Review: dhb Flashlight arm warmers

VERDICT: A useful piece of kit that does the job – just be careful with sizing

What’s the point of arm warmers, I thought to myself. Just wear a long-sleeved top. Then April arrived with its chilly mornings and much milder evenings, and suddenly I understood.

I commute by bike at least four days a week and this means bringing in a day’s clothes, food, spare inner tube, mini pump and other bits and pieces. April’s spring weather meant that mornings were still cool enough to require covering up, but the evenings were much warmer and sunnier and I wanted bare arms.

They do exactly what they were intended, keeping my arms warm and covered in the chilly mornings but small and light enough to roll up and put in my rucksack on the way home

I took to bringing in a short-sleeved top for the evening and a long-sleeved one for morning. Adding yet more gear to everything I already need wasn’t ideal. It took a full week of doing this but eventually the penny dropped: this is why people buy arm warmers.

So I invested in the dhb Flashlights. I’ve got various items from the Flashlight range (a long-sleeved jersey, full-length tights, quarter-length unpadded tights and quarter-length padded tights) because I like being seen at night.

The arm warmers work much as you might expect: a tube of stretchy material that you pull on up to your upper arms and under your T-shirt sleeves. There are rubber grippers at both ends to keep the product in place. These are advertised as black, but I would describe them as a very dark slate grey. The Flashlight logo is emblazoned on the lower arm.

They do exactly what they were intended, keeping my arms warm and covered in the chilly mornings but small and light enough to roll up and put in my rucksack on the way home. They’re actually small enough to stuff in my jersey pockets, so if temperatures do rise while I’m wearing them I won’t even even have to go in my bag.

Arm warmer selfie

Length-wise they’re perfect – just long enough to stretch over my gloves and so keep the cold air off my hands and wrists. However, despite me carefully measuring the tops of my arms and concluding I needed a medium, the arm warmers are too loose around the top, so they tend to slide down when I’m riding. This is annoying and definitely lessens the product’s usefulness.

• NB: since writing this I’ve invested in a pair of small arm warmers and they fit perfectly.

Tech spec
• Sizes: small, medium, large (medium tested) • Length: 45.5cm • Colour: black • RRP: £16.99 • Available from Wiggle • I bought this product •

Review: Anker Astro Mini USB Charger

Keeping my iPhone battery charged is necessary if I’m to get home after a long ride out; will this portable charger do the job?

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In its pouch, the charger, plus cables, fit
easily into my backpack.

I couldn’t do half the riding I do without a smartphone and Google Maps. Or I guess I could but it would involve paper maps and lots of stopping to figure out where I am and just wouldn’t be as enjoyable. As it is I just attach my iPhone to my handlebars, key in my destination and follow the directions.

However, having the screen on all the time drains the battery, especially on longer rides to Battersea Park and Richmond. In fact my first trip to Battersea could have ended in disaster when my battery life was down to 10% in a totally unfamiliar part of east London. Luckily I got to Bethnal Green before the phone died and knew my way home from there.

I still don’t know what I would have done. I might as well have been in the middle of nowhere – no cab offices to be seen and not a chance of finding a black cab. I don’t know my home phone number or The Chap’s mobile number, because they’re safely stored in my phone. And therefore would have been totally unaccessible. I guess the best I could have hoped for was finding a corner shop whose proprietor would let me phone a local taxi service.

It was this near-disaster that made me realise that I needed some way of charging my iPhone while out and about. I needed a portable charger. I wanted something that could fully charge an absolutely dead phone, but was small and light that would easily fit in my rucksack or saddlebag; it also had to look good.

After a bit of research, I went for – to give it its full and somewhat unwieldy name – the Anker Astro Mini 3000mAh Ultra-Compact Lipstick-Sized Portable Power Bank Pack External Battery USB Charger. It comes in a variety of colours, and I chose pink. I make no apology for liking pink; anyone who thinks pink is too girly clearly hasn't watched Grease enough times.

Pouch, charger, USB cable and pink iPhone
cable (purchased separately).

The charger is cylinder with USB and micro-USB ports at one end. It comes with a USB-mini-USB cable, but if you want to use it with an iPhone you'll need to buy the relevant iPhone-USB cable. Luckily a pink one is available for iPhone 5S. You can charge the product via the mains if you've got a USB plug, or via a computer. An orange light comes on while charging; this turns green when the battery is full.

I've used this a couple of times now and it does exactly what I want it to. After a longish ride to Battersea Park my iPhone battery was showing more than half gone, so I plugged it into the charger while I had lunch and by the time I was ready to head home the phone was at 100%.

