Well that’s that then, 2025 is over, cue the fireworks, cue the January blues, cue a return to the grind faster than you can say Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes.
For one final mid-decade treat, we’ve gathered together some of Cyclist’s hivemind – barring our excellent freelance testers and the very busy James Spender – to cobble together our favourite new bike products of the year.
For even more and in-depth opinions, be sure to subscribe to Cyclist or check out our reviews section, but ideally both.
Pete Muir, Editor
Trek Checkmate
We tend to measure bikes on factors such as weight or stiffness or coefficients of drag, but that’s mainly because we can attach a figure to them. Much harder to quantify is just how much fun a bike is, so I’ve had to come up with a new metric, which I’m calling ‘smiles’ (Sm).
The Trek Checkmate has a best-in-class rating of 93Sm on the grinometer, placing it firmly in the category of ‘absolute blast’. Its recipe for success is simple (although probably hard to achieve, otherwise everyone would be doing it): make a bike with the lightness, speed and handling of top-end road bike, but make it capable of going pretty much anywhere thanks to 40mm tyres and the cunning IsoSpeed decoupler thingy that adds bounce at the seatpost.
Yes, it’s meant for serious gravel racers, but for those of us not planning a trip to Unbound it’s just the perfect do-everything bike for razzing around on and feeling like a big kid again.
Admittedly, regression to childhood doesn’t come cheap (the Checkmate starts at £7,000) but it’s probably less expensive in the long run than therapy, and as it could replace several of the other bikes clogging up your garage, it could potentially save your marriage. Worth every penny.
Sam Challis, Tech Editor
Factor bikes
I’m going to play fast and loose with the rules here – this year saw me at my desk working on articles that others have written more often than using and writing about kit myself, so I’ve factored in (I’m not sorry for that joke) bikes that I just plain like the look of as well as the ones that have impressed me out on the road.
What I’ve landed on is actually a mixture of both, and more of a general tip of the cap to the work that bike brand Factor has been doing in 2025. We’ve seen the Monza: an aero bike with practical considerations that is relatively accessible (for Factor) in price, and I’ve tested its gravel equivalent, the Aluto. There are better bikes for truly rough stuff but for normal gravel and road it’s light and springy ride feel made it great fun to ride.
The brand then rounded out the year with a new One – a truly striking aero race bike with an innovative approach to frame design and geometry. We’ve seen a swing away from the identikit lightweight racers of the past few years since the latest breed of aero bikes have been released, but even among those the new One stands apart as a particularly interesting design.
From what I’ve been told, there’s more to follow from Factor in 2026, so the brand feels like its moving in the right direction with no signs of slowing down.
WolfTooth Del pedals
My pick for the tech category is a tongue-in-cheek disruptor to a very established market category, namely SPD pedals. WolfTooth recently thought it was high time someone should challenge the status quo, or in the brand’s own words, ‘reboot’ the pedal market, so it has developed three new models – Ctrl, Alt and Del, after the cure-all keyboard shortcut.
All three are made in-house from intricately machined stainless steel and aluminium parts. As such, they benefit from exceptionally low stack heights as well as adjustable Q-factors, courtesy of a novel, rearrangeable spacer and bearing layout inside the pedal body.
The Del option is arguably the most intriguing. Compared to its siblings, Del’s USP is its single-sided design, which positions it somewhat as a halfway house between a road and mountain bike pedal, but it’s lighter than the best from Shimano in either category, and promises no compromise in pedal contact area as well. It may just be a best of both worlds design that becomes the first true ‘all-road’ pedal.
Givelo kit
The cycling kit market is particularly competitive these days with a large number of brands making pretty decent garments. That said, I can count on one hand the brands that I rate as a cut above the rest. This year Givelo made it on to that list.
Hailing from Colombia, itself a textile manufacturing hub, Givelo seeks out and buys in fabrics from around the world to combine and construct in-house.
It’s not afraid to incorporate some pretty out-there features into its designs, such as that enigmatic wonder material, graphene, in one jersey, but fundamentally the kit I’ve used this year, such the CDA jersey and Lacefly 2.0 bibshorts, has been kit well-thought out, made to a faultess standard and priced very reasonably as well.
Specialized S-Works Ares II shoes
Ask any of my colleagues and they’ll tell you I’m a sucker for a nice pair of cycling shoes. It’s ironic really, because my wide feet have until recently limited what I could wear.
