Strengths: very light, compact (lamp and battery), "smart" charger, good budget lights
Weaknesses: Smart not renowned for quality (cheap end of market).
Overall: I have ordered a set for night training on the road. Narrow beam suits road. Good simple system, very lightweight and small lamp and battery fit neatly on road bike. Can be bought for £70 mail order in Cycling Weekly. Will report on reliability later.
Strengths: Good feel, quality alloy construction. For dinosaurs, 8 speed can be used with 7-speed as well (5mm sprocket spacing)
Weaknesses: None yet. Less silky than Record.
Overall: For some reason only Shimano changers have been put up by the site designers. But then this is a mountainbike site. The thumb lever that you get with Campag is more ergonomic than moving the whole brake lever a la Shimano. Not without reason do 90% of roadies use Campagnolo.
Weaknesses: The first set that I had, the digital control stopped working. It was replaced and the battery stopped holding its charge. It had been little used, soley on the road. The replacment is new, but does not keep topped up if left on the digital battery charger. I was stuck without lights because of it. I have to periodically turn the charger off and on, whereby it will resume charging and top up the battery
Overall: Very expensive, yet to work properly. Lot of expense and also time chasing the distributor to deal with the problems.
Strengths: I noticed the difference when I started time trialling on these, there was no longer a terminal velocity for me around 25mph!
Weaknesses: The Mavic cassette for campag is expensive, but having read the instructions from the technical manual, it appears you can use a Shimano HG9 cassette with the grey spacers (that come with the wheel) to get Campag 9 indexing (or the Mavic cassette with yellow). Thats how I read the manual, it would certainly be cheaper than the £50 Mavic cassette, particularly if it wears badly as per above post from Rob Pugh.
Overall: I have had them on for over a season, they have kept absolutely true, and, the rims have not worn (I keep them clean). They make the bike look more classy than standard rims. Easy to adjust bearings with your fingers (tool not really required).
Weaknesses: I have had two split where the hooked retainer (mavic) butts against the sidewall. I keep them up to pressure. Were replaced by distributor, but cost me a taxi ride home each time.
Overall: This fault has been flagged in CTC mag so its not just me.
'HARD WEARING, STILL GOOD AFTER MUCH USE AND WASHING'
Strengths: Firstly, can we ban the word "toasty" from this review section, its so twee. Anyway, these are warm and protective and fit well. The material has substance.
Weaknesses: Ok big buckles are a bit oversized, just adjust them to the right place and they are not uncomfortable. To disagree with other reviews, the lack of padding is an advantage. these should be worn over shorts. You don't have to wash them every time you wear them and you can take them with you on variable weather days.
Overall: Endura are on my list of half a dozen good manufactureres o bike clothing. They have offered to replace the zip (at no cost to me) when I told them that the handle had fallen off after many years use. Good kit. The waterproof shin is an excellent design feature, keeps you warm in inclement weather.
'COMFORTABLE, BUT NON-ADJUSTABLE VISOR AND DESIGN WEAKNESS'
Strengths: Much better fitting than the Giro Exodus (similar top of range) that this replaced. Cool in hot weather
Weaknesses: Part of Rocloc 4 cradle broke at a weak high stress point, i.e. at corner of plastic cradle. This happened, not in use, but when I picked the helmet up. The visor, unlike the Giro Exodus, cannot be adjusted up and down, to keep sun, headlights and rain out of your eyes.
Overall: Comfortable and secure and cool in heat. The velcro fastenings for the pads appear to be slightly more robust than previous models, they needed to be. The head padding used to fall out in the previous Exodus model. The plastic cradle for the head fractured within days of purchase, it's clearly a weak point. The structure of the cradle is actually thinner at the corner point, a point of maximum stress. 1st year engineering student would not have designed this. This helmet costs £106. It needs some refinements.
