Gear of the year: Will’s top picks from 2022

(Image credit: Will Jones)

While I’ve not quite been at Cyclingnews for the entire year, this is my first full year as part of ‘the cycling industry’, so naturally, I’ve cast off all pretence of liking budget tech to bring you eleven hyper-premium products that I’ve enjoyed this year but you’ve got no chance of affording.

I joke.

I like to maintain a certain reputation as a retrogrouch contrarian, which to some degree has been cultivated based on my own personal budgetary constraints. Old parts are, on the whole, cheaper, and so developing a love for them made as much financial sense as it did emotional. However, I am extremely fortunate in this job in that I have the opportunity to play with some extremely high-end goodies. My top eleven pieces of tech reflect this. There are some retro sensibilities that I cannot shake, there are some utilitarian items, and there is a smattering of top-end gear too, because, however much we all gasp at the ever-increasing price tags, some of it is truly sensational.

I’ve deliberately not over-thought this list. It would be easy to dive into things that are good value, that are ultra-high performance, that are purely aesthetically pleasing, and justify each one based on a set of measurable or semi-measurable metrics. Instead, I have chosen the things I have simply enjoyed using the most; things that spark joy, to coin a phrase that’s very much part of the post-pandemic parlance. They have, in various ways, made me smile, made me feel fancy, performed marvellously, solved a problem, and other things besides.

I know disc brakes are better. I know they stop better, and provide better modulation, and work in the rain. I know the industry is phasing out rim brakes on more or less every bike. It has basically succeeded on all but a few of the best budget road bikes. I know the logical arguments, and maybe it’s just my contrarian nature, but I love rim brakes. I love a radially laced front wheel, unobstructed by a stainless steel disc rotor, I love the satisfaction of finally getting a set of cantilevers to behave. I love that they are field serviceable, cheap to maintain, and easy to understand.

I will continue to run rim brakes, mostly because I have a bit of a vintage bike fetish, but I have one very important rule: I only run them with Kool-Stop Salmon brake pads. I used to think all brake pads were created equal, and I’d spend a few pounds on some black blocks of cheese, which would rapidly disintegrate, leaving their entrails plastered down the inside of my forks. Feeling flush one day I stumped up for some Kool-Stops on a strong recommendation from someone I respected, but not enough to remember who they were, and I have never looked back.

It looks a little odd, at times it’s less ergonomic, and you can’t easily pop the levers open to release the brakes as you can with normal standalone canti levers, but what you can do is shift seamlessly all the time (once the muscle memory is dialled in). You can shift across the whole cassette faster than any electronic system, if you ever need to, and you can pop on any friction shifter levers you care to use, making it a more or less universal system too.

While I am yet to ride Campag’s electronic offerings, if I were spending my own money I’d take Di2 over the offerings from SRAM, which I have ridden, despite being a big fan of SRAM’s interchangeable battery situation. I am a little sad to see how much the new 105 Di2 costs, given it represented the gateway to true performance riding for me, but given how good Tiagra is now it’s just a shift towards 105 being a true racing groupset instead. Where that leaves Ultegra I’m not so sure, but I’m digressing now.

They aren’t for everyone, least of all vegan weight weenies, but for those willing to push through the break-in period, you will be met on the other side with bottom nirvana. Truth be told the break-in period isn’t that bad. There are endless forum posts telling you that you should soak it, or rub linseed oil into it, or sacrifice a goat at the full moon in order to achieve the best fit, but all I’ve ever done is a liberal coat of proofide underneath, and a thin one on top followed by a two hour ride in the pouring rain. After that, they’ve been more or less broken in. The underside of the Swallow I’ve also waxed to protect it from too much spray while riding without mudguards.

One reason I like them so much is they seem to account far better for the idiosyncrasies of my pelvis. Looking at how the Swallow in particular is broken in, it is clear I carry noticeably more weight on my right-hand side, which explains why on most saddles I suffer with saddle sores on that side. It may be something that can be accounted for by a bike fit but may also be irreparable thanks to a twice-slipped disc that has had myriad knock-on implications. Whether there is a permanent fix or not I am yet to find a more comfortable perch than a perfectly broken-in Brooks, and so in the interim, I will continue to use them wherever possible.

