That’s one heck of a long name for the winter boot from shoe and cycling accessory company Fizik, they say it’ll keep you cycling through winter months but will they only keep your feet warm and dry for as long as it takes to say the long title? Read on to find out.

I tested Fizik’s Terra Atlas shoe a few months ago and was impressed, they became my shoe of choice through the late spring, summer and autumn, you can read that review here. The Artica shoe is based on that Atlas design. At first glance it looks like Fizik has just stitched a neoprene cuff onto the top of an Atlas shoe but there’s a few more things going on under the surface than that.

For a start the shoe has that magic coupling of words written on it, “Gore-Tex” this at the very least reassures you that good quality components have been used and that Fizik hasn’t just come up with their own new waterproof membrane to save costs. The fact that they use Gore-tex indicates to me they want this shoe to do everything they claim it can. The actual membrane is called “Koala” and is not only meant to be waterproof, it’s supposed to be breathable too. This is quite possibly more important. Unbreathable shoes make your feet sweat, your socks get damp and then that damp gets cold and soon after so do your feet. So a water proof and breathable membrane is perfect for a shoe that will face low temperatures, water and have to cope with you exercising and producing perspiration. I’ll be honest, to cope with all that is a big ask and I was sceptical that Fizik’s claims might be a bit out there.

Inside the shoe is a fluffy lining that adds more insulation and feels really comfortable to the touch.

The exterior is made of Polyurethane and it shrugs off knocks and scrapes well. It also cleans off really easily with a sponge and after a few months wear, when I do bother to clean them (who has time for that anyway?) they come up looking almost like new. There’s a velcro strap around the ankle to cozy the collar around your leg and the excellent Boa dial that allows micro fit adjustment and quick release exit. This has the added bonus of not having laces or velcro to get caked in mud that inevitably gets all over your gloves or hands when it come time to take them off and tip toe through the house to the shower. The sole is again the same as on the Fizik Atlas shoe and is grippy in mud and rocks (no material on earth unless it has sharp claws/spikes is grippy on UK winter slime covered tree roots). There is provision for two toe studs per shoe for hike-a-bike duties or running up grass banks in a CX race

Waterproofness is the biggy really, it’s a bold claim to make and I have to say Fizik and Gore-tex’s can shout that claim to whoever they like as I have found these boots to be reliably waterproof. I have stood in streams, ridden through deep floods (see the video below) and my feet and socks have stayed dry. You do have to take into account that there’s a big hole in the top of the shoe though, otherwise you’d not get your feet in them. this means any water going in through that hole will stay there until you empty the shoe,… it’s waterproof from the inside out too you see. I got stuck in an absolute deluge and water spray from the front wheel (and the sky) rolled down my leg and into the boots so they were pretty squelchy but the important thing was my feet stayed warm! Normal road spray, puddle and stream splashes don’t bother these boots at all. I’m still scratching my head over the fact that they can be this waterproof yet still have a perforated outer surface!

Fit is arguably the most important part of any shoe, many “winter” shoes I’ve tried in the past say “go one size up” if you want to wear thick socks or waterproof socks but I always then suffered as i found the cleat pocket on the sole didn’t allow the cleat back far enough and I ended up pedalling with the pedal too far forward producing fatigue and pain.

So, when it comes to the Artica shoe, if you are a person who doesn’t suffer unduly from frozen feet in winter and will wear normal socks, go for your usual size. I wear a 44 usually and the demo boots are a 44 and fit very comfortably with a normal sock. If I wear thick socks (I do suffer from prematurely cold feet on rides) I would have liked to go at least half a size bigger. You can do this with these boots as the cleat pocket is very generous so having a bigger size to accommodate thicker socks will not be a problem when it comes to foot on pedal position. The boots aren’t even a struggle to get on and off, the Boa gives lots of adjustment to allow your foot in and there’s a pull tab at the heel to further aid getting them on.

The Fizik Terra Artica X5 GTX Winter Boot does exactly what it claims to do, keeps your feet dry and keeps them warm. I think there’s some sort of magic going on but dry feet confirm the claims. If you’re looking for a non bulky, well made boot with good fit and in my opinion, good looks there’s not many, if any other boots I’d look at.

For another view and footage of me riding through a flood wearing the boots, check out the UK Gravel Collective youtube channel below in a special section I’m calling The Complete S*** Show please don’t forget to subscribe!

In the last few years Bike packing has become more and more of a buzz word, Inspiring stories of self supported round the world rides and events like the Tour Divide and Silk road race are all over social media and you tube. The big bike companies have jumped onto that bandwagon and epic grainy pictures of people “suffering” are gold to certain companies marketing departments. It’s nothing new of course, it used to be called bicycle touring and people have been out camping with their bike probably since bikes were invented.

However, In reality when you look at how many cyclists there are in the world very few of them are taking all their worldly goods with them on multiple week journeys to remote parts of the globe. Most of us might ride a few miles and bivi down in some local woods just to experience the night sounds and the vista of an early morning sunrise and others, myself included, are riding from home or from a vehicle and stopping over night in a B&B or a pub that has accommodation. Credit card camping is another phrase I’ve heard it called.

