Skip to main content

Mavic Crossmax shorts


Mavic’s Crossmax short strikes a nice balance of comfort and durability. The Trail Tech ST shell is as light as those of the more summery shorts, yet feels a hair more substantial than most of the warm-weather offerings. As for storage, the CrossMax sports four pockets on its front face, the bottom two of which snap and zipper close. There’s also a small, zippered stash pocket on the backside. Mavic bucks the tide a bit by eschewing Velcro’d side adjusters in favor of belt loops alone. If I had my druthers, I’d opt for having both.

Mavic has created a well-constructed shell that delivers on durability, but is a bit light on the bells and whistles. Maybe that’s because Mavic spared a bit of the technical fairy dust for the inside of the shorts, where you’ll find the swank Ergo 2D insert–a dualdensity, dual-thickness chamois that takes the sting out of the place that often feels the sting on all-day rides.

Price 130$
Labels

Popular posts from this blog

Merida Big Nine 100

Wit the bikes swapped over, we head out on the same loop again, this time on the 29in Big Nine 100. Whereas the Big Seven was snappy off the line, the 29er takes a couple more pedal strokes to get up to speed. That said, once it's up there, it's easy to keep the big wheels rolling, allowing us to cover ground with ease. The fire road is at times a little rough, and the bigger wheels roll over the imperfections so we barely notice them.

READ MORE >>

Chromag HiFi 35 (50mm) stem

This is a seriously solid stem. Chromag use 5mm Allen bolts throughout, which makes it that bit easier to fit because you don’t have to swap tools. Once torqued up to the recommended 6-8Nm, it clamps both steerer and bar solidly, with no appreciable flex. We couldn’t get it to twist on the steerer, either in our static test or when riding. It’s also available in a 35mm length and three other colours. At 204g the HiFi is the heaviest stem on test by some margin, despite being one of the more expensive offerings here. Price $112

READ MORE >>

Cannondale Trail SL 29 SS

The fat aluminium tubes are a constrast to the skinny items seen elsewhere in the test, but this rigid Cannondale uses them to create