Some guys get really into their rig for mountain climb races. Since I have no delusions of winning Mt. Washington this year it didn’t make sense for me to spend a day moving my entire Shimano XP mountain bike drivetrain over to my road bike, nor to spend a boatload of money buying a new crankset/cogset/etc.

Much like a skydiver doesn’t go jumping without his parachute, I could not send myself off to attack the mountain with a 53-39 crankset.

So I started hunting for the cheapest way to add some low hill-climbing gearing to my bike, and to my surprise, found everything I needed in our apartment…

As is advised by Glen when embarking on his tours: “bring two water bottles or you will dehydrate and die”. This goes double if you’re riding longer distances with less stops than an organized tour. After nearly experiencing this fate on a recent century ride I decided to give the 72oz Camelback Raceback a try…

While I’m not the kind of guy to sweat buckets at the slightest signs of effort, I definitely run hot. Hot to the point where I’ll get heat rashes on the palms of my hands using traditional leather or synthetic cycling gloves come mid summer.

Enter the Adidas Adistar glove…