over normal blinkies.  But, look at where these mount…once installed, you don’t need to worry about leaving them on the bike because they can’t be stolen.  This also means you won’t head out for a ride and forget them.  This is a big plus for convenience!

Reelight won a EuroBike Gold award for these innovative lights…but do they work as advertised?  Read “more” for our full review and see if these are the right commuter lights for you…

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Feather Brakes is a relative newcomer to the bicycle industry, but their founder, Bob Barnett has a history of breaking ground in everything from  Powerboats to Offroad Racing to Indy Racing before helping set some standards in DH mountain bike parts.  He helped pioneer the Mr. Dirt-USA downhill chainguides, which led to the three-bolt standard widely used today.  We met their rep, Ken, at Interbike and were really impressed with the look and feel of the product, so we arranged for a demo set to review.

I’ve been running the Feather Brakes road calipers for a little over a month, and the initial impressions are overwhelmingly positive.  With a claimed weight of 199g (ours actually weighed LESS than that!), they’re on par with Zero Gravity in terms of weight…but what about performance?

Read “more” for the full review and see why these should be your next brakes, price be damned…

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A little while back we got two sets of Ergon Grips to review, the GR2 Magnesium integrated bar-end model, and the GP1 standard grips.  A few of our friends had been riding them, notably Eddie and Namrita O’dea (who just joined the Ergon North American Team…congrats!), and they certainly looked comfortable.  Pretty much every Pro rider we interviewed at the MTB NUE Finals was riding them, so there must be something to this.

I’m happy to say that after a couple of months on them, I don’t think I’ll be taking them off.  They’re comfortable and they keep your hand in place, which is basically what you want from a grip.  The bar-end version I rocked had plenty of hand positions and were comfortable on the ends, too.  Overall, we’d recommend them pretty highly, but there were a few issues worth noting.

Read “more” for the full review, pics and tech details…

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SpinPower bicycle lubes, cleaners and degreasers is a line environmentally responsible, biodegradable, non-toxic, super green bike care products.  On top of all that, they smell really, really nice and they have some great foaming cleaners that stick to the dirty parts and help really keep the cleaner where it needs to be rather than just dripping right off.

The products are manufactured by Prudent Enviro Products (PEP), which is local to us here in Greensboro, NC.  PEP has been private label manufacturing lubes, cleaners and other products for several mail order companies and brands for years and recently launched their own brand.  Besides the bike care goods, they also have an HR electrode gel and bottle/hydration pack sanitizer.

This review is Part 1 because we’ve only had a chance to test a few of the products, which is good for editorial purposes, because to try to review the full line would be a bit much.  To start, we’re reviewing the Foaming Degreaser Cleaner, Foaming Bike Cleaner, Bike Envy Silicone Polish and Natural Chain Lube, which is formulated with renewable vegetable oils.

Read “more” for pics and to see why this Foaming Degreaser is the best cleaner I’ve ever used…

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Over the holiday week I met Trek’s Southeast demo guy, Tom Jenkins, at the IMBA Epic Santos Trails in Ocala, FL, for a solid 3+ hour cross country test of the new 2009 Trek Top Fuel 9.9 SSL.

This course is an Epic for a reason.  There are more than 40 miles of singletrack, ranging from easy, flowing trail to tight, technical rocky sections that can trip you up pretty easily.  In other words, it’s the perfect place to test the race-worthiness of the new Top Fuel design.

This bike is equipped and built for world-cup-level XC racing, and it’s certainly fast enough and light enough.  The great thing is, the lightness does not come at the expense of stability, stiffness or control, which means you can focus on the trail rather than any quirks of the bike.  There are a lot of factors that come together to make this an excellent bike…just read “more” for the full review, a run down of the specs and some of the interesting changes from the Fuel EX…

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About a week ago, Giant’s 2009 mountain bikes were all available at their NC demo day on some of the state’s best trails.  For three hours, we ran the Anthem, Trance and Reign all through the swoopy, hilly trails at Dark Mountain in Wilkesboro, NC.

I rode the Anthem and Trance, since I prefer a more XC oriented ride, while my esteemed associate, Evan, mainly rode the Reign because he likes to jump everything he sees.  There’s about 10″ height difference between us and probably 45 lbs (me being the taller, more handsome of the bunch…ha!), so we have different opinions of the bikes.

What was surprising for me was the fact that the Anthem, with 100mm travel, felt more subtle than the 120mm travel Trance, but both were very efficient when putting the hammer down.

The Reign was in a totally separate class with 6.75″ of beefy “get you out of trouble” suspension.  If you’re looking at a new bike for 2009, read “more” to see our impressions of Giant’s ‘09 lineup…

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Long overdue, here’s our review of Motor Tab’s sports drink.  I tested these a couple of weeks before Interbike, but with all the hullabaloo in preparing for the show, just didn’t get a chance to write the review.

MotorTabs are effervescent tablets that contain electrolytes and carbs from several sources to keep you hydrated and energized, all in a convenient package that easy to take on long rides or when traveling.  How do they work?  Do they taste good?  Read “more” and find out!

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We did a post recently about Fluid’s new flavor, and afterward, the guys there asked if we wanted to try some for a review.  I’ve always been a fan of nutrition as a way to ride, recover and feel better, so the answer was a quick “yes!”

Fluid was founded in San Luis Obispo by a nutritional biochemist and an exercise physiologist at Cal Poly State University.  Their theory, “ Everything you need, nothing you don’t” is evident in the simplicity of their ingredient profile: Maltodextrin, fructose, whey protein isolate, L-glutamine, sodium, vitamin C, and potassium.  The only added extras are natural flavors, citric acid (which enhances the flavor) and soy lecithin (which is a good source of Choline and used here as an emulsifier to help with solubility).

Read on to see if it works, how we tested it, and how it compares to other recovery drinks…

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We picked the über exciting category of headbands to do our first-ever formal product review…and it was awesome.  Seriously.  I’ve never been one to wear headbands under my helmet, but I have been one to constantly drip sweat onto my shades while riding, only to smear it worse trying to wipe the lenses clean with my jersey mid-ride.

So, when I met Mike Farney, president of Wixter / Raxter, at the Fool’s Gold race a few weeks back and he showed me the how the Wixter keeps sweat from getting anywhere near your shades, I perked up.  If you use headbands, read on.  If you don’t like sweat on your sunglasses, read on…this thing works!

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I met Jason, Pivot’s traveling demo man, out at the USNWC yesterday for his last demo of the season before Interbike.  We tried to arrange a formal, long-term review of their upcoming Mach 429, but since the bikes he had were prototypes that had been on demo since Interbike last year, his marketing guy decided best to wait until the production frames are available.

So, if this isn’t a review, what can I tell you?

This:  If you’re in the market for a 29er, wait until this bike comes out and at least test ride it.  Keeping in mind this was a pre-production version, I have to say that the bike rode very, very smooth, hooked up on everything and was pretty “flickable” for such a large bike.  Some people argue that full-suspension just doesn’t work right on a 29er frame, but from my brief ride on this test bike, I’d beg to differ.  I never felt like anything was compromised to get 100mm travel on a big-wheeled bike, and it was stiff and pretty efficient.  In fact, I rode their 26″ Mach 4 afterward (which is also a very, very sweet bike) and felt overall much faster on the 29er.

The changes between what you see here (click on image for a larger version) and what will be hitting stores are few…mainly some squarer tubing on the front triangle and slightly redesigned seat-stay-area braces on the rear triangle.  We’ll be doing a full review shortly after Interbike, but you can read Speedgoat’s first impressions here in the meantime.