Team Jayco AlUla have reportedly had financial limitations, which pushed them into confirming deals late into the fall. After confirming the signings of multiple riders, the team has now also announced the extension of several of its current riders, providing a solid base for the future. The Austra...

The Knog Blinder Pro 700 Front Light and Plus Rear Light set represents a tale of two halves the opposite of business at the front, party at the back.The Blinder Pro 700 is a very strong front light in a distinctive cuboid shape, putting out up to 700 lumens from four small LEDs.On the road, the beam is spotlight-style, with brightness tapering from a noticeable central point. The beam spreads well, so theres some good peripheral vision too. This is a front light I could ride happily at more than 25km/h in the dark. The front light is the best half of this pairing. Steve Sayers / Our Media Studio In the most powerful setting, it discharges completely in 2hrs 40mins, with very little power down the brightness dims a little before switching off suddenly.Like most bike lights, youre given warnings via the power button flashing red, but here you wont get the recharge me now cue of a distinct low-power mode for long.The light modes sit on two levels three static modes on one and two flashing with one combined mode on the other. A double press of the power button toggles between the two levels, with the usual long press to switch the light on and off, and single press to cycle through modes. It also remembers which setting you last had it in. The design is clean and the power is strong. Steve Sayers / Our Media Studio The bracket is a simple band-on design, but rather than a catch it features a cradle. The Blinder Pro 700 clips into this via corresponding lips on the body shaft. Its held very firmly and looks no more likely to rattle free than a common slide-on/off design, but that firm grasp means it can be a bit of struggle to remove it.All-in, its a very good front light that ticks the major boxes, and it looks quite distinctive too, if thats your thing. Beam on highest output. Steve Sayers / Our Media Studio Beam on lowest output. Steve Sayers / Our Media Studio The Plus rear light feels like a bit more of an afterthought given the strength of some of the rear lights packaged in competitor sets.Given the set costs 74.99, it even feels a bit paltry when Giants Recon set, for example, costs the same but is so much more powerful out back.While the Plus light will do a job, it can only put out 20 lumens in its most powerful setting. Thats fine if its the only artificial light source around, but many may feel more comfortable with something more powerful to draw attention to them in a busy built-up area, during the day or in misty weather. The rear light looks punchy here, but it's outshone by many others in use. Steve Sayers / Our Media Studio On the brightest static setting, I got only 1hr 10mins of burn time before it switched off 50 minutes less than claimed and a repeat test to check this wasnt an error revealed the same. How we tested The lights were given a thorough workout over a lengthy test period. Steve Sayers / Our Media Studio I tested these bike light sets using two local test loops over the course of nearly two months one largely street-lit, criss-crossing through a local urban area, and another almost exclusively un-lit on country back lanes. Both were ridden at night (meaning some late starts and early mornings), while I also used each light set for local rides during the day. I also ran a battery burn-down test discharging the lights from empty on their most powerful setting. This gives a good indication of the minimum battery life you can expect and flags when power-save modes kick in. In my experience of testing over 100 lights, theres usually a small discrepancy in burn times from one unit of the same light to the next, so my figures are intended as indications, rather than guarantees. All front lights featured at least a 500-lumen maximum output and each set costs under 100. Light sets tested Lezyne Fusion Drive 500+ / KTV Drive Pro+ Magicshine Allty 800 v2 / Seemee 50 v2 BBB NanoStrike 700i / Signal 80 Ravemen FR500 / CL01 Pro (LS07) Moon Rigel Lite / Helix Lite Giant Recon HL 600 / Recon TL 200 Cateye AMPP 500S / Viz 150 Sigma Buster 800 / RL 150 Knog Blinder Pro 700 / Plus The USB-A male charge port and light weight help the Plus light stand out, but it doesn't make up for poor battery life. Steve Sayers / Our Media Studio Pull hard enough, and the light body detaches to reveal a male USB-A connector for charging. This is particularly easy in theory, because the cradle can remain installed on the bike and it means you dont need to carry around a cable to charge it.That said, of course, you need access to a free USB-A port, and given the pins dont extend beyond the rear section, you may struggle if you want to use a recessed port in a wall socket plate, for example.Knog doesnt supply a cable for the USB-C port on the front light, or any bracket alternatives in the box. That said, its worth noting that Knogs packaging is particularly eco-friendly and recyclable, with low use of ink. Kudos where kudos is due, there.Knog Blinder Pro 700 Front Light and Plus Rear Light set bottom line This Knog light set would be far stronger if it had a punchier rear light for the same price. Steve Sayers / Our Media Studio The Knog Blinder Pro 700 Front Light and Plus Rear Light set will do a job, but it feels like an unbalanced light set.The front light is very good and offers good power and visibility, but for the money one would rightfully hope for a more powerful, longer-lasting rear light. Product Brand Knog Price 89.99, 74.99, $84.99 Weight 172g Features Light type front_and_rear Remote switch no Integrated battery yes Features Knog Blinder Pro 700 (front) Weight: 155g Material: Aluminium IP rating: IP67 Lumens: 700 Runtime: 2-120hrs Knog Plus (rear) Weight: 17g Material: Plastic IP rating: IP66 Lumens: 20 Runtime: 2-40hrs

