H&M's cycling kit, Lezyne's revamped lights, trendy bike bags and Pas Normal gravel kit

Welcome to First Look Friday – your weekly round-up of the best cycling tech to land at BikeRadar HQ

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By Jack Luke

Published: August 25, 2023 at 7:00 am

Sharing good tidings about new cycling tech is a privilege I will never tire of.

However, some weeks, it’s a struggle – managing the endless deluge of scintillating content I have the pleasure of (deputy) editing while maintaining my status as a D-list Instagram influencer is a mighty ask.

In these dark moments, I see my name on the First Look Friday rota and feel a rare pang of doubt.

Can I really wade through another waist-deep pile of products to select only the finest gems? Is it truly possible to write another stupid intro to BikeRadar’s most popular regular feature?

Then I remember a Friday without First Look Friday would be disastrous – the earth would wobble off its axis and we’d be flung far into the coldest reaches of the universe, perishing in a bike swag-less heat death.

So, for the greater good, I pull myself together, and I’m pleased to present an edition of First Look Friday snatched from the jaws of peril.

If that isn’t enough, there’s been plenty else to distract you from important tasks on BikeRadar this week.

To start, I was personally distressed to see an update to our power-to-weight ratio explainer appear on the homepage.

This is a most unwelcome reminder hill climb season is just around the corner and I have foolishly made mumbled commitments to enter a few events this year. I’m already working on a fresh batch of excuses after a season off.

Oscar Huckle schooled us on the best way to set up tubeless tyres and made me feel thoroughly ashamed of my shockingly uneven efforts with his guide to wrapping bar tape (a job I am apparently alone in finding utterly loathsome).

Jack Evans also went over the basics of how to prepare and ride a sportive. Believe me when I say you can trust his sage advice, because he really knows his onions (though, reading the guide, I learned he’d never advocate eating them on a long ride – stick to Haribo).

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The Munin Mini Messenger is a neat little 3.5-litre capacity everyday bag with two helpful internal mesh dividers and a zipped outer pocket.

The full-cover lid is held in place with broad Velcro strips and a neat clip is included to secure your keys.

As nice as this bag is, I’m sorely disappointed George Scott opted for an austere all-black option when the alluring paint splatter colourway was also on offer.

The Wizard Works Gala is manufactured using a mix of Cordura and X-Pac fabrics, ensuring sturdy mid-ride snack stowage.

It is available in five stock colour options. In keeping with most of the brand’s bags, custom colours are also available for a £10 upcharge.

An adjustable strap enables you to cinch the bag in place and a single metal popper prevents disastrous snack spillage.

The bag is also compatible with Wizard Works’ stabiliser strap (£10) for maximum sack security.

Pas Normal Studios has been making waves in the cycling kit world with its understated design and material choices.

We’ve got our hands on a selection of Pas Normal’s new Escapism kit, which is aimed at all-road/gravel riders.

Pictured is the men’s kit, but there is also a full range of Escapism kits for women.

The Escapism Knit jersey is a close-fitting but super-high stretch cycling jersey.

This is dyed in a series of colours straight out of the ‘hot gravel bike summer 2023’ lookbook – it’s all very subdued and very ‘now’.

Pictured is this fetching Dusty Blue, Mandarin and Dark Moss number.

A grey, dark red and blue option is also available.

The material is incredibly soft to the touch and the stretch properties ensure an excellent form fit. A full-length zip a dropped tail and reinforced triple rear pockets all meet the requirements of a classy jersey.

Next, it’s the matching Escapism bib shorts.

The main body of the shorts uses an abrasion-resistant material that feels like Cordura to the touch.

The chamois pad is four-layer and the thigh panels have the now ubiquitous gravel-approved, high-stretch pockets. The rear of the shorts’ rear waistline pockets gives further storage.

At the other end of the price spectrum is H&M’s new range of men’s and women’s road cycling kit.

The well-designed kit looks and feels the part – I’m no garment technologist but, in the hand, the kit feels similar in quality to mid-range dhb kit.

The fit is a little off the mark. I comfortably fit size medium in most brands’ kit (including dhb), but found this to be a bit baggy, particularly around the sleeves.

A matching fleece is available to complement the women’s shorts (which are only available as a standard bib-less short).

As an aside, I and many others were bombarded with well-targeted ads on Instagram for weeks after the release of this kit, which is what prompted me to order it in the first place.

The release also follows Zara’s range of mountain bike clothing in December 2022. UK direct-to-consumer brand Jacamo has also moved into the cycling space.

Could this mark the start of a serious attempt at entering the cycling market from mainstream fashion brands? Is this the moment when my favourite froggy fresh jersey is finally deemed cool by the buying public? I watch with keen interest.

Lezyne has revamped its bike lights line-up for 2023 and the diminutive KTV Drive Pro 300 is the smallest in the range.

The moulded plastic shell contains a 1,400mAh battery with a claimed run time of up to 40 hours (in an unspecified mode).

A small but thoughtful update sees the charging port cover replaced with a neat removable silicone cap, which is held in place with a moulded hook. The cap on the previous-generation lights did not feel as sturdy and was secured internally.

Overall, the changes to construction and design feel like a step up for this end of the Lezyne range.

The light is also available in 600, 1,000 and 1,400-lumen options. All are compatible with Lezyne’s Infinite Light Power Pack+ – an auxiliary external battery pack that boosts runtime and can be used to charge other devices.

Deputy editor

Jack Luke is the deputy editor at BikeRadar and has been fettling with bikes for his whole life. Always in search of the hippest new niche in cycling, Jack is a self-confessed gravel dork, fixie-botherer, tandem-evangelist and hill climb try hard. Jack thinks nothing of bikepacking after work to sleep in a ditch or taking on a daft challenge for the BikeRadar YouTube channel. He is also a regular contributor to the BikeRadar podcast. With a near encyclopaedic knowledge of cycling tech, ranging from the most esoteric retro niche to the most cutting-edge modern kit, Jack takes pride in his ability to seek out stories that would otherwise go unreported. He is also particularly fond of tan-wall tyres, dynamo lights, cup and cone bearings, and skids. Jack has been writing about and testing bikes for more than six years now, has a background working in bike shops for years before that, and is regularly found riding a mix of weird and wonderful machines. Jack can also often be seen zooming about with his partner aboard their beloved tandem.

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