Are the "world's first" wrapper-free bars the ultimate jersey-friendly fuel for cyclists? Plus more cool stuff from Oakley, Kask, Coros + Connex

Let us know your thoughts on it!

Will do...

momove wrote:

Let us know your thoughts on it!

Well my Connex Chainring Wear Indicator turned up today. Couldn't find any UK stock at the time of ordering (Merlin & others list it but no stock). I ordered it from BikeInn for less than the list price (£7.99), however with the postage of £5.99 it was £13.98 in total delivered. BikeInn are in Spain and all prices shown in the UK are inclusive of all VAT & duty so what you see is what you pay. I've ordered a few items from there and service & value are excellent, although stuff does take around 7-10 days to arrive.

First impression - brilliantly simple. Other methods such as pulling on chain links are subjective, and waiting for the chain to skip is too late. I think this will pay for itself in no time in spotting early drivetrain wear. Checking takes less than a minute and can be done when routinely cleaning the chain. It's just a go/no-go visual process. Put the round bit between two teeth. If you can see between the gap and the tool, it's good. It it bottoms out, it's not.

A few examples to follow:

This is a chainring that has done 2700km, still good.

This is a newer one, has done just 350km (although this gets dirtier, it's a gravel bike).

Finally, as a control check, and the absence of any bad chainrings in my fleet, this is a chainring I took off my brother's bike a few months ago and haven't got round to binning. No idea of mileage but probably more than the Millenium Falcon...
 

From the pictures of the tool alone I couldn't fathom how it worked. So is the vast majority of it just decorative handle? Or will those slots also open a bottle?  

quiff wrote:

From the pictures of the tool alone I couldn't fathom how it worked. So is the vast majority of it just decorative handle? Or will those slots also open a bottle?  

I don't think the tool is physically big enough to provide the leverage required to comfortably open a bottle, and the slot is a bit too small by the look of it. I don't have a crown top bottle handy to try it with at the moment. 

I guess it had to take the shape of something though, it's been made in the shape of a flat pedal. 

mark1a wrote:

I guess it had to take the shape of something though, it's been made in the shape of a flat pedal. 

Doh! Now I see it! I honestly thought those slots were somehow part of the functional tool. 

Though they could have made it a 2-in-1 tool by just adding the extra knobble to a chain checker tool.

Well done, that one is going on the list, quite near the top. Thank you for the quick review and pictures, seems to be simplicity itself in use.

webbierwrex wrote:

I don't understand the wrapper-free thing, aren't there wrappers there to stop all the crap from your cupboards, pockets and hands from being on what you eat? 

OK, each individual one is without a wrapper, but they are not wrapper free, cause they come in a box. That box solves the problem of stuff from the cupboard getting on them, but not from your pocket/bag. If I were to use these, I would recycle a bag from something else, or use a small washable bag/box, in order to carry them in my top tube bag/jersey pocket.

At which point you may as well just carry sweets/loose flapjack or whatever. Also struggling to see the point in these. If it's a situation where you can happily eat the wrapper as it's not covered in pocket shite then you don't need a wrapper.
Organic/biodegradable wrappers make a lot more sense.

You just hamster them, one in each cheek.