Category: Product Reviews

Review: Hammer Nutrition HEED Sports Energy Drink

Hammer Nutrition HEED energy drink review

If you spend a lot of time on your bike, you’ll eventually want to use some kind of energy drink to keep yourself hydrated and keep from bonking.

I’ve tried many different energy drinks, and my current favorite is HEED from Hammer Nutrition. It isn’t too sweet, it doesn’t upset my stomach even during hard efforts, and it delivers enough calories and electrolytes that it prevents me from bonking or cramping.

Chris Carmichael has written several times about how he often sees recreational cyclists and ever well trained athletes consuming far too many calories on a ride, and I agree with him completely. I typically only use an energy drink if I am riding at least 50 miles. Under 50 miles, I’ll carry some kind of a gel or energy bar in case of an emergency bonk, but I almost never have to eat it.

I was already aware of Hammer Nutrition products from seeing them at local bike shops in Dallas, but had never really tried them. I was using this GNC product called AMP, which worked well and didn’t upset my stomach, but tasted a little bit like flavored, dirty sea water. Then I read a post on the Tim Ferriss 4 Hour Work Week site about an ultra endurance runner who swore by some Hammer Nutrition product (a different product — Perpetuem, which I will also review in two different forms).

So I bought a big can of HEED. And it turned out to be my favorite energy drink for longer rides when you want to stay hydrated and avoid a bonk.

One of the best features of HEED compared to that GNC AMP product is the taste. HEED has a very mild flavor that does not taste disgustingly sweet or disgustingly salty. It’s very easy to drink, and I can drink it even under hard efforts without upsetting my stomach. I’ve even had it 10 minutes before an evening cyclocross race where it was getting close to dinnertime and I was worried about a bonk if I didn’t get some calories in before the race. No problems.

I’ve purchased the “mild melon” flavored drink, and the lemon-lime flavor, and they are both good. HEED even comes in an unflavored version, if you don’t care about flavor and just want the energy benefits. I haven’t tried that yet, but plan to. I have also not tried the “subtle strawberry” or “mandarin orange” flavors, which do not appeal to me. But as you can see by the “mild” and “subtle” used in the names of the flavors, they are indeed lower key.

One of the coolest features of HEED is that it uses complex carbohydrates and avoids simple sugars. HEED uses stevia and xylitol for sweeteners. Hammer claims that xylitol is actually beneficial to oral health. So you aren’t drinking a sugary drink that will hurt your teeth.

The bottle or pouch of HEED has a guide to how much you should use according to your weight. Each scoop of HEED is around 100 calories. So if you want to keep your calories lower but still get some benefit, you can stick to a single scoop, for example.

Hammer claims that HEED has a better “electrolyte profile” than other energy drinks, which it says often just throw in salt and potassium and call it a day. I can attest that I don’t have any cramping issues when I use HEED, although I also often use SportsLegs on my harder rides too, which is extremely effective at fighting cramps.

Here’s how Hammer Nutrition describes the benefits of HEED drink.

Sports drinks have been around a long time, and for many athletes they’re more convenient than energy gels. Unfortunately, most sport drinks are not much more than artificially colored sugar water that does little to aid your performance and even less for your health. That is why we developed HEED as a healthy alternative; HEED’s subtle tasting, complex carbohydrate formula goes down easily and supplies you with consistent, long-lasting energy and the electrolytes you need to keep pushing the pace. No citric acid is added to the formula, so it will not burn your throat or stomach. HEED’s sweeteners, stevia and xylitol, are actually good for you; xylitol is especially beneficial for helping promote oral health. The full-spectrum, amino acid-chelated electrolyte profile helps satisfy your body’s mineral requirements. L-carnosine and chromium polynicotinate help to buffer lactic acid and support stable blood glucose levels. If you prefer sports drinks over energy gels or like to use a combination of the two, try HEED and find out what a sports drink done right can do for your athletic performance.

I’ll summarize my review with what I like best about HEED. Mild taste, no simple sugars, easy on my stomach, and effective against bonking and cramping.

If you are aren’t happy with your current energy drink or are looking at other alternatives, I recommend giving Hammer Nutrition’s HEED a try.

Did I leave anything out? Do you already use HEED and have something to add? Leave a comment!

       

Review: Serfas Thunderbolt (UTL-6) Taillight Rear LED Rechargeable Red Bike Light – Best and Brightest Ever?

