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Bike Bytes By MBT Staff What We're Riding | |||||||||||
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 = We'd rather eat a soggy bike sock than buy this thing.
 = Pretty good. Could use improvement, but functional.
 = If someone gives it to you, maybe. It's a paperweight.
 = Sweeeeet. We'd buy it. It won't cure cancer though.
 = We'd use it if we were in a bind. Maybe.
 = Dude, it does everything including wash your car. It rules!
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Dakine Defender Gloves:
Stumbling upon a pair of these suckers at EMS one day was a surprise to me, and I was shocked to find out they were 30% off. Never one to pass up a spare pair of gloves, I decided to give them a go for winter and spring riding. Built to the usual tough as nails Dakine standards, these gloves have survived some brutal winter rides since their purchase. They feature some pretty heavy palm padding and silicone grippers on the fingertips to keep those little pads on the brake levers. Ballistic nylon guards the more tender parts of your little mitts as well. These gloves have a touch of a problem with them though. The molded rubber logo on the ventral part of the wrist dug into my skin, as did the rims around the velcro closure. After a while, I almost wished my hands would have gone numb, and I ended up un-strapping the velcro to give some relief. More irritating than cutting into my wrist was the lack of a suitably sized snot pad on the thumb. These things rubbed my nose raw in the cold, and I was none too pleased about it. Overall though, the cost/value ratio of these gloves is high. Try before you buy, and make sure you get a good fit. -RM Dakine
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Camelbak Better Bottle:
Normally we don't bother with reviewing small things like bottles, but sometimes things come along that just make us say "wow". Honestly, I'll never use a regular water bottle again (except on a trail of course) after using the Camelbak Better Bottle. Yes, it looks REALLY weird for a water bottle, and it will probably give you flashbacks of all those college kids running around with their Nalgene bottles, but after a few uses you'll wonder how you lived without it. The famous Camelbak bite valve is put to great use in this application, making this water bottle as close to leakproof, spillproof and idiotproof as physically possible. Unlike most water bottles, you drink from this one like you would a soda; there's actually a straw. The difference is you can actually turn this one upside down, roll it off tables and throw it across the room without expressing a drop of water from it. Made of nearly indestructable plastics (no clue WHAT it's made of exactly) and with a nice molded in carrying handle, this bottle can go anywhere. Well, except on a bike. The 1L model just doesn't make it in my bottle cage. Oh well. Can't have everything I guess. -RM Camelbak
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