I make no apology for liking pink; anyone who thinks pink is too girly clearly hasn't watched Grease enough times

It's small and light enough to fit in my small rucksack and will easily slip into a saddle or handlebar bag. But describing it as 'lipstick sized' is something of a stretch, unless your lipsticks are flipping massive.

The only drawback I've found so far is that there's no way of knowing how much charge is left in the battery. A small window with a percentage, as found on phones and laptops, would be really useful. As it is, I have to charge it after every use as I don't know if it'll have enough power left to charge my iPhone next time around. There's no way of telling if the battery has totally run out of juice either – until you actually use it, by which time it could be too late.

Pros
• Small and light enough to fit in saddle or handlebar bag
• Fully charges iPhone from empty

Cons
• No way to gauge how much charge remains
• Not 'lipstick sized' as described

Tech spec
Weight: 76g • Size: 9x2x2cm • RRP: £39.99 (currently available from Amazon for £13.99) • Supplied with micro-USB cable and travel pouch • I bought this product myself

Review: Selle Italia Women's Diva Gel Flow saddle

A new bike means a new saddle. Find out how I got on with this model from an Italian company specialising in bike saddles

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I’ve learned that a new bike requires the purchase of a new saddle pretty darn quickly. I suspect this is especially true for cheaper models, as one of the ways manufacturers can save money is on the seat.

Much as I love my new bike, the seat was causing some serious chafing in areas you really don’t want chafed. I could have changed it for the saddle that’s currently on my hybrid, which is perfectly comfortable, but I wanted something a bit special. Also I intend to carry on using the hybrid and don’t really want to have to swap over each time.

The Selle Italia Women's Diva Gel Flow saddle.

As this is the bike I’ll be doing the London to Cambridge on, I was prepared to spend a bit more to ensure comfort. I also did a lot more research this time. In fact my last saddle was a case of ‘I need a new seat; that one looks nice.’ It also only cost about £20.

Turning to some trusted cycling sites, notably Wiggle and Total Women’s Cycling, it soon transpired that most women agree that the Selle Italia Women’s Diver Gel Flow saddle is about the best there is. This retails at £79.99, but it’s currently available on Wiggle for £55.99.

It’s available in both black and white, but I particularly liked the white version. The silver and pink highlights nicely match my grey and pink bike, and this is a neat, nice-looking saddle that doesn’t look out of place on a sleek road bike.

During my research, two pieces of advice stood out to me. First was that your saddle should go unnoticed; second was if you’re saying that your saddle is ‘exactly what I want, except for this one thing …’ then it isn’t exactly what you want.

I forgot about the seat completely and just enjoyed myself – which is entirely the point

After fitting the new seat I took the bike out for a short ride to test it out. It was only when I stopped at a junction and actually thought about the reason for the ride that that first bit of advice came back to me. The only thing I noticed about the new saddle was that I hadn’t noticed it. By the end of the ride the front of the saddle was pressing into my pubic bone, which was quite uncomfortable, but there was no chafing.

The silicone gel inserts are nicely positioned for the sit bones, providing excellent cushioning. I also found that I was seated very securely, with no sliding forwards or backwards. The large cutout adds to the comfort.

I had deliberately put the saddle in the zero position to begin with, knowing that I might have to tilt it forward slightly. So when I got home I adjusted the saddle accordingly.

Of course a short ride was fine as a test, but I needed to get the bike out for longer to be really sure. A 13 miler this weekend was perfect. And the saddle performed exceptionally well. No chafing, no rubbing and no pressing into bones. On the way out I was deliberately concentrating on how things felt down there and there really was nothing to report. Coming home I forgot about the seat completely and just enjoyed myself. Which is entirely the point.

The silver and pink styling nicely matches my
grey and pink bike. All photos Idoru Knits.

Review: Muc-Off Bike Care Essentials Kit

Winter rain makes keeping your bike clean essential. Find out what I thought of this kit from Muc-Off

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As an all-weather, all-seasons cyclist, my bike tends to get pretty mucky, and obviously I want to keep it as clean and shiny as possible. I had been using just soap and water, but this wasn’t really up to the job. Roads in winter tend to be quite oily and it wasn’t easy to get the layer of black off my bike, especially the wheels.

The kit in full. Cleaner, protector, brush, sponge and tote
bag to keep it all together. Photo by Idoru Knits.

That’s where Muc-off’s Bike Care Essentials Kit comes in. The package includes a sponge, a wheel and component brush, a Nano Tech bike cleaner and an after-clean bike spray, which protects and shines, and it comes with a tote bag to keep it all together. This all represents the first two parts of a three-part programme; the third, lube, is sold separately, and all elements in the kit can be bought separately too.

