More triathlon gear tests than any other website. EXPERT REVIEWS of the latest and best tri kit, including bikes, running shoes, wetsuits and clothing.
In jargon-free language, regular 220 Triathlon contributor Joe Beer unravels the basics about our beloved sport, from the fundamental training required to become a triathlete, to the equipment you’ll need, all the way through to racing. Along this enjoyable ride, there are plenty of training plans and tips to get your teeth into. Complementing the […]
Triathlon Made Easy is written by Zoe McDonald and Lisa Buckingham from Zest magazine, and their day job has clearly seeped through to the pages of this guide, as it has a stereotypical girly air to it – lots of stars, pastel colours and cute illustrations. While these fluffy visuals will appeal to some, many […]
Everyone with a pair of running shoes should have Running Well by Sam Murphy and Sarah Connors on their bookshelf. It aims to show runners how to minimise and treat injury through smart training and good technique. But Running Well is far more than just an injury book. It’ll help you assess and correct your […]
This kit bag-sized book by Anita Bean is a valuable reference tool for those interested in supplements and nutrition. Easy to read and packed with concise information, it’ll help you understand the massive range of supplements on the market to see which you need, which you don’t and how to make them work for you. […]
At a massive 351 pages, with excellent examples, exercises and tips, Jeremy Lazarus gives you a practical handle on the use of Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) for sports people. NLP breaks down the mental aspects of sport into scenarios that are easily practised and visualised, which helps the athlete to take the most appropriate actions […]
The Will is a bar with energy at the heart of its formulation. The ‘coco-a-go-go’ flavour, which we tried, includes caffeine (0.2%) and taurine (1.8%). And at those levels the bar will definitely put a spring in your step and make an evening or lunchtime session easier to get through. See it like a solid […]
Packed mainly with rice crisps and oat flakes, the Maxim bar has a crispy, moist texture. Simple sugars in the form of glucose syrup and dextrose provide additional carbs, while use of vegetable fat raises calorie intake slightly and probably makes for an easier-to-chew bar. The bars are still low fat but added fat and […]
The incredibly moist Torq bar is based on a simple list of ingredients that includes oats, raisins, maltodextrin, fructose syrup, apricot and puffed rice. This makes for a low fat, high carb, easy-to-chew bar with very little aftertaste or stickiness. It also includes a small supplement of ribose (which aids cell and muscle tissue renewal), […]
Built on sound science, the Go Bar is ideal for carb-loading energy during training on cooler days and for straight after training. It’s made using mainly natural ingredients, including grape juice, cherries, rice, soya crisp, organic dates, oats and pineapple. No hydrogenates, added sugar, flavours, preservative or colours are added, and the fruit-loaded recipe provides […]
Having kick-started the American energy bar market, the PowerBar brand has now diversified across various nutrition products. But the original bar remains the same, albeit with a few ingredient tweaks. As with PowerBar’s gels, the Performance bar has increased in sodium, from 100mg per bar to 230mg, which improves fluid absorption and compensates for sweat […]
These socks have a conventional look and feel to them. More importantly, they’re comfortable – an essential in any piece of clothing. While they’re not left- and right-foot specific, they fit well with no slipping, bunching or rubbing at the toes. The material is thick enough to offer padding, with thinner and more breathable material […]
It’s not clear if this is a sock made of breathable mesh with lots of padded pieces, or vice versa. The bottom of each sock enjoys good padding that spreads up across the top of the toes, up the back of the heel and to the side of the ball of the foot (they’re also […]
The Falke RU3 is a good sock for training, with padding along the bottom and up the heel. As reflected in many run socks these days, this cushioning also extends across the toes. However, on the RU3 it goes much further back to cover the top of most of the forefoot. The heel padding also […]
These are a very thin and minimal sock that most of us would reserve purely for racing in. The material running along the bottom of each sock, across the toes and up the heel is thin – the material running along the top is even thinner. So to say these socks are cool and breathable […]
It’s easy to see why X-Socks are becoming more popular. The left- and right-specific socks have padding at the forefoot, at the heel and across the toes, which of course all adds up to extra comfort, but the pads are not so thick as to hamper the fit of your shoes. The socks grip well […]
Body Glide is of a waxy consistency rather than liquid/gel and comes in a handy stick-type dispenser (like some antiperspirants). The obvious advantage of this is the cleanliness of application and zero risk of it leaking in your car/kit bag and ruining all your clothes or carpets. The downside of the stick is that liberal […]
Brave Soldier is the official skincare supplier to Carmichael training systems in the US, so they should know a thing or two about athletes’ needs. Friction Zone (we tested the £2 sample version but we’d recommend the 180ml product) is their multipurpose skin lubricant and, like all those tested here, is wetsuit friendly; in other […]
The age-old triathlete’s favourite. On the plus side, Baby Oil is widely available, cheap and leaves your skin lovely and smooth. Unfortunately, though, its watery consistency means it inevitably goes everywhere when you’re trying to apply it. It also absorbs too well into your skin and, as a result, offers less protection than the specifically […]
Made on the Isle of Man, Sal Clear Tri Lube has been designed specifically to get triathletes in and out of wetsuits in a hurry. The ingredients are tested so that they won’t affect the neoprene, and consistency is quite thin but not too watery, making precise and localised application easy. In terms of protection […]
Suit Juice would clearly be Captain Planet’s choice of lubricant: biodegradeable, fragrance free, hypoallergenic and containing no animal by-products. It’s even approved by the US Environmental Protection Agency. Consistency is quite thin but it comes in a neat pump-action bottle, which makes application much less messy than daubing it on by hand, and is the […]
Even though the Topeak is a very slick and stable stand, it still doesn’t quite tick all of our ‘tool’ boxes. That said, coming completely assembled in a balanced carry bag definitely gets it off to a flying start. The wide, quick-release secured tripod base is extremely sturdy and the tall height range (10.5-19cm) will […]
Park has an enviable reputation for bringing industrial-quality workshop gear into your garage. The PCS-11 is certainly sturdy if not as slick as some. For a start it clatters out of the box in bolt-together bits, and even when folded it’s still a big bundle unless you take the head off. The wide-splayed, high-set twin […]
It might look like Russian army surplus but this cheap and cheerful unit is actually bloody good to work with. There’s a bit of bolting it together to be done first, but the finished Y-frame design is rattle free and stable enough to be perfectly safe on flat floors. Mounting the bike is easy: just […]
Tacx’s Cyclespider is stable and nicely made, but a faff to fettle with. Once together, though, it’s light and easy to pack down between uses. You can work either side of the bike or even rotate it completely around, and it’s height-adjustable for tweaking transmission or topside components. A tool tray is included for tools, […]
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