Serfas Thunderbolt USB rechargeable super bright tail light blinker review

 

As someone whose ride time is primarily before work at 6 a.m., I consistently use a rear red blinking taillight on my bikes. I’ve gone through lots of different rear bike blinkers, including models by Planet Bike, Portland Bike Works, and even a different model by Serfas that is a clip on unit that uses AA batteries. The Serfas TL 200 1 watt bike light. I have bought this model at full retail twice, because I forgot to clip the first one on correctly and lost it during a group ride.

Serfas was kind enough to send me the USB rechargeable Thunderbolt tail light for review, and I’ve been using it for about a week.

Unlike the usual style of rear bike blinker that I usually use, which is the style that either clips onto your rear bicycle bag or your back jersey pocket, the Thunderbolt is designed to strap onto your bike. It has these thick rubbery, silicone like straps that will stretch to go around different sized objects, so you can put the light on your seatpost, or somewhere on your rear seat stay or wherever it most makes sense for your situation.

On my mountain bike and my cyclocross bike, both with standard round seatposts, I typically strap it onto the seatpost. But on my road bike, which has an aero seatpost, I mount the Thunderbolt onto this spot on my rear seat stays that you see in the photo. I am able to stretch it around my aero seatpost, but it’s easier to put on the seat stay.

Serfas Thunderbolt USB rechargeable tail light strap detail review

Here is a side view of how the straps on the Thunderbolt work. If you look at the strap that isn’t attached to the light, you can see that one side of the strap has a small hole that is intended to more or less “permanently” attach to one side of the light. And then you have a series of bigger holes on the other side that allows you to strap the light around just about anything.

Thunderbolt USB bicycle rear light charging review

The Thunderbolt has a built in rechargeable battery that recharges with a mini USB cord. They include a small cord with the light. The spot where you plug in the USB cord has a rubber cover that you pull off, so that you can stick in the USB cord. Serfas describes the whole system as “highly water resistant,” but I have not yet ridden it in the rain. The USB plug is hidden so that it will be strapped firmly against the bike, and is covered with a rubber plug. And the rest of the unit looks like a solid, rubberized kind of silicone material. So it definitely appears to be water resistant.

When you are charging the light, you’ll see a blinking orange light on the side of the device. When the light is fully charged, the light stops blinking and goes solid, so you know that you can unplug it. It takes anywhere from 3 to 6 hours to give you a full charge, depending on how depleted the battery is, and how much current it is pulling from your computer.

I charge my Thunderbolt with a Garmin charger that plugs into the wall, because Garmin uses mini USB to charge many of their products like the Garmin 800 bike computer that I use and love. I use that same Garmin charger to recharge my Serfas headlight that I also use daily. I’ll typically charge the headlight first as soon as I get back from a ride and leave it charging. If I notice it is finished before I go to work, I’ll then charge the taillight. Otherwise, I’ll swap them when I get home from work and let it charge until bedtime, leaving them both fully charged and ready to go the next morning.

With my Serfas headlight, I have to charge it daily, because most of the year I ride at least the first hour of my ride in the dark, with the headlight on one of the brightest settings. But with the taillight, I can go several days between charges. On the lowest blinking setting, you can run it for about 9 and a half hours. And let me tell you that the lowest blinking setting is still very, very bright.

Let’s talk about how bright this light really is.

In terms of lumens, you’ll get 35 lumens of red light when you have the light set on high. That might not mean anything to do, but I can tell you that it is substantially brighter than my Portland Bike Works rear light, or my Serfas 1 watt rear blinker light. On the package, they say that you can see it at least 1,000 yards away, and up to 1 mile away.

The extreme brightness of the light might be the only actual “downside” of this rear blinker. I typically ride with a small group in the mornings. I don’t know if you’ve ever ridden in the dark in a paceline behind someone with a really bright blinker pointed at your face, but it can be blinding and unpleasant. I definitely set this light to the low blinker setting when it is dark outside. And I have to make sure that I have it positioned where it doesn’t point into other riders’ faces.

If you use a tail light during the day to make yourself more visibile to cars, then the Thunderbolt might be the very best rear light that you could ever buy.

Since I ride on the city streets of Dallas, which isn’t the most cyclist friendly city, I use my rear tail light blinker even during the day. One of the problem with a standard rear blinker is that although it might be really, really bright at dusk and in the night, it will still be difficult to see during the day.

Up until now, my favorite option was the Serfas TL 200 rear bike light, a powerful 1 watt LED that you can see from a really long way away in the dark, and that does fairly well during the day.

But the Thunderbolt is significantly brighter than that model, and it blows away anything else I have ever used. For daytime riding, I have found nothing that compares to it.

