Club cycling gear

Glasscranks

Our club are looking to get customised cycling gear made for us. Does anyone know any good companies to approach???

LCD

My own club are just after placing an order with Santini. They werent the cheapest stuff going but good service and the pads in the shorts dont cut you to ribbons. PM if you want contact details for them. Before that we had Impsport, disaster to deal with and some found the shorts very bad.

blorg

www.carvalhocustom.com do the Boards kit. I think it is good, very well made stuff and it is cheap.

www.spin11.com do my club kit. Irish company, good stuff but more expensive. The shorts might have a slight edge but not a lot in it to be honest. I don't think any "club kit" shorts are going to be anywhere near as good as your good shorts anyway.

Santini put their rear jersey pockets bizarrely high which drives me nuts personally. I only have one jersey- the TOI points (green) one. They have a generally excellent reputation though, maybe the best hope of higher quality shorts. To be honest though I think just about any shorts will do for most races and you can use your better shorts for the longer stuff.

Chips Lovell

Slightly OT, but @blorg: did you hear our club kit is getting a complete redesign this year?

penexpers

Shorts is a very personal thing obviously, but I found the boards ones terrible. My 25 euro decathlon shorts were better.

ROK ON

penexpers wrote: »

Shorts is a very personal thing obviously, but I found the boards ones terrible. My 25 euro decathlon shorts were better.

I found all of the boards gear (bar the design) utter crap. I would not use that company for club gear. I wont be getting any more boards gear if we use the current manufacturers.

There is a big difference between cheap and value for money.

ednwireland

ROK ON wrote: »

I found all of the boards gear (bar the design) utter crap. I would not use that company for club gear. I wont be getting any more boards gear if we use the current manufacturers.

There is a big difference between cheap and value for money.

+1 sizings are mad my jersey is too big and too long (despite following the size recommendations )
nice design wont buy anymore

i have aldi, lidl, endura, santini, rabobank, decathlon etc etc and its all better quality

sean_d

Funny, we (MAD) have had several orders with Carvalho and love the stuff (admittedly, it took us the first go before we sussed out the sizing but its not a major issue)
Shorts are the best I've ever used...

blorg

Depends on your shape I guess, it fits me fine. The one thing is the length, the jerseys have tended to be long. Bear in mind they do custom sizing, just very few people availed of it. For what it's worth I have a M jersey from the latest batch and it seems to be a bit more normal in terms of the standard sizing than before. I wear my Boards jersey perhaps more than any other and the quality through extended use and multiple wash cycles is great. I very much appreciate the full zip, a must on any jersey I think.

Quality is very good TBH for the Boards stuff. The shorts are not great I concur but then my club shorts (Spin 11) are not great either. They are pretty similar. @ROK_ON- do you have CUSTOM gear from another manufacturer. In my experience the custom shorts are always entry level and not great. My plain shorts (mostly Descente but I have others) are far better than either. Again, shorts are a very personal thing.

The Boards jacket I like a lot, it has a modicum of waterproofing. I've used it in a lot of extreme environments (Pyrnees and Alps) and it acquitted itself very well. The Spin11 jackets are very warm (I find it too warm) but not at all waterproof. I really got soaked one evening in it.

@tonto- I didn't know that! So I will have to get more I imagine! Might just go for a few jerseys.

Chips Lovell

blorg wrote: »

@tonto- I didn't know that! So I will have to get more I imagine! Might just go for a few jerseys.

Actually, just checked the website again. They're saying a redesign for 2011, so I go it wrong. We'll get another year out of our current gear.

Raam

el tonto wrote: »

Actually, just checked the website again. They're saying a redesign for 2011, so I go it wrong. We'll get another year out of our current gear.

I don't think I can take another year of looking at that kit.

Chips Lovell

The green eyed monster

quietobserver

also get a quote from www.velotec.ie

godihatethehils

Raam wrote: »

I don't think I can take another year of looking at that kit.

you'll get that six pack some day...

LastGasp

Carvalho do two weights of shorts, Light and Medium. With the recent order everyone got Medium, and I find mine fine so far. I don't know if people got Lightweight ones with previous orders but they obviously wouldn't be as strong. My concern with sizing was that the sleeves would be long enough. and thankfully they're perfect for me. Everything Large, except the Arm Warmers, where Medium did the trick. As Blorg says the Carvalho Training Jacket has a good windproof front which they say was improved with a newer version of the fabric in the recent order. I quite like the gear.
Regarding the Custom sizing only one person went for it with the last order and I didn't hear how the fit turned out. However although I passed on all the measurements to them, when I got the order back it was just listed as XL- (i.e. "minus", for a short fitting). I don't think they actually made up a "real" custom size.

lukester

The Spin11 shorts don't seem to wear that well, have seen a few clubs with the lettering peeling off/fading.

gercso

There is a new company out there called Velokit Clothing. Here is the holding page for them:

www.velokitclothing.com

They are located in Dublin and the manufacturer company located in Italy. They have great prices and the production and delivery is very fast.
Worth to check it out!

penexpers

gercso wrote: »

There is a new company out there called Velokit Clothing. Here is the holding page for them:

www.velokitclothing.com

They are located in Dublin and the manufacturer company located in Italy. They have great prices and the production and delivery is very fast.
Worth to check it out!

Hmm, shill anyone?

boomdocker

we have got gear from both carvalho ciclismo, and more recently from endura in scotland.

there is no comparison - endura kit is far better in terms of quality and fit, and to be honest they are around the same price.

i would have no hesitation recommending endura, top notch stuff.

i think imbrc's kit is endura aswell

lots of pics here;

http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/racing795

penexpers

Hmm just looking at Endura, their pricing terms are better than Carvalho

- No design fee with Endura (that I can see), Carvalho charge 350 for this IIRC.
- Carvalho have a surcharge if there are under 10 of each type of garment. Endura only charge if total order is under 15 items.
- Discount fees for bulk orders (e.g. the order that I looked after would have qualified for the 15% discount)

boomdocker

endura have a one-off £60 design fee**

see here: http://www.endura.co.uk/Dept.aspx?dept_id=152