It’s why I appreciate the S-Works Ares II shoes Specialized launched in March, which took the already brilliant S-Works Torch shape and perfected it for those with wide feet, going wider and squarer at the toe box than almost any mainstream brand before it.
The construction of the original Ares – a sock liner with a strap and dial-based exoskeleton – was abandoned as well. In its place is a more conventional multi-ply TPU upper similar to that used on the S-Works Torch shoes. It varies in thickness dependent on area, to encourage more rigidity and pliability where required.
The arrangement of the Boa dials and cut of the upper results in a hugely tuneable fit. Add to that one of the more secure heel cups going and you have a shoe aggressive enough to be raced but comfortable enough to wear all day.
Laurence Kilpatrick, staff writer
J L.Averack J.Ack III AM64
It’s a shame all the beautiful bikes we test at Cyclist have to go back to their makers, but that’s the nature of the beast. And sure, if in some parallel universe we were allowed to keep one, there would be a big part of me that would want to keep maybe the new Basso SV, the Argon 18 Nitrogen Pro, or the Look Blade 795 RS.
But there’s a more sensible part of me that thinks Superbike Shmuperbike – let’s hang onto the masterfully crafted J.Ack III AM64 from Rutland-based J.Laverack.
This blasted matt titanium bike is still beautifully fresh in the mind, having just gone into the magazine. The advent of 3D printing means that titanium is improving in its old age. Those unsightly welds can now be a thing of the past. J.Laverack’s AM64 method leaves an utterly unblemished smoothness between tubes that resembles the inherent svelteness of carbon far more than metal.
This understated elegance carries through into a sumptuously well-specced bike that has enough tyre clearance – 38mm – for me to stop even thinking about the G word. It’s comfy, feel fast enough for my needs and for those in the know, it’s a coffee stop conversation piece.
Hunt Aerodynamicist wheels
The pattern emerging here seems to be versatility and all-round usability rather than wanton gluttony and luxury. How very sensible of me.
I haven’t quite finished reviewing Hunt’s updated Aerodynamicist wheelset – the 44_46 rim depths are the ones we have in for test – but don’t let the name fool you. These aren’t designed to be all out speed snakes. They are a rung or so down from the brand’s top of the line Limitless wheels and have been made easier to live with for that reason.
That means no confusing hookless rims or hyper lightweight rim materials. Of course, they are still made of carbon fibre so the 1,274g weight is still very light and theses ones came fitted with carbon spokes, which is a deeply posh flex in and of itself. But Hunt knows that it still has lots of customers still riding bikes with tighter wheel clearance, so it has intentionally kept the rim widths relatively narrow so that it can safely guarantee 25mm tyre widths. That said, the wheels are still fastest with 28-30mm tyres.
The Hunt hubs come apart without tools – yes, I’ve done my time in the dungeon testing how easy this really is – which is a very handy little fillip for those who will be swapping their own freehub bodies. Perhaps most importantly they’re great to ride. Stiff without being punishing, and strong without being too hefty. We do live in a magical age where bike wheels can be this strong and this light at the same time. Good to remind ourselves of that every now and again.
Nimbl Ultimate Glide shoes
Many of the shoes I’ve tested this year, and in previous years, are pretty similar. There might be some variety in laces, or dials, or microfibre, or leather, or tongues, or sock booties, but the feeling you get when the shoe goes on is largely familiar.
The Nimbl Ultimate Glides kibosh that assumption. There is nothing quite like the glassy smooth internals of these handmade Italian shoes. This unforgiving surface looks like the last thing you’d entrust your feet’s wellbeing to and yet the comfort is peerless and enduring.
I rode them on my hardest ride of the year – 300km plus in an absurd 30-degree Dorset heatwave – and they were pretty much the only thing that didn’t let me down. Legs, head and bibs all abandoned me, but not my feet.
How they’ve managed to make something quite so stiff, quite so comfortable is a serious achievement. And they’re a bargain too…
Le Col Arc Lightweight Rain Jacket
Full disclosure, this Le Col rain jacket doesn’t see loads of use on what I’d call ‘proper rides’, where I’m cleated and lycraed up, but on city rides, commutes and every other part of my life, it’s a constant companion.