Some of us just need to carry a change of clothes suitable for a walk from the hotel room to the bar or from the room to the pub for dinner. We don’t need maximum capacity to carry every necessity as we’re not in the wilderness. If we get hungry we don’t need to build a fire, there’ll be a Greggs just off route we can replenish our energy in. What we do want however is for those clothes you are going to change into and your electronic devices to stay dry if the weather or the route is soaking wet. Luckily the guys at Lyon Cycle sent me a frame and seat pack from Ortlieb that claims to do just that, after a couple of months use, this is what I found.

Ironically what I found first of all was that the Ortlieb bags repel rain very effectively. In that for the first three weeks of use the skies refused to release any moisture whatsoever. Ideal for riding but not for testing waterproof claims. Even when rain was forecast it didn’t appear!

This is the UK though and so it really wasn’t long to wait before a prolonged period of rain set in and the true test could begin.

The FRAME-PACK RC TOPTUBE

The catchily named Frame-Pack RC Top tube, (I suppose it does exactly describe what it is if RC stands for “roll closure”) is a 4ltr capacity bag that sits under your top tube. Weirdly the Ortlieb website says the “width” is 50cm but I can tell you my tape measure says the length is 51cm so I presume that’s a translation error. It’s 13cm high and 6cm wide. It’s made from a non upvc plastic with adjustable velcro staps that fit around the top tube and bright red bungy straps that hold the roll over closure securely shut. (see video below for how they work) Velcro straps also fix the bag to the down tube and seat tube of your bike. the bag is secure and doesn’t waggle about even when loaded on even the skinniest of frames. There is one main compartment with no pockets in side. 4ltrs doesn’t sound a lot but the nature of the roll top means you can get quite a lot of stuff inside. Ortlieb say 3kg is the max load. the bag itself weighs 200g

The bag is as claimed, 100% waterproof, anything you put inside will stay absolutely dry. However, if you are packing or unloading the bag in a rain storm that one big opening means it could fill with water while you are messing abut and being waterproof it’s going to stay inside the bag until you can dry it out. This also brings to the fore the fact that this one roll top opening with 3 bungy straps to undo and seal it means the bag is awkward to access while riding. These bungy straps with the plastic clips they fasten to did worry me as I thought they would catch on my shorts while riding. This didn’t happen though until i deliberately over loaded the bag, just to see if it was possible and then it only caught if I was wearing baggy shorts. with normal loads even MTB style baggy shorts were fine.

The Ortlieb frame pack RC fits the brief of light touring/B&B touring or commuting perfectly. It’ll keep all your bits and pieces perfectly dry between stops. If you need to access the bag for snacks while riding and don’t want to try undoing the whole thing or stopping then Ortlieb do a version without the roll top that has a waterproof side entry zip. or you could run a feed bag etc EDIT I’ve since practiced undoing and then re-doing the roll top while riding. it is possible and undoing is easy. doing back up and rolling is the hard part and you have to take your eyes off where you are going so not recommended.

If you want a waterproof, easy fitting, robust bag (this one has taken a few knocks and just wipes clean)that you can get a surprising amount of stuff in for local bike packing, B&B touring or keeping your suit dry for work (do people still wear suits?) then the Frame Pack RC is definitely one I’d recommend.

Ortlieb Seat Pack QR

The ortlieb waterproof seat pack is made from the same material as the frame bag and shares the same waterproof properties.

Ortlieb say this back is dropper post friendly and it is! This is because it differs from normal seat packs as it doesn’t affix around the shaft of the seat post in the normal way. In the box is a selection of clamps that bolt around the thinner telescoping part of the dropper post. The stabilising strap from the bag then Velcro’s around this. You will loose a small amount from the total drop of the post but for most gravel bikes you don’t need to drop the post a lot for a great increase in confidence. You could of course use the strap on its own around a standard seat post. The other attachment point is around the saddle rails. The bag clamp here is adjustable with 4 bolts depending on how much seat rail you have showing. If you only have one bike this will be a one time adjustment. The position of the clamp also dictates how much weight ortlieb recommend putting in the bag. The instructions on how to fit the pack are clear and easy and refreshingly they come in the box! The saddle rail clamps shut with a satisfying click and once set the camp ends can be cinched down with the attached webbing straps. It’s a very good, well thought out design.

The bag is a roll design too and means small or larger loads can be accommondated and stabilised by rolling the closure tighter. There is another strap that holds the rolled up part secure too. On one side of the pack is a little valve, similar to those on an air bed and it can be opened to let all the trapped air out when rolling the bag to get the tightest compression to aid stability and reduce size. I stuffed the bag to capacity and deliberately added most of the heavy items at the rear to try to destabilise over rough ground or when climbing out of the saddle. I can report the bag stayed just where it was and there was hardly “waggy dog” feeling.