It’s much less labour intensive than soap and water and the end result is cleaner and shinier

It’s really easy to use, especially if you have a garden hose. Just wet your bike, spray it all over with the cleaner and then leave for a few minutes. Give it a good going over with the brush and sponge and rinse it all off with the hose again. Then spray with the bike spray to get rid of excess water and help protect against grease.

It works, too. It’s much less labour intensive than soap and water and the end result is cleaner and shinier. The bike spray really does help keep your bike clean between washes. You do use an awful lot of the cleaner, though. About a quarter of the bottle each time, so just four uses until you need a replacement, costing £8.50. There are various other kits to buy, however, which might save you some money.

My only real criticism is the sponge, which after just two uses has started to fall apart, with bits coming off. This is because I used it on the wheel spokes, so possibly my own fault, but I would have expected a sponge meant for cleaning bikes to hold up when attending to the spokes.

The sponge has unfortunately already started to fall apart.
Photo by Idoru Knits.

Cost: £25
Available from: Muc-Off
Disclaimer: this product was bought and paid for by me

All-weather cycling

Baby, it’s cold out there, but that doesn’t mean you should stop cycling

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When I took up cycling this year it was the height of summer – shorts and strappy tops and topping up the tan were the order of the day. But as the weather got colder the question everyone was asking me was: will you keep this up over the winter?

My top tip for keeping really warm is a pair of Pretty Polly 200-denier, fleece-lined tights under leggings

The truth was that I really didn’t know. It had been so long since I’d last been on a bike and I had no idea how I’d cope with the rain or the cold. Would I turn out to be a fair-weather cyclist?

Well so far, no, I haven’t. Whatever reasons I’ve had not for cycling to work, none of them have been weather related. The first time I got rained on I ended up laughing to myself – I was so drenched it was just funny. By the time I got home my leggings were so wet it looked like I’d been sitting in a bath tub.

Cold daze
It’s now December and while it’s been rather mild, there have been some cold days and even this hasn’t slowed me down. A couple of trips to Decathlon furnished me with fleecy long-sleeved tops and extra thick leggings, while a birthday present from my mum provided me with a windproof, waterproof jacket. An early Christmas present from J was a fab pair of gloves. And my top tip for keeping really warm is a pair of Pretty Polly 200-denier, fleece-lined tights under leggings.

With all this gear I’ve found that I soon warm up on the bike. In fact, I often end up a bit too warm.

I do think I’ll avoid cycling in the snow. I’ve an all-terrain bike, so theoretically the tyres are sturdy enough to keep going through snow and ice, but I just don’t like the idea of it. Safety first is my motto on the bike and I don’t feel like I’d be safe in snow and ice.

That silver bit on the thumb is light reflective,
so people can see me when I indicate.
Awesome. Photo by The Happy Commuter.

Are you sitting comfortably?

Why a new saddle was an essential first purchase

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After a couple of weeks of cycling 11 miles every day for five days a week, it quickly became clear that no, I really wasn’t sitting comfortably. In fact I was somewhat chafed, even with a gel cover on my saddle.

The original seat (left) and the gel cover (right).
Even combined these two couldn't compete with the Velo.
Photo by The Happy Commuter.

It wasn’t agony, exactly, but my backside wasn’t happy, and even trying to find a comfortable position on the sofa in the evenings was getting more challenging. It would seem that the saddles supplied with bikes really aren’t that great.

If I was going to be spending an hour every day on my bike, I needed a more comfortable seat. An internet search revealed a bewildering array of choice. Where to start? The first bit of advice I received was to go for a saddle with a centre cut-out. My brother – who rides a lot more than me – said he wouldn’t buy one without these days. Then it was to Amazon to read some reviews.

My arse stopped hurting almost immediately

The type of saddle you need depends on the kind of riding you do. But as I aim to do my shortish road commute as well as longer rides off the road, it was quite a challenge to find one right for me. In the end I went for an inclined plus women’s saddle from Velo. The reviews were nearly all very positive and it seemed the perfect compromise – good for both longer-distance and short rides.

I’ve been using it for a couple of months now and it really is a good seat. My arse stopped hurting almost immediately and and I’ve had no problems since. The saddle is much smaller than the one that came with the bike, which surprised me. I thought a bigger saddle would be more comfortable, but it seems not.

The centre cut-out relieves pressure on sensitive nerves, and it really seems to work. With the old saddle, my bum would be numb by the time I got to work, but isn’t the case with the Velo. It also provides excellent shock absorbency. I previously could feel every bump and dip in the road, but the Velo offers great protection.

I still need to test the saddle on longer rides, but so far I’d say it’s a comfortable bike seat that is a great upgrade from the saddle supplied with your bike. It also costs just £17.99, so it won’t break the bank either.

The Velo in action. So far the saddle has been
comfortable throughout my whole commute
to work. Photo by The Happy Commuter.