The hood is key. It fits a helmeted head with room to spare, and doesn’t buffet too annoyingly in the wind. There’s a very airy slit across the rear panel, which provides very effective ventilation, as does the double ended zipper.
I’ve gotten used to what initially seemed like oddly positioned rear pockets: they’ve been shunted round the side slightly. This actually makes access far easier, once you know what you’re aiming for, and I task them with gloves, phone, keys and all kinds of miscellaneous crap. They’re plenty big enough for all of it.
And vitally, the post-PFAS rain protection is very decent. It has an alarming habit of looking wetted out quite quickly, but this doesn’t carry through into it’s performance. It can take a serious hammering from the British winter and still delivers you nice and dry to the office.
Portal Realm Cargo Shorts
Based all over but with some roots in London, Portal makes a range of outdoor kit, covering cycling, hiking and running. These Realm Cargo Shorts are an absolute pocket bonanza, somehow cramming in seven stash points so that riders can pair the gravel-leaning shorts with a pocketless top.
Not only are they hella practical, they are also very comfortable. Rather than going it alone, Portal has done the smart thing and left the chamois to experts Elastic Interface. The pad selected is designed for all kinds of riding on all different surfaces and I’ve found it capable in every scenario. The lycra is semi-compressive and never felt restrictive.
Externally, the fabric feels a little sturdier and coarser than I’m used to, which works well with stray branches and hanging brambles. Too often expensive kit gets ruined on day one in the most innocuous circumstances. Portal says this is UHMWPE grid mesh that’s made to be lightweight and abrasion resistant.
Abus Airbreaker 2.0 helmet
The only non-British brand that snuck onto my list is Abus. Who knew I was an unwitting patriot?
There are a few things you need from every helmet – regardless of whether it’s made for a Tour de France pro or a three-year-old balance biker.
It needs to keep me alive, be easy to adjust and keep me relatively cool. Abus’s updated Airbreaker 2.0 is for professionals so it costs £310 in its Mips form and does all of these things in spades. Plus it’s pretty aerodynamic, super lightweight and looks swish.
But in addition to its class-leading ventilation, it manages something that few others do. I possess a slightly larger than average head or, as tech editor Sam Challis has termed it, ‘an absolutely massive bonce’. The Airbreaker 2.0 performs the optical illusion of making it look slightly less giant. Its design has a very low, skull-hugging profile, so it feels like it’s barely there.
For that reason, it was one of my absolute favourites this year – with the added bonus that I got to go to the Abus factory in Italy to see how they turn what look like tiny crumbs of food into cutting edge helmet technology.
Will Strickson, website editor
Quoc x Maap M3 Pro shoes
I’ve been as big a pusher of the white shoes-only agenda as anyone – admittedly slightly in part due to it being the safest aesthetic choice, but this year I was swayed to take a risk and it paid off.
Maap and Quoc have collaborated on a number of redesigned Quoc shoes, including these very smart pink M3 Pros. I’ve been riding the white M3 Air shoes since they came out, so had plenty of faith in the performance and comfort of these shoes, but I was nervous about whether I could pull them off.
You’ll have to wait until January’s new issue of Cyclist to see the result, but it’s a full endorsement from me.
Repente Nomad FC saddle
The Repente Nomad FC saddle came at the perfect time for me, my old Repente saddle was due to be replaced and I’d just acquired one of those fancy 3D printed numbers. I don’t wear full cycling kit to commute because it’s not far enough and boy, non-padded shorts on a firm 3D printed saddle is not a good idea.
Thankfully the Nomad then turned up at the door and its shiny, smooth surface brought nothing but joy. Alongside the ergonomics he main selling points are actually that it’s a full carbon saddle weighing about 155g, which made the switch worthwhile even without my prior woes.
Albion Zoa shorts
My eternal quest to find the perfect clothing that can both survive commutes and be acceptable to wear for the rest of the day continued this year and hit new heights. While my search for the ultimate trousers trundled on, I’m not sure I’ll find shorts more up to that task than Albion’s Zoa shorts.
Albion says they’re made for ‘those who travel by bike’, meaning they’re comfortable, durable, have an adjustable fit and are covered in handy and secure pockets. Laptop-aside, I could carry everything I need for a day’s work in these, and they look normal-verging-on-stylish when I get off the bike. Laurence even got himself a pair after seeing mine and he’s barely taken them off.
