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:
- Continental GP5000 (one very well-rounded road tyre)
- Molten Speed Wax (the original for those that hot wax. Also consider Silca Secret Blend)
- CeramicSpeed UFO All Conditions (for those that want a drip-on wax)
- Orange Seal (for reliable tubeless sealant)
- Latex Tubes (for the #tubeinside clan)
- Garmin Varia radar (for safety)
- Rema Tip Top patches (re-use those punctured tubes)
- Shimano Dura-Ace pedals (for road)
- Favero Assioma pedals (for road power pedals)
- Arundel Mandible bottle cages (for carbon lovers)
- King Ti bottle cages (for metal lovers)
- Shimano M520 pedals (for budget, bombproof SPD pedals)
- PB Swiss Hex key sets (I didn’t add this, I swear!)
- Abbey Bike Tools HAG (straight hangers are good hangers)
- Dynaplug Racer Pro (for tubeless plugging)
- White Lightning Epic Ride lube (just kidding! It’s a great wear accelerant)
- Chris King headsets (for external cup frames)
- DT Swiss 350 hubs (the Toyota Camry of bicycle hubs, according to me)
- Bontrager Ion 200 RT front light (for those who want a daytime blinker)
- Escape Collective membership (this was the most up-voted product, it was also the only purchased product everyone posting had in common)
- Silca Tattico (the best mini pump for road)
- OneUp EDC pump (the best mini pump for off-road)
- Pedro’s Tyre Levers (the ultimate bicycle pry tool)
- It depends (almost always the right answer for anything cycling-related)
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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