Editor’s Note: We left the big guy for last; this closes out our annual Favourite Things series. We’ve got 12 months to ride, tinker, putter and ponder about the gear that will stand out to us most next year, but for now you can read all the other entries in this series here, and please share your thoughts in the comments.
My friends and I used to have a concept called “soft 8.” It meant the intended meet-up time was ostensibly 8 o’clock, but there would be at leat 15 minutes, sometimes as much as 45, of coffee drinking and general chat before we set off. So if you couldn’t find that left legwarmer, don’t worry about it; we’ll still be drinking coffee when you roll up late. We were young and worked remote before everyone did. My boss was in Australia and definitely asleep. Life was good.
There are no soft 8s for me anymore. Two kids, running a global team of editors who work and publish 24/7 – the very idea that I’d waste 45 minutes of ride time to just hang out and shoot the shit is laughable. Now texts with ride buddies go more like “I have a 53-minute window from 8 to 8:53, meet at the bridge at 7:59?”
Efficiency is the name of the game. I like being fit, and going fast, so how do I do that when riding somewhere between four and eight hours per week? Efficiency. The same kit, the same bike, the same known routes, over and over again. I know exactly what I’m getting into before I head out, none of my equipment breaks or otherwise surprises me, and I get 53 minutes to just hang out in my own head. This isn’t a complaint; I still work in the bike industry and pretty regularly get to head out for a few hours at 11AM on a Thursday. But the thin margins of my schedule require gear to match.
My 2024 favorites reflects this. Picking products was easy because I use the same stuff every single day. It just works.
Cervelo ZFS-5
This is about a good bike, yes, but more so about building one. I spent the latter half of the summer season working on this bike, upgrading, tweaking, and getting it where I want it to be. I absolutely love that process. The process is the favorite thing here.
I’m going to do a whole story on the bike once I get it exactly where I want it, so I’ll keep this brief for now. It started as a stock SRAM GX build with low-to-medium-spec Rock Shox suspension and Level brakes, on sale via Cervelo for just over US$3,000. The frame is a solid platform, with reasonable XC geometry. A great place to start.
I swapped out the most important bits first: Added a dropper from One-Up, then changed out suspension. Fox Factory stuff front and rear made an enormous difference to the ride. Brakes were replaced with Hopes, the first time I’ve been on them in about a decade. I love the power but am getting used to the lever feel. I dropped down to 170 mm cranks, swapped the wheels to some Vision carbon hoops I’ve been testing (review of those soon too), swapped tires, added a light insert to the rear. The bike feels completely different from those first stock rides.
I find great joy in selecting each bit, riding it, deciding if it really works for me. Originally, I wanted to build up a frame, but upon reflection I’m glad I went the full bike route. It’s slightly less efficient (cost-wise) but starting with a perfectly adequate and functional base means I get to swap individual parts out and feel the difference each makes – or not. The drivetrain, for example, is still almost untouched, because despite it being a lower-end GX setup it works so darn well I haven’t seen any need to swap it yet. But stuff like the fork needed to go immediately.
More on this one soon.
Price: Something above US$5,000 but below $7,000
Ceramic Speed UFO drip wax
Don’t tell Dave, but I’m a convert to wax.
We have somewhat unique trail conditions here in southwest Colorado, and they’re not great for chains. Particularly in mid-summer when the sun has baked the trails into a fine dust, every non-wax lube I’ve tried either gunks everything up or is gone (and I mean GONE, as in squeaking) within an hour or two. Wax is the best solution.
I still can’t be bothered to hot wax. For a few seasons, I used Squirt. It did the job reasonably well, stuck around a lot longer than most dry lubes, and was cheap, but it left a lot of buildup over time.
This summer I sprung for some of the higher-end stuff. UFO lasts just as long as Squirt did (3-4 rides when the dust is at its worst) but leaves almost nothing behind. I apply after a ride, never right before, and my drivetrain stays sparkly. I appreciate fewer drivetrain cleanings and, I imagine, longer component life. Worth the extra cost. And no faffing about with crockpots.
Price: US$24 / €22 (110g bottle)
Macride Child Bike Seat
Kids learning to ride their own bikes is great and all but let’s be honest, they’re not very good at it. You, on the other hand, are very good at it. For the most fun you’ll have pedalling with your (2-5 year old) kid, you need one of these.
The look on my daughter’s face when I roll up for daycare pickup with the Macride says it all. Pure joy. She sits right in front of me, sees what I see, feels and is totally safe. We can chat, go fast, go slow – she gets to experience bikes like Dad does. How great is that?
The Macride mounts to a special headset spacer you can stick above or below your stem and then clamps to your seatpost. The seat itself is adjustable forward and back, as are the little stirrups for their feet, which do a great job holding your kid in place. Other models clamp to the top tube but I much prefer to the headset mount point. Clamping to a carbon top tube? No thanks.
Don’t expect to do actual mountain bike rides. There’s a kid in between your legs and that usually means a somewhat awkward knees-out pedaling style, which starts to hurt after 20-30 minutes. Flat pedals are better than clips for this reason. Plus, getting your front wheel up and over anything with an extra 20-40 lbs sitting almost on the handlebars is impossible. But for getting around town, or quick laps through neighborhood trails, it’s the absolute best. Would probably be even better on an e-mtb but I don’t have one.
