It seems like these days, product review videos are more for entertainment than for information.
A lot of us really like gear and products.
If that’s not you, come back next week and we’ll be talking about something else, but
today we’ll be taking a look at 10 products for mountain bikers and outdoor enthusiasts.
Let’s get started.
This is my Osprey Raptor 14 3 liter hydration pack.
I ordered this last September because I needed a big pack to carry all my camera stuff in
Moab.
This one even fits my drone.
When traveling, I can also stick my knee pads in the front and strap my helmet to this fastener.
The weatherproof pouch is also great for my cell phone and car keys.
At the very bottom below all my precious crap, is the tool pouch.
It’s nice to keep all the metal stuff down low.
The hip pouches could be more durable, but they’re certainly convenient for quick grab
items.
Osprey’s mouthpieces always seem to spill out in the car if you don’t close the valve.
On Camelbak that doesn’t seem to happen as much.
I do like the magnetic hose clip, although I removed the magnet because it made my gimbal
fritz out.
Despite all these air ducts and mesh sections, this pack makes me sweat my balls off, but
for how secure and spacious it is I can’t complain.
My final opinion on the Raptor 14 is that it’s a great high volume pack, but if you
don’t need the space go for something with a smaller footprint.
This is a Sh!t kit.
The company, Potty Packs offered to send me some and I said hell yes.
Each pack contains everything you need to take a dump in the woods.
It comes with toilet paper, wet wipes, hand sanitizer, and even a bag so you can pack
it out.
To be honest I try to avoid taking dumps during my ride, opting instead for the PRD, or pre
ride dump.
With that said, I recently had an unfortunate run in with portapotty, which had no toilet
paper.
Luckily I had one of these sh!t kits in my bag, and walked away feeling clean and dignified.
If you dump in the woods on the regular you may want to buy all these supplies separately,
but for the once per year emergency you should have one of these sh!t kits on hand.
I know I will.
These are my POC Joint VPD 2 knee pads.
They weren’t cheap.
I used these at Whistler and they failed me when I needed them most.
They had ridden up my leg when I crashed, and my top tube got me right below the knee.
I also find that the backs of my legs remain irritated for days after wearing these, but
maybe that’s just me.
I have a hunch that these work better on tall skinny people, as opposed to short dudes with
tree trunks for legs.
I think they do offer good protection for knee strikes, but I’m going to look for
something that fits better in the long term.
This is my Fox Proframe helmet that I bought at Whistler Village Sports.
Despite it being purchased inside the resort, I paid a fair price, and got to choose from
a huge wall of other helmets.
I chose the Proframe because it was lightweight, well ventilated, and devoid of crazy graphics.
I like the Proframe so much that I even wore it when riding singletrack on the North Shore,
which is totally out of character for me.
Having hated almost every full face I’ve ever tried I’d need to give this high marks.
I actually won’t avoid wearing this.
I wish I could say the same about these Fox digit gloves.
They’re relatively comfortable and don’t cost much, but they’re coming apart on this
seam after only a few months of moderate use.
I’d write it off as normal wear and tear, but I don’t even wear gloves on every ride.
That leads me to believe that this is a quality control issue, and that if I noticed it earlier
I could have had them replaced.
In all fairness they do a pretty good job of protecting my hands when bushwhacking.
As a final verdict though, I’d prefer gloves with more robust stitching.
Reliability is my main concern for any product.
This is the BeFree, which is a portable water filter made by Katadyn.
The company sent me this for free, and I forgot all about it.
It stayed in the bottom of my backpack until my last trip to Arkansas—when I ran out
of water on the Lake Ouachita Vista Trail.
This filter saved my ass that day, but that alone doesn’t make it worth $40.
There are lots of solutions out there for much less, so what are the benefits of the
BeFree?
Well it is really compact.
The reservoir is also made from an expensive feeling, eagle scalp whale foreskin composite.
Or maybe it’s plastic.
Either way the cap at the top feels like that of a disposable water bottle, which is kind
of confusing considering the high quality reservoir.
I can’t speak for how well it filters water, but I didn’t get sick that day in Arkansas.
So, my opinion is that the BeFree is compact and does what it’s supposed to, but it’s
clearly a premium product.
Budget minded consumers have a lot of other options.
This air compressor was one of the best house warming gifts I’ve ever received.
Thanks Brian.
But this review isn’t on the compressor, it’s on the inflator which Park tool sent
me as part of the shop build.
Despite being very biased about it I do have good reasons for liking this shop inflator.
The head turns quite smoothly from Presta to schraeder, but also allows you to adjust
your grip so that the gauge is always in view.
To get your pressure just right, you can back air out with this bleed valve.
Because this inflator is kind of fun to use, I check my pressure more often now.
As far as how it holds up in a real bike shop, I couldn’t tell you first hand.
I just know that it feels solid and works great.
Here, I have two items sent to me by Crankbrothers, and I must admit that at first glance I wasn’t
impressed.
They seemed kind of over engineered, and prettier than they were functional.
That is until I started using them.
Let’s start with the Klic HV Hand pump.
To get going you turn the handle and slide this tube out.
With the pump body out of the picture, it’s easy to attach this hose to your valve stem.
The body then latches itself on magnetically, hence the Klic.
The built in gauge eliminates guesswork, and the pump certainly lives up to it’s HV,
or high volume label.
This pump really grew on me during my trip to the Pacific Northwest.
By the way, why do I carry a pump and not CO2?
Airplanes.
Every time I leave CO2 in my bag it gets confiscated at a security checkpoint.
Pumps never run out and they never get confiscated.
Here, we have the Crankbrother’s F15 multitool.
Magnetically latched inside this pretty cover is a nicely machined but anemic tool.
I didn’t get the point of that at first, but It turns out you can use the cover as
a handle providing enough leverage even for pedals.
Better yet, the chain tool comes out totally and has spoke wrenches in it, keeping them
free and clear of the tool just like the real thing.
I love the magnetic latches, the leverage, and the fact that the cover keeps it from
getting caught on stuff.
So this has been my go to multi tool for the last month, and will continue to be for the
foreseeable future.
Finally we have this thing.
Nothing says innovation like this guy’s sh!teating grin.
The company wanted me to try this for mountain biking, and I told them it was a bad idea.
They insisted.
I stand corrected, this looks awesome.
Yeah, so I noticed that the phone mount fits GoPro brackets, so I decided to try it on
a more stable mount to see what a phone is capable of.
It’s definitely more stable but it still sucks.
As for the Point of You, maybe it would work better for filming office tasks, or as a phone
stand.
For a mountain biker it’s nothing more than a gag gift.
So that’s it, 10 quick product reviews, back to back.
If you want to see more videos like this let me know in the comments, and if you have good
alternatives to the stuff that sucked, tell me that too.
Thanks for watching, thanks for riding with me today, and I’ll see you next time.