Watch: Steve's first time on the rollersThe good thing about being young apart from the obvious fact that you arent old is that falling off your bicycle is but a minor inconvenience. You hit the deck, bounce straight back up and, with grazed knees and a solitary tear trickling down your cheek, happily remount your BMX or Grifter and resume your quest to catch the bad guys all in one fluid and seamless motion. Not so when youre old. When you fall off your bike in later life, you dont bounce; you become one with the Earths surface, as though attempting to fossilise yourself in whichever patch of substrate has had the misfortune to break your fall.Over the past two years, Ive embedded myself in a variety of different surfaces grass, mud, dirt, tarmac, gravel with troubling regularity. Im now on first-name terms with the triage team at my local A&E and, as pleasant as they invariably are, I have a strong desire to never see them again. Im sure the feeling is mutual.So why am I finding it increasingly difficult to stay rubber-side down? I put it down to a combination of ego and age. If the people on YouTube can rumble down technical descents with silky-smooth precision, surely I can, too. And as far as age goes, perhaps Im actually unlearning how to ride a bicycle. My balance, it seems, isnt what it used to be.Tired of my perpetual moaning, my friend and colleague at Cycling Weekly, Dan Baines, suggested that, rather than spending the winter welded to my turbo trainer, a set of rollers might go some way towards improving my bike-handling ability.Unlike modern turbo trainers, whose weight sees them stuck limpet-like to the floor, demanding little more from the rider than pedal strokes, rollers are a completely different proposition. You need to use body weight and momentum to keep the bike balanced, while smooth, fluid pedalling souplesse, to use the French cycling term and a consistent cadence are paramount to avoid a violent collision with the floor. So, I decided to take his advice and have a go.Getting startedMeasure the wheelbase of the bike to get the rollers set-up correctly (Image credit: Future)Having procured a set of Quick Motion rollers from the good people at Elite, I was genuinely taken aback by the sheer simplicity of this piece of apparatus. It looked, to be frank, downright medieval. Try as I might, I couldnt quite picture myself happily pedalling away on what was essentially a raised frame comprising little else than three bright red rotating cylinders .Any more surprises? I asked Dan, gesturing towards the rollers. Youre not going to bring out a dunking stool for the warm-down or anything?Dan, having started cycling sometime in the late 1800s, is something of an authority on rollers and had a few tips to help get me started.Top tips for riding on rollersAlways have a bail-out option. A wall to lean against, a step to put your foot on anything that prevents an embarrassing meeting with the floor.Keep your cadence up. A faster cadence helps promote stability.Look ahead, not down. Dont panic if your front wheel starts veering from side to side. Above all, resist the temptation to stare at it.Try to relax.Try to relax, he says. At this stage, I was so convinced I was about to meet the triage team for our quarterly catch-up that relax wasnt a word in my current repertoire.Regardless, after measuring the bikes wheelbase and adjusting the roller frame accordingly, I enlisted the help of a neighbouring wall and a step, unceremoniously swung a leg over the bike and prepared to pedal. Or at least, I would have done, had the tension not been so great that I instinctively grabbed the front brake and promptly fell against the wall in a state of confusion.This did not feel natural.Relax, Dan reiterated.From one minute, to phoning home...The first pedal strokes involved a fair few failures (Image credit: Future)The aim of this first session was to ride unassisted for a minute. If you can achieve that, Dan told me, youve more or less mastered the basics. Then youve got a winter of fine-tuning your balance, pedalling fluidity and souplesse ahead of you.And so here I was, essentially learning to ride a bike all over again, with my de facto father, Dan, nervously tracking my progress.It was a little like being a child again, attempting those first few metres on two wheels without on your own. The moment you glance over your shoulder to discover that Mum or Dad has let go and youve been riding under your own steam for the past few metres before inevitably falling off due to the sheer excitement of it all. That was how I felt when I finally found my rhythm. A genuine sense of accomplishment. This was something beyond anything Id ever experienced on a turbo trainer: a far more involved, far more visceral way to ride a bike indoors.A minute passed, then two, then three. Soon I was shifting into the big ring and even throwing in a sprint.. I was getting thirsty. Muscle memory kicked in and reaching down for my water bottle I once again found myself splayed against the wall before beginning a slow and squeaky descent toward the floor.Soon, Steve was feeling confident (Image credit: Future)Erratic movements and rollers arent the happiest of bedfellows. But stolen bidon sips slowly morphed into hearty glugs and my confidence returned. I even managed to make a phone call to my better half, who admittedly thought I was in the throes of some sort of psychotic episode.A rare success, then. An afternoon on the rollers had proved a lot more productive and far less painful than anticipated and Ive now added an extra tool to my arsenal for training this winter. Granted, I still need to learn how to ride in a pair of cycling shoes. I have a way to go before I feel confident riding intervals, but, that represents an opportunity. After one session, I've got the basic skills in my toolkit to progress. Will it keep me from darkening the doors of A&E? That remains to be seen. But Ive been reminded that there's more to indoor training than chasing watts and watching numbers on a screen. It's worth stepping back, stripping things down to the absolute basics and relearning a skill you thought you'd mastered decades ago. I'll be back for another session next week. I'll also be keeping that wall handy.

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