The Thunderbolt has four different modes, and you cycle through them by clicking the single button on the side of the unit. The first mode is a super bright solid light, which will run approximately 1.75 hours until the battery runs down. Next is the low beam solid red, which is not as bright, but lasts up to 7 hours. And then there is the high beam blinking mode, which I use during the day to alert cars. It will last up to 3 hours. Finally, there is the low beam blinking mode, which isn’t as bright, but lasts up to 9 and a half hours. If you are riding in a group, you’ll probably want to use one of the low beam settings.

If you want to turn off the blinker, you don’t have to cycle through every mode. You can click the button and hold it down, and it will shut off.

The Serfas web site say that the Thunderbolt comes in several different color options, but I have only seen red in the bike shops where I have seen it stocked, and the unit they sent me for review was also red.

Serfas Thunderbolt (UTL-6) Taillight Features:

  • 35 lumens
  • USB rechargeable
  • Features a light silicone body
  • Features 30 micro-LED strip
  • Modes: 1.75 hours (high beam); 7 hours (low beam); 3 hours (high blink); 9.5 hours (low blink)
  • Unique mounting system that allows for endless mounting possibilities
  • Highly Water resistant
  • Weight: 50 grams

Did I leave anything out? Do you have questions about this blinker, or want to add something from your own experience using it? Leave a comment!

     

Review: Serfas Men’s Superleggera Cycling Shorts with Gel Chamois

Serfas Superleggera gel chamois cycling shorts review

 

I’ve been a fan of Serfas products since I bought my first Serfas bike headlight and bike taillight that I use almost daily. So when Serfas sent me a pair of their Superleggera cycling shorts for review, I was excited. I have been looking for a brand of cycling shorts to wear to switch away from Pearl Izumi, which used to be my favorite, but don’t seem as great as they once were in the past couple of years. (Look for my cycling shorts shootout post soon, where I will compare all the brands I have been trying out, including Mavic, Specialized, Bontrager and a few other brands.)

Although a lot of cyclist swear by bib shorts, I don’t like them and prefer standard cycling shorts. I don’t like the feeling of the straps on my shoulders, and I also don’t like the inconvenience of getting them on and off. Sure, the tops of standard cycling shorts might ride down a little bit over time, but that doesn’t bother me compared to bib straps.

Sizing for cycling shorts can be a crapshoot. As someone who weighs around 150 pounds with a 30 waist, I wear a medium in Pearl Izumi and Specialized. But in a Castelli, I have to wear a large. And with Serfas, I end up wearing a small. It’s really annoying if you want to try a new brand of shorts, because you can never know for sure what’s going to work for you in advance.

gelchamois

 

My first concern with “gel” in the name of the shorts is that they would be heavy or have a super squishy feeling to them. But the shorts don’t weigh any more than any of my other shorts, as far as I can tell by holding them. And the chamois feels like a regular chamois — a very comfortable one at that. The gel is described as “a lightweight, nitrogen infused, anti-migrational gel.”

Serfas describes the Superleggera as a “touring short that is designed to provide maximum comfort and performance for long rides.” But they fit just like any of my “racing” cycling shorts, and the price of $100 suggested retail puts them in the same category as the other mid to high end cycling shorts of other brands that I wear. I think maybe they just mean that these shorts are suitable for higher mileage days in the saddle.

The stitching and construction of these shorts is very high quality. I was impressed with the little details, like how they have the brand and model printed on the chamois, and how they have the brand on the inside of the really nice silicone leg grippers that keep the shorts comfortably in place. They call the seams “flat lock seam technology,” which I think just means that they use flat seams that don’t rub when you are pedaling.

The shorts have 10 panels, which give them a very comfortable fit. The inseam is 9.5 inches, and they come down on my leg to a similar position as other brands like Pearl or Specialized or Castelli.

These shorts are comfortable, and will keep a permanent rotation in my cycling drawer. If you get the chance to pick up a pair, you won’t be disappointed.

Did I leave anything out? Have any questions about the shorts? Do you own a pair? Leave a comment!

Review: Serfas RD-2 medium road bicycle saddle bag

Serfas RD2 medium bike saddle bag review

Serfas was kind enough to recently send me an RD-2 medium road saddle bag for review. I own quite a few Serfas products that I have bought myself over the years, so I was thrilled to try it out.

When you’re considering a bike bag, you’ll want one that is large enough to carry the tools and other items that you need, but small enough so that it doesn’t rub against your leg.

Different types of riders have different preferences. Most of the people I ride with are racers, who carry these really tiny bike bags that just have enough room for a tube and a tire tool. But you’ll also see plenty of recreational riders with these enormous bike bags attached, leaving you to wonder what they could possibly be hauling around.

