Somehow, a full year has passed since I last shared my favourite things, and in that time, both the cycling world and I have shifted more than I’d realised. It’s easy, in the rhythm of day-to-day life, to feel like nothing changes. My routines blurred, and weeks ended up looking like the ones before. Without stopping to take stock, it's easy to feel like you are living on repeat and not making progress, until you are prompted to look back and realise how far you have come.
Riding is the exception. On the bike, I can see change happening in real time. Testing new products keeps me tuned in to the industry’s constant evolution, but more telling is how my own perspective shifts month by month.
The first half of the year was predominantly spent on the road bike (a result of my XC bike being permanently borrowed by thieves): chasing numbers, riding alone, and letting the power meter suggest what fun looked like. In the second half, that focus changed; I spent more time thinking about what a sustainable future in cycling looked like for myself, what really makes me happy, and focusing on letting in a little more type one fun. The result was leaving the power meter at home a few times a week and returning to my preferred terrain: dirt.
And so my favourite things this year reflect that balance: between performance and pleasure, progress and play. There is nothing here that is a surprise, but it is worth praising the products that have put a smile on my face in 2025.
SRAM Force E1
When SRAM launched the E1-generation Red groupset last year, my excitement wasn’t really about Red itself; it was about what it meant for Force and Rival. SRAM has a clear history of trickling new tech down quickly, and I suspected it wouldn’t be long before the mid-tier got the good stuff.
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