Kids Ride Shotgun make an equally excellent version. Try to grab a hand-me-down from either brand, that’s what we did.
Price: US$229 / £197/ €222 / AU$366
Shimano S-Phyre XC903
I reviewed these XC shoes earlier this year and sung their praises. After another another six months of hard riding I’m pleased to report that my view of them hasn’t changed: they’re the best XC shoes I’ve used.
They’re light, they’re reasonably durable (I had concerns on this front when I wrote the review, but they continue to hold up well), and the fit works better for my foot than previous Shimano options. The last is the same as the 902, but the new, softer uppers make the fit far more versatile than before.
The lugs are sticky. The BOA dials just work. The tight interaction between sole and pedal makes for a superbly efficient feel. I’m not alone either – Dave Rome had these on his Favo(u)rite things list this year as well.
Price: US$450/ AU$600
Swiftwick Pursuit Merino socks
About 10 years ago, at the old Interbike trade show in Vegas (RIP), somebody from Swiftwick handed me three pairs of these socks. I thought very little of it. This was back in the heady days of outdoor industry excess, and as a tech writer I tended to come home with all sorts of stuff. Most of it ended up in a pile on the VeloNews kitchen counter for other staff to pick through.
These socks though, these I took home. And over the course of the following decade they became close friends, hugging my messed-up feet through wet high-country mountain bike rides and chillingly cold skis and everything in between. As other socks failed, stabbed through by my big toe in overly tight ski boots, these fought on, valiant and unerring.
Then, a month ago, all three pairs died at almost exactly the same time. Holes appeared. Heels went from merely thin to threadbare. It was time to send them off to the same upstate farm where my parents assure me my childhood turtle, Turtle McTurtle, still lives a happy and long life.
There was a problem: I had no idea what model sock I’d been wearing. So I loaded up the Swiftwick site and perused through the offerings, trying to match up features and material. The Pursuit Crew looked closest – clearly they’d seen some changes in a decade, but the basics were there. Merino wool fabric, the right weight (not thick, not thin), the right length (high enough to sit above a nordic ski boot, but no higher). I worried they wouldn’t be as good as before. But I bought a three pack and crossed my fingers.
I’m pleased to report that early indications suggest they are the socks I remember. I don’t know if these will last me another decade, but if I get even half that I’ll be pleased. They’re a bit thicker than the old version but that might just be because they’re new. They’re just as comfortable, supportive, and warm. I have found the perfect three-season sock.
Price: 1 pair for US$22, 3 for US$50
GoGo Squeez Fruit Packs
I eat more of these while exercising than anything else.
This came about out of necessity. I had a 30 km ski race and forgot to buy any food, so I went rummaging around in the cupboard for something suitable. We have these packets for the kids, they’re tasty and pull them out of a hanger-induced tantrum pretty quickly. Turns out that means they’re also pretty good for riding or skiing.
I hate most food made for endurance sports. It’s gross and, barring a few events, I just don’t care enough about the last few percent of my performance to put myself through it. But these! These are tasty! They’re just applesauce, maybe a bit of berry in there. Calorie count changes depending on the flavor – I prefer the apple + strawberry version that has 70 calories per pack with 16 grams of carbs. I’ll eat one or two an hour for a two- or three-hour ride. Am I on the true high-carb train? No. But I can look my tastebuds in the eye and assure them I won’t be doing any horrific things to them today. Cost is about 40 cents per pack and the twist top is easy to open on the move.
Price: US$10 pack of 20
Honorable mention
Rode Endurance wax
More wax! This one is for the six, possibly seven nordic skiers reading this. This wax is incredible and you need to buy some.
For a bit of context: wax is crucial to cross-country skiing. I may wax my alpine skis once per year but I wax my skate skis once a week, if not more, during the season. The sport is hard enough as it is and slow skis push it towards unbearable. Plus getting the wax right is a fun little game.
Generally, getting fast skis requires carefully matching wax with snow temperature and snow type. There are a million variations here – not just which wax temp you pick but also how you layer various waxes on, in what order, and with what techniques. Those things relate to snow age, type, temperature, humidity, and more. Two waxes designed for the same conditions from two different brands might work completely differently on the day. You think chain waxing requires attention to detail? Compared to waxing nordic skis, chain waxing is as simplistic as straightening a bent derailleur hanger with a hammer. And that’s before we get to hand structure.
Miss the wax window and it can feel like you’re skiing on sandpaper.
So enter this Rode Endurance wax, which I discovered last winter. It’s designed for marathon racing (anything over about 20 km, generally) and the reason it’s so good is its optimal temperature and snow-type window is massive. I have very rarely – maybe two or three times ever – had a bad day on this wax. It works on cold, dry new snow (down to about 10°F / -12°C) and it works on wet, old snow (up to freezing). Endurance alone is rarely the absolute fastest when I test skis for racing, but it’s always in the top few options. So when I’m just out for a ski and that last few per cent don’t matter, I pretty much always put this stuff on. Sometimes I mix it with a bit of more temp-sensitive paraffin (like the HS6 in the photo) which usually makes it even faster. In the post-flouro era, this is the most versatile wax I’ve tried.
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