You’ll probably know Chrome industries or Chrome for their excellent courier or messenger bags from way back in the 90’s. They continue to make those bags from their San Francisco base but now make a whole range of stuff from casual clothing, cycle commuter clothing and shoes to just about every bag you can think of. They also ship to the UK.

The guys at Chrome sent me two handle bar bags to try, The Helix seen above and a Doubletrack. I’ve been running the Helix for a couple of months on various bikes to get a good feel of how they suit gravel riding an the kind of conditions that the UK can meter out. The Doubletrack has just taken the Helix’s place on my bars and that review will be in a few weeks when I get some riding time in with it.

The Helix is a 3 litre bag measuring 6″ x 9″ x 3″ and weighs 0.6lbs. it’s made from a nylon and polyester mix and the interior is lined so there are zero issues with annoying rattles.

There are two small mesh pockets inside but otherwise it is just an open space. There are no external pockets. Two sturdy velcro straps fix the bag to the bars and once set they are 100% reliable and don’t budge. There is a stabilising strap at the back that clips around the head tube.

In use the Helix can take quite a lot of kit despite what looks like a small space. I had arranged a group ride, the first after the latest Covid lockdown and because pubs and shops were still closed I suggested everyone took a beer and a pie with them on the ride so we could have a socially distanced picnic. In the Helix was a large sausage roll, a 330ml can of beer, a waterproof jacket (that folds up into it’s own pocket) a GoPro camera and mini tripod, a phone, my keys and a cycling cap. Loaded up like this especially with the weight of the beer the Helix remained steady even over some very uneven trails and didn’t flap around.

I rode with the bag in all conditions, sun, wind and on one occasion a couple of hours ride in torrential rain. Chrome do not claim that the bag is waterproof at all on there website but i can confirm after this thorough drenching the contents of the Helix were as dry as when i put them into the bag.

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In fact the Helix was a fit and forget item it was so reliable. If i could make one change to make it better though would be the zip. it works well, it never stalls or clogs but for me it is on the wrong side of the bag! It is sited close to the handle bar rather than the front so if you run lights on your bars or a Garmin etc these get in the way of the operation of the zip and you have to stretch around these to open the bag. Site the zip on the leading edge and it’d be perfect.

The Helix has another trick, literally up its sleeve because tucked away at the rear of the bag are two straps that convert the bag to a waist or across the body pack. this came in very handy when i visited my local bike shop and inadvertently picked up a new helmet. I obviously couldn’t wear two helmets so I converted the helix to a waist pack and slung the helmet in its bag over the strap and made it home without incident.

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After all these rides, in sun, mud and at one point snow, the Helix just needed a quick wipe over with a damp cloth and it looks as good as new. it’s taken all I can throw at it without any effect at all.

Should you buy one? The helix is very competitively priced at £55, it’s sturdy and reliable and can take more stuff than it looks like it can. If you like black too then its ideal as that is the only colour it comes in. if they could move that zip though it’d make it the perfect day ride bag that you can literally take anywhere, even without the bike

more info can be found on the Chrome website Here

As with all my tests, this is an impartial and real world review. I’m not sponsored and I’m just an average rider like most of the cyclists out there. I do inform anyone who sends me things to test that It will be an honest review good or bad

Last week I was invited on a little treasure hunt by a guy I’ve interacted with on Instagram, namely @freakin_bikes He sent me a link to a video he had made explaining where to find the treasure and asked if I’d like to go find it as it was personally tailored to me. Intrigued of course I said yes. The other caveat was that I’d have to video myself opening the treasure so he could see my reaction.

So I set off in my best outfit, plaid/check shirt of course, my GoPro fully charged and a vague sense of where I was going (not much different to normal then). Now, I am not a professional videographer so I was playing things by ear and making it up as I went along. This I thought would show genuine spontaneity rather than me story-boarding or scripting something and it looking wooden and false. You might still think that it actually is just that though! Best if you just see for yourself so here is the video I made of what happened

As you can see if you’ve taken the time to view the video I had a great time and my reaction is real. The brilliant caricature that @freakin_bikes created for me is below, I can honestly say I didn’t deliberately wear that shirt!

I really enjoyed the process of recording the video, or “edit” as the kids are calling it (yes that’s probably now out of date and marks me down as an old duffer) even the post production and putting the various clips together wasn’t that tedious but then it was a pretty straight forward ride to tree, film me opening the treasure, ride away from tree scenario. The biggest thing of course was thinking of something to say on the spur of the moment and not coming across as a complete loon. This last of course is for you to decide.

Boyed with the success of that first video, after all I got a huge 78 views in the first 24 hours and some people actually followed my Youtube channel! I thought I might try a product review next. If you don’t know I do product reviews

• A) where have you been
• B) click on the links on the menu bar above or to the side
• C) why are you here anyway?

