Clockwise, from left
1 Maap Socks– £17.53, maap.cc
If Jacob gave out socks instead of Dreamcoats, Joseph would no doubt have been padding around Egypt in these Technicolor beauties from Aussie brand Maap. Featuring a fashionable six-inch cuff and breathable mesh uppers, Maap’s funky designs will inspire you to draw back those curtains and see for certain that you should definitely go cycling. Because any excuse to wear these socks will do.
2 BikeRibbon Gel Pads– 15.99, bikeribbon.com
Legend has it that Bernard Hinault is so hard he can kill two stones with one bird and once made Greg LeMond cry with a single arch of his eyebrow. But as nails as he was, even The Badger admits he could have benefitted from BikeRibbon’s Gel Pads during his illustrious career. Available in two densities, the pads simply slip under your bar tape to dampen road buzz and lessen fatigue. Because as long as we breathe, we attack.
3 Spray Bike Paint– £7.95, bricklanebikes.co.uk
They say a leopard can’t change its spots, but they’ve obviously never tried these rattle cans from Brick Lane Bikes. Available in a rainbow-rich smorgasbord of colour, the Spray.Bike paint promises an easy way of rejuvenating old bike frames, restoring frame chips or just making your own moggy look shiny and new. Please don’t actually spray-paint your cat.
4 Tribe Bars– From £8.95 for 6, wearetribe.co
Whole natural foods are all the rage, which on one hand makes us wonder how long we’ve been eating wholly unnatural foods for, but on the other makes us glad for Tribe and its delicious high-protein, high-carbohydrate energy bars. Expect chia and cocoa nibs, kianga pineapple, bogoya banana and, of course, wild apricot and lucama, a fruit that interestingly is a symbol of fertility in Peru.
5 Brancale Winter Leather Gloves– Approx £140, brancale.cc
In 1839 Count Alfred D’Orsay, the proclaimed ‘King of the Dandies’, decreed that gentleman should wear six pairs of gloves a day: reindeer gloves en route to a foxhunt and chamois leather gloves during; gloves of beaver when driving a carriage; coloured kid gloves when making purchases for ladies; yellow dogskin gloves at dinner and white lamb-skin gloves for a ball. Quite what such fellows should have worn bestride velocipedes is undocumented, but one could imagine Brancale’s fleece-lined leather gloves being just the ticket.