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The undisputed best products of today

Correct Answers Only, according to Escape Collective members.

Dave Rome
by Dave Rome 09.11.2023 Photography by
Dave Rome
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There are only a small handful of cycling products, that, when mentioned, earn unanimous head nods of agreement. While rarely the cheapest option (nor the most expensive), these are the products that get moved from bike to bike until the purchase is long forgotten. Meanwhile, just about everything else seems to carry stipulations of “it depends”, or “if you’re X-type of rider”, or “if money were no object”. 

It was Matty from Melbourne who somewhat jokingly posted to the members-only Escape Collective Discord a thread titled ‘Correct Answers Only’. With no further explanation needed, Matty listed off a series of highly-regarded cycling products, and for weeks, other members chipped in with their product recommendations and upvoted each other. Like most good threads, it didn’t take long for things to spiral into a debate about best colours of shoes/socks/shorts, but for a few glorious weeks, it formed an incredibly succinct and useful list of products.

Amongst the hundreds of responses, Escape Collective’s Editor-in-Chief Caley Fretz asked a hypothetical: “is this the greatest repository of correct knowledge on the whole cycling internet? Some are saying it is.” True, but that’s a question Caley; ‘Correct Answers Only’ here. 

Ok, on with the list of unquestionably great and mostly road-focussed products. And while I strongly agree with almost all on the list, I promise I didn’t add any (okay, one funny one). However, I did tweak Matty’s original format and have added justifications in brackets. I also left off a few things likely to cause a public brawl, such as the best bar tape or the comfiest shoe. 

Correct answers only:

What do you agree or disagree with? And what’s missing from the list? 


Be part of it

Ok, so it’s true that I wrote this as a shameless plug for joining Escape Collective. It’s also a pretty solid list of great products that helped to inspire the new “Pick One” segment in the weekly Geek Warning podcast, so thanks for that Matty.

Exclusive to Escape Collective Insiders, the Escape Collective Discord is perhaps best described as a private internet forum, one where knowledgeable people are always near and rudeness is not. Meanwhile, your membership funds all that we do at Escape Collective, including this very website, our podcasts, and Iain’s dream of owning a beer bike. Lastly, that membership (all tiers) gets you access to our new members-only podcasts. You can sign up here

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