Eurobike 13 – Royal Racing
Every year I get excited to see what Royal Racing have come up with. With a British Heritage, and a switched on gang of designers their kit always turns heads.
A few years ago, Royal’s race line was super burly, almost to being restrictive. Having listened to feedback from their racers, the Race kit is slimmed to a lightweight polyester outer and thin mesh liner – the colours are a mix of the super-euro blue and orange, muted black and white, or somewhere in the middle with a grey/yellowish look. (check out the poster in the background below for an idea of that one). As well as the Race, there is the SP247 range offering a lower price point.
Even the designers admit that the Enduro series is a name that could have been many others. All mountain, Trail, whatever, this stuff looks good in red, blue or black for the Stage Jersey, and red or black for the signature shorts. Light weight materials are the order of the day here, and plenty of venting.
Freeride. What a word, whether it makes you think of Richey Schley hucking his meat back in’t day, carving up the loam with your buddies, or just oozes marketing, it’s sure to get a reaction, as are these Turbulence Shorts and Jersey. Don’t like green? Doesn’t matter, Garett Buehler has a red pencil crayon as well, and he developed them! The Turbulence shorts feature all sorts of cunning little pockets for your bits and bobs. Get rad, get a bottle cage and ditch your pack is the message here!
We’ll be the first to admit we don’t test enough girly kit here at the Ride.io office. The women’s range from Royal isn’t a token gesture, with some nice options for the trail riding lady.
Royal Matrix Shorts remain a fav, and the clean lines of the stripe jersey will keep the style points high.
XC gear is also taken care of with a full range of super light fabrics.
The Stage (pictured) and Hexlite jackets will keep you warm and dry or dry respectively. Brand new for 2014 the jacket range has all your bases covered.
Royal Racing comes to the UK through the good people of Decade Europe
Tom Laws