Fisher Outdoor Leisure are another of those big distributors who are responsible for the presence in shops of many distinguished brands. Here’s a few things of interest coming up…

The sudden reappearance of a traditional UK spring over the last few days makes the latest incarnation of Northwave’s winter boots a welcome sight. The Grizzly is the MTB version, and the Husky is for the road – same uppers, featuring neoprene sock and zip-down lace-covering flap, different soles.

Northwave also have this very airy shoe. It’s designed for spinning, which generally takes place indoors hence the mesh uppers with lots of holes. But there’s no reason why you can’t use it for hot days on a real bike. Also notable in the Northwave range are a couple of womens’ specific race shoes and the range of sizes – some models go up to a Euro 51…

At the other end of the body is MET’s new Parachute helmet. It’s a similar sort of helmet to the Giro Switchblade, teaming a lightweigh XCish helmet with a detachable chin guard for a bit of added protection. We think this might be a bit of a growth area – people are going faster and faster downhill and are looking for a bit more protection but they still want to ride back up without their heads exploding. The Parachute’s chin guard is in two pieces so you could in theory stow it in a pocket when detached. It’s available in two sizes or colours for £99.99.

Schwalbe are one of those brands that turn out a range of entirely good products but don’t get much attention because they’re not as cool as some of the others. Amongst their latest works are the Black Jack enduroesque MTB tyre with sizable side knobs but quite closely-spaced centre tread for fast rolling; the Big Apple oversized slick for comfy comfy town riding, available in 2 and 2.35in but with a slightly pointy profile so the rolling resistance is akin to a much smaller tyre; and the Marathon Plus touring tyre with a new anti-puncture strip that manages to just spring pointy interlopers back out again…

Another neat gadget for the urban cyclist is the Danlite. It’s a compact, rugged, shockproof, waterproof double-sided light that mounts to a flexible arm in the end of your bars, like a more useful version of those orange reflector flags. It shows a white light to the front and red to the rear (with steady and flashing modes) and you can adjust the arm in and out to suit conditions. You can also drop your bike on it and knock it on wing mirrors without damaging it. Not that you should ride into cars, of course. No, no.

Fisher’s are now bringing in Burley trailers (in versions suitable for small children or shopping) and tandems, for all your family cycling needs. The trailers have a quick-release hitch that’ll fit just about anything (although rear disc calipers may get in the way) and all sorts of child-friendly accoutrements like rain covers, roll-up windows, safety flag and so on. They also do trailerbikes for when your offspring are old enough to pretend to be pedalling.