They don’t have the field of view of the Oakley Sutros, or many models from POC, and being marginally smaller they don’t offer quite the same wind protection, but the Prizm Road lenses are simply incredible in the range of light conditions in which they can happily operate. This is the reason, as well as the fact they stay absolutely where they are told, that I consistently reach for them over other models.

While I have only had the pedals for a year now I have had Shimano MTB pedals that I’m relatively sure will last longer than I will, so the longevity I am not overly concerned about. My main reason for preferring them is the wider body and cleat; my foot feels more stable, and more able to comfortably put the power down. That and they have a better tendency to hang the right way up for clipping in, which is handier than expected.

I have been plagued by a bad knee lately, which has somewhat stalled some of the shoe testing I was hoping to get done to update our list of the best cycling shoes. I did manage to get a couple of pairs reviewed, but every time I went back to my familiar favourites, the Giro Empire SLX or the Privateer for road and gravel respectively, there was a near-audible sigh of relief from my feet. These are my third pair of Empires, by way of an illustration of how much I like them as a shoe.

After returning from the tour I took the bag off for a while, and missed the ability to just chuck whatever I wanted into it without really worrying about space. You’d be amazed at how much space your frame offers for storage, for basically no aero penalty, so I put it back on after a month or two without it and haven’t looked back. It comes with me on shopping trips, gravel rides, pootles etc and will come with me again on some bikepacking journeys. I can throw proper layers in it for cold rides, or snacks, or tea, or a pizza. I don't have to worry about leaving binoculars behind, or whether I should bring a warmer hat.

The razor itself isn’t the point here, though if you’re curious it’s a Wilkinson Sword model which I do not know the name of. The important bit is that it holds a single, extremely sharp razor blade. Not five, not six, but one. No pivoting head, no exfoliating or moisturising strip. No vibrating motor, no daft name (I’m looking at you, Gillette Fusion Power Stealth). Just one sharp blade.

Except when circumstances force me to, I will never again use anything but a single blade razor for removing my body hair - this goes for face and legs. It cuts closer, and with less irritation than anything else, and there are two more key benefits besides. The first is that, unlike normal razors, there is no plastic to chuck in the bin. Just a metal razor blade once it has become dulled. The second is that it’s noticeably cheaper. A pack of 100 blades will set you back under £7, which will last me more or less a year, and I shave both my legs and face year-round. Considering a four-pack of Gillette Fusion 4-blade refills costs over £11 you can see the gulf in terms of spend.

If it’s mucky it tends to go in a bumbag, lest it get covered in spray, but when it’s dry I have found no better system than the Outer Shell Camera Strap. Yes, I am taken by the fact that it is leopard print, but it’s mostly because it keeps the camera absolutely in place while riding, and the stabilisation strap uses a magnetic Fidlock clasp, meaning it can be undone on the move one-handed for shooting while riding.

The Fairlight Secan is my long-term gravel test bike, and to my mind, it's easily one of the best gravel bikes on the market right now. It is so far the only bike I’ve seen fit to award five stars in a review. I’ll not go too in-depth here, because you can read all about it in the review, but since concluding the standard review I have set about trying to find something it can’t do, and have so far failed.

It can do normal gravel riding, rowdy, techy riding, it’s compatible with more or less anything, can take mudguards, is extremely comfortable, looks beautiful, it's perfectly capable as a bikepacking bike, and I'm beginning to run out of scenarios to test it. The only things that remain, given that it’s recently excelled while set up as some kind of gravel-audax hybrid, are to see if it can hold its own at cyclocross, and as an endurance road bike. After that I suppose I'll have to take it to the skatepark, where I presume it’ll also give the BMX a run for its money.

Will joined the Cyclingnews team as a reviews writer in 2022, having previously written for Cyclist, BikeRadar and Advntr. He’s tried his hand at most cycling disciplines, from the standard mix of road, gravel, and mountain bike, to the more unusual like bike polo and tracklocross. He’s made his own bike frames, covered tech news from the biggest races on the planet, and published countless premium galleries thanks to his excellent photographic eye. Also, given he doesn’t ever ride indoors he’s become a real expert on foul-weather riding gear. His collection of bikes is a real smorgasbord, with everything from vintage-style steel tourers through to superlight flat bar hill climb machines.