This product review thing is a whole different ball game to the first video though. A lot of companies send me stuff to look at for free and even though I make it plain that if i find fault with or don’t like the product I will say so I think its very important to show the product in its best light. By that I mean fitted or worn correctly and used for its intended purpose. Facts that are stated in reviews must also be correct and properly researched, if for example I’m giving a little backround on the company or stating a weight or tolerance this must be 100% correct so as not to mislead anyone. With this added pressure I had to come up with something to say, say the right thing, for example I kept calling the company in this video 76 products rather that 76 projects! That saw a few retakes I’ll confess. Also taking in between passing horse riders on the bridleway was also frustrating. all this of course makes editing the whole thing together a lot more time consuming. The software I am using didn’t help as it doesn’t support transitions between scenes or a nice title sequence so it all looks a bit amateur. But I’ve since been told this makes it more genuine rather than a paid for advert that you get a lot of on youtube. I can assure you I don’t get paid at all. I’m no Juliet Elliot making a living out of being an influencer, although I’d love to try that lifestyle.

Here is the 76projects (right 1st time!) review video

after the second video I put up a poll on my instagram stories asking if anyone thought It was worth me continuing with the video thing. usually if i pose a poll question I get over 1k of replies, this time I got 12, 5 for carrying on, 7 against. So while it was conclusive it wasn’t a very wide audience. Given my general glass half empty mentality I assume people were being polite by abstaining from voting no, so…

If you have got this far and watched the two videos can I ask you a few questions?

• would you like to see more product review videos along side the written reviews on this page?
• Is this style of shonky production something that you value more than a slick docu-advert?
• what free (or reasonably priced) video editor should the amateur look at?

Thanks for reading/looking and i look forward to seeing your answers and hearing your advice

It feels great and at the same time weird

Today I organised and led the first group ride since the latest lockdown started all those weeks ago. We’ve been allowed to ride with one other person in that time but to be honest I’ve mostly ridden alone through the winter months. Motivation to get out into the cold is hard enough when you’ve arranged to meet up with someone else. When it’s just you the temptation to not bother and just sit on the sofa and eat crisps is strong! The end of this phase of lockdown (we are still in it it’s just eased a little) has coincided with the start of spring, extra daylight and temperatures in double figures, everything has come together.

Pie and Pint. Although some things have eased others haven’t and we are still without pubs and can’t sit inside anywhere, both things we would have definitely have included in a group ride. To somehow bypass this fact I suggested the ride should have a theme of “pie and pint”, riders bringing their own choice of pie and a beer with them from home. Whether it was a sweet, savory (or both) pie was discretionary as was the beer type. If you were prepared to carry it, bring it!

The Route I planned took into account the easing of lockdown too. We are now allowed to meet other people outside and the local popular beauty spots have been busy as the season has changed, the fact that the Easter holiday weekend has started too was only going to make that worse. Back roads, grass up the middle lanes, bridleways and gated roads were the order of the day, one small section of “A” road was the busiest part. Luckily the recent dry weather and windy conditions made all the off road parts very dry and 100% rideable, a contrast to winter! In fact if anything it was too dry and the bumps and hoof-holes left in the bone hard soil by horses was jarring and quite frankly it frothed my beer up!

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A mid ride stop to pay homage to Mr Bonham and admire the view from Rushock Church yard got us to just over the half way mark, stomach’s were rumbling at this point and some disappointed faces were seen as they realised the pies would need to stay packed away for a few miles yet. I didn’t like to mention the two big climbs we’d need to get over to get to the lunch stop.

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those tough climbs defeated and a sweet section of bridleway brought us to Belbroughton Park, were we sat, socially distanced of course and tucked in to our selection of goodies and beer. The fact the Belbroughton Deli was visible from the park was part of my plan and at least 5 pieces of cheesecake was purchased and scoffed as the sun finally came out.

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full of pie, sugar and beer we decided to take the slightly less hilly route home via bridleway and woods before people began splitting off and heading home.

Back to normal, but what is normal now? It was great to finally see these guys in person instead of just via social media, but the fact that we were all still keeping our distance from each other, sitting at either end of the benches for example meant that although it was good, it wasn’t exactly back to normal, no one could share food or beer and listening to a description of what Dan called “the most amazing cheese” just isn’t the same as tasting it! It was however great fun nonetheless. Sharing experience of technical sections and racing each other up climbs, having someone yelling “car” from behind you to warn you of traffic & riding along chatting about nonsense rather than current events was brilliant.

I hope there’ll be more group rides to come and that we get more and more of our former freedoms back, because I really really want to taste that cheese!