The pack is 28x48x22cm, has a 13L capacity and weighs 625g Ortlieb say it’ll take up to 3.5kg of kit (depending on the seat rail position) there are four sets of cinch down straps, two per side and one at the rear. The pack is one big container with no internal pockets but it does have a handy bungy cord on the outside which I used a few times when rain stopped as I didn’t want to put my wet jacket on the inside.

The seat pack is a very versatile bit of kit. The quick release nature of it means you could keep all the things you want to take into the pub/work/hotel in it and be able to leave the bike in secure storage without having to ferry things back and forward. Then the next day just clip on and go. It suffers the same thing as the frame bag because it will fill with water if you find yourself in a rain storm. The reality of that though is that you’ll probably be looking for some sort of shelter before doing it so I don’t see that as any sort of drawback.

The two waterproof packs from Ortlieb are excellent and quietly get on with the job of keeping your stuff dry with minimum fuss. I’d like to see a lighter coloured interior as in the dark things tend to just disappear into the abyss but other than that i can’t really find a fault with either of them with the brief they come with.

Perfect for short bike packing trips, commuting or carrying and extra layer or two for the winter night rides to a pub. take a look at the video below for a close up view on both bags and don’t forget to subscribe to see more videos like this.

you can find out more about the Ortlieb packs here and ortliebs website is here

Back in 2021 I published an interview with Nic from the New Forest off Road Club to see what this fledgling group trying to encourage women and to promote women led rides and cycling communities throughout the UK and around the world was all about. You can read that interview here

I bumped into Nic at the Bespoked Bicycle show at the Lea Valley Velodrome recently as she was exhibiting her bike on the Stayer Bikes stand and she suggested it would be a good idea to do a “how it started, how it’s going” style article to update readers on what has happened over the last nearly 18 months. It’s surprising how much has been packed into a pademic and lock down ravaged period of time.

Here’s what Nic had to say

It’s been over 12 months since Gary got in touch inviting us to write an article for The UK Gravel Collective website. I thought I’d do a little review of what we’ve been up to in the last 12 months. 

• Connected a group of 12 ride leaders.
• Facilitated 87 rides with 317 people.
• Registered as a community interest company.
• Supported 12 people complete MTB leadership level 2 training.
• Collaborated with Vicky Balfour and helped people build confidence in mechanics by running 2 weekend Mechanic courses and 3 mechanic workshops. 
• Hosted a Christmas Party.
• Led a birthday group ride with over 70 people and Lael Wilcox came to celebrate with us. 
• Designed 2 online workshops to help support the growth of other women and non binary led communities. “How to Dismantle the Patriarchy One Group Ride at a Time” & “How to Show ‘em We’re Out Here”. 
• Run 8 online workshops with 63 people from Uk, Istanbul, Belgium, North America, Scotland, Australia and Canada.
• Collaborated with Specialized Uk and the brilliant women led marketing team. 
• We built a website so people can find out about our rides without having to use a Zuckerberg owned platform.
• We keep in touch with over 400 community members through our monthly newsletter.
• Meredith spoke about dismantling the patriarchy at the Kendal Mountain Festival.
• Meredith and Nic delivered the “How to Dismantle the Patriarchy One Group Ride at a Time” workshop to 300 Women and enby people at the Sisters in the Wild event.
• All ride leaders have completed a 2 day, outdoor first aid qualification.
• We worked with an all women team on a brand new visual ID.

Oh, and we won bikepacking.com’s ‘community of the year’. 

It’s been a wild ride and we’ve loved every minute. 

What’s next?

Bike mechanic qualifications. We don’t have any women bike mechanics in our immediate network and we want to fix that. We continue to fundraise through various events and workshops and we are researching to find the most comprehensive bike mechanic course. If any of the UK Gravel Collective readership have any recommendations, we would love to hear them!

Most immediately we are running a 3 week, virtual course for bike communities. This 3 week, virtual course is designed for people who want to increase the reach and integrity of their community. We’ll work through how to carve out your core beliefs, how to share your story, and how to collaborate with people who share your vision. 

The course would be most relevant to people who are part of cycling spaces that have the opportunity to be more diverse and inclusive. 

We’d love to see UK Gravel Collective readers there!

As we said last year, huge thanks Gary for your constant support and encouragement. We appreciate it and the glow of your support helps to power us around the forest!

Hope to see you on a trail soon, Nic and the New Forest Off Road Club.

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Thanks for the update Nic, you, your ride leaders and NFORC community have been so busy! It’s very inspiring to see and I know from talking to other riders around the country that your team’s example has motivated many other groups to start up and just go out and ride a bicycle for the sheer enjoyment of it without the pressures of trying to conform to “how it’s supposed to be” and long may it continue. more diverse bums on saddles is hopefully the future.

As mentioned above |if you are reading this and have any ideas to help NFORC with the mechanics courses, ideas for events or just want to ask for advice you can DM Nic via insta at @newforestoffroadclub/ or via me at @ukgravelco and |I’ll pass the message on.