I prefer a medium size, where you can put in a tube, patch kit, a couple of CO2 cartridges, a multi tool, and maybe a couple of bucks for emergencies. It looks a little bulky to the bike racing demographic, but it’s still small enough to be reasonable and large enough to pack a little extra inside.

The Serfas RD-2 medium is just right in the “medium” category, with a capacity of 34 cubic inches. The RD2 bike bag connects to your seat rails in the back, and your seatpost in the front, with velcro straps. Some other manufacturers like Topeak have changed their bags so that they have plastic clips instead of velcro, that make them a little easier to get on and off. But the velcro straps on the RD2 bag are substantial enough that they hold the bag in place reliably. The straps were long enough to reach around my super weird shaped aero seatpost on my Orbea Orca road bike.

One of the best features of this bag is that the outside material is water resistant. They don’t call it waterproof, and I haven’t ridden it in the rain yet, but the material looks and feels that it will keep all my stuff a lot drier than the standard ballistic nylon type of bag.

The bag measures 7 and a half inches long by 2.25 inches x 2 inches, which makes it kind of long and narrow. I had no trouble putting in my tube, two CO2 cartridges and a CO2 inflator, two Pedros tire tools, a patch kit, a pair of nitrile gloves, and a Park multitool. The sewing quality is good and the bag is sturdily made.

I like the rear reflective material on the bag, and the strap that allows you to attach an LED light to the back of your bike instead of clipping it onto your jersey pocket. I often ride at 6 a.m. with lights, so I use a rear blinker pretty much daily.

Overall, I am happy with this bag and will continue using it.

Do you own this bag or a different Serfas bag? Do you have a question about my review? Leave a comment and let me know!

Review: Shimano XTR PD-M985 Trail Mountain Bike SPD Pedals

Shimano XTR PD-M985 trail mountain bike pedals review

I have been riding the Shimano XTR PD-M985 trail SPD pedals since April of 2012. But I don’t use these pedals just for trail riding. I use them for cross country mountain bike riding, and also for cyclocross racing. Here’s why!

At 390 grams, they are only about 80 grams heavier than the other Shimano XTR PD-M980 XC pedals. I don’t find 80 grams to be a big deal as far as weight goes, especially in an off road context.

But I do find the metal cage around the pedals to be extremely useful, and worth the 80 grams. The cage makes these pedals brain dead easy to click into, without accidentally overstepping, or understepping and slamming the pedal into your shin. Your foot can this target under the most stressful situations, which is when you really want to be able to hit your pedal and not miss it.

Also, the cage protects these pedals against rock strikes, when you’re climbing something technical and trying to muscle through it and misjudge your pedal stroke and end up hitting a rock you are trying to ride over. That can save you some real money if the cage prevents you from ruining your pedals.

I used these pedals for the entire fall season of cyclocross racing in 2012, and I can tell you that I didn’t see another pair of these on the cyclocross course. But in a situation where getting a good start is hugely important (much like mountain bike racing), being able to immediately step onto your pedal and get right in provides an advantage. Maybe I just really suck at getting in my pedals and no one else on earth has a problem stepping into the standard XC pedals. But even so, the cage makes a positive difference for me.

The cage around the pedal also makes an excellent platform that allows you to keep pedaling even when you aren’t clicked in all the way. In cyclocross, after you jump back onto your bike after a barrier, it’s very useful to be able to continue pedaling somewhat efficiently for a few pedal strokes when you didn’t hit the pedal perfectly and didn’t get in. In a mountain biking situation, it lets you keep pedaling after you have dismounted, or dabbed your foot.

Aside from cyclocross, I have the lower XT model installed on my 2012 Specialized Stumpjumper 29er carbon comp mountain bike right now, to save a few bucks. But I successfully completed the 2012 Leadville 100 on the XTR pedals that are now on my cyclocross bike, with zero problems or issues.

I’ve ridden these pedals in a few muddy situations, and the cage sheds mud well, and still allows a muddy shoe to connect and clip in, just like you’d expect from the high end of the Shimano SPD line of pedals.

Like all other mountain biking clipless pedals, these are double sided pedals. It doesn’t matter which end is facing up when you stomp on them.

Overall, I think that Shimano sets the standard for clipless mountain biking pedals. You can’t go wrong with riding some kind of SPD pedal, and you’re likely to be able to try out your buddy’s bike if you use them, because so many other people have them too.

I have been very happy with these pedals, and recommend them. If you don’t want a cage, then go for the XC version, which is otherwise the same basic pedal without the cage around it and an extra 80 grams.

Got any questions about these pedals? Have you had a good experience or bad experience with them? Leave a comment and let us know!