Full Beam Fusion SpeedLED

Full Beam SpeedLED Fusion with speed sensor. The business end is three high-output LEDs

This new 3000-lumen, £416 single-lump headlamp has a twist: a sensor that directly reads speed off your wheel and adjusts the light output accordingly.

The idea is similar to Exposure’s Reflex light (which we currently have on test) but where Exposure has come up with some technical wizardry to determine speed from air flow over the light, Full Beam has gone for the direct approach: run a wire down to the wheel and use a sensor like a bike computer’s to measure speed.

Full Beam claims 4-5 hours of typical run time, depending on how fast you ride and how much you stop.

It passes the office “Ow, my eyes, point that thing somewhere else” test, and we especially like the very tidy quick release mount. Look out for a full test shortly.

More information: Full Beam Fusion SpeedLED

Grip Grab Raptor winter gloves

Grip Grab Raptor gloves

A new name to the UK, Grip Grab hails from Denmark and is being sold in the UK exclusively through Wiggle.

These £44.95 Raptor gloves are Grip-Grab’s all-purpose winter handwarmers, with a softshell fabric back and synthetic leather palm. The palm also has a rubber pattern for handlebar grip and a pad of gel – Grip Grab calls it Doctor Gel – to protect against vibration.

They know a think or two about cold weather in Denmark, and the Raptors look thick enough for temperatures down to a couple degrees above freezing. The range includes summer gloves too, plus shoe covers, helmet liners and beanies.

More information: Grip Grab Raptor gloves
UK supplier: Wiggle

New helmet colours from Giro

New colours from Giro and Bell: £99.99 men’€™s Giro Athlon, £69.99 Women’s Giro Phase, £79.99 men’€™s Giro Hex, £99.99 women’€™s Giro Xara and £99.99 men’€™s Bell Sweep.

Sister company helmet makers Giro and Bell have sent us a load of new styles and colours from their 2013 ranges. Pictured here are the £99.99 men’s Giro Athlon, £69.99 Women’s Giro Phase, £79.99 men’s Giro Hex, £99.99 women’s Giro Xara and £99.99 men’s Bell Sweep.

The women’s lids have gone down especially well at Bikemagic HQ thanks to their refreshing lack of pink.

Check out the gallery for bigger pics of each lid.

More information: Giro helmets; Bell helmets
UK importer: Madison Cycles

Specialized Tactic II helmet

Specialized Tactic II helmet in very very green

Speaking of new lids, here’s Specialized’s new Tactic II, in 2013’s hottest colour, which Specialized call Moto Green. Specialized says the Tactic II is aimed at all-mountain riders, though it seems to us that slicing helmets up by mountain biking micro-niche is even more daft that coming up with a new marketing term for every 17.3mm of suspension travel.

What the Tactic II really is, is a thoroughly modern helmet at a very sensible price: just £54.99. It boasts features that were once only found on spendy lids, like a micro-adjust dial , in-mould outer shell and deep internal airflow channels.

First impressions: it’s snug, comfy and the shape extends well down the back of your head so that you’re protected against falling backeard as well as forward.

More information: Specialized Tactic II helmet

Showers Pass Double Century EX jacket

Showers Pass Double Century EX jacket

Portland, Oregon jacket maker Showers Pass deserves to be better known in the UK, in our humble opinion. Portland’s temperate, damp climate is similar to the UK’s and so Showers Pass’s answers to the problem of keeping warm and dry on a bike work as well here as they do over on the US west coast. (And Oregon had the good sense to vote for Obama last night, so that’s another point in the state’s favour.)

The £119.00 Showers Pass Double Century EX jacket is made from Cocona Xcelerator, a fabric that has activated charcoal particles in the waterproof membrane to increase breathability, it’s claimed.

That makes for quite a thin fabric, so the Double Century EX can be rolled up fairly small. It’ll cram into a jersey pocket if you’re find of roadie garb, or not take up to much space in your pack. There’s a big vent out back to let hot air out, big pit zips and plenty of reflective. There’s a chest pocket with a wire port for your MP3 player, drawcords to snug it round your bum andVelcro for the cuffs.

More information: Showers Pass Double Century EX jacket
UK supplier: nrg4

Airwave Blast track pump

Airwave Blast track pump featuring lots of cast auminium.

With this hefty £44.95 lump of a workshop inflator, Airwave seem to have taken the idea that you can’t make a track pump too beefy and run right down the field with it. The body and foot are forged alumiium, and so it the housing for the top-mounted gauge.

That’s a welcome touch. Putting the gauge up top where you can see it seems like a good idea, till you consider what happens if the pump falls over on a hard floor. That’s the end of most pumps with top gauges.

it’s belt and braces here as the base is heavy enough you have knock the Airwave Blast quite hard to get it to topple.

More information: Airwave Blast track pump

Transition Klunker

And finally… We haven’t been sent one of these, but we wish we had. Transition Bikes has just announced this modern update on the classic singlespeed klunkers of the seventies.

Those were the bikes that mutated into mountain bikes thanks to the mad scientist bike creation skills of folks like Gary Fisher, Tom Ritchey, Charlie Kelly, Alan Bonds, Russ Mahon and a host of other Marin County pioneers.

Transition Bikes Klunker

Transition Bikes calls this machine “a giant step backwards” with its single gear, coaster brake and 31-inch wide moto bars. “The Klunker features absolutely no technology and is in no way optimized,” says Transition. Sounds like the Bikemagic crew on a Friday night.

Transition and Shotgun Energy Drink are sponsoring Klunking superstar Tony Jonsson, as you can learn in this behind-the-scenes video:

More information: Transition Bikes Klunker blog