Ground Effect Zamboni
Price: £26 (not incl. P+P)
www.groundeffect.co.nz

Right over the far side of the world a bunch of New Zealanders are frantically trying to increase production and fill air mail bags with their excellent no nonsense cycling clobber. Mainly because we generally like it so much we keep telling you to buy it!

This top comes from the “Unfashion’ section of the GE catalogue described as “Approved clobber for terrorising the city, cruising the highways, café surfing or just hangin'”.
As a result it’s the least performance-styled shirt we’ve tested, but the daft thing is it actually really works well on the bike! A fast drying windproof and slightly showerproof yoke, ‘proper’ shirt collar and upper sleeves. The rest of the shirt is the same soft but high performance “Intercool” fabric as the Manta Ray Jersey. The full length stormflapped zip gives as much extra air conditioning as you could want and the only trouble we’ve had was a chafed neck from the collar when it got sodden and absolutely filled with silt riding in the rain in Cwm Carn. Wearing it all day the day before probably didn’t help either.

The cut is definitely baggy but it’s all light enough so it doesn’t get in the way when you’re riding.

Fabric
Soft cottony “Intercool” fabric manages sweat really well for rapid drying as soon as you slow down, but it’s still comfy and cosy when damp. Think favourite T-shirt feel, highly synthetic performance. Add a bit of weatherproofing over your shoulders, neck and sleeves and we’ve worn it everywhere from scorching sun days to driving rain.

No pulled thread or bush diving problems yet either.

Medium flaps about as we’d have expected on a scrawny six footer, but then you’re not after a tight fit on this sort of shirt anyway.

Pockets
None, not one, nada.

Special features
It looks like a ‘Friday night on the pull’ shirt, but shifts sweat a lot faster than that big girl in the boob tube. Think completely different rather than ‘special features’.

It’s an unconventional piece of cloth, but if you’re into that whole no Lycra baggy stealth look for hanging around beer gardens or whuppin the ass of skinsuit boys on race day then it’s brilliant. We’ve certainly worn it pretty much constantly since we got it, and it’s not like we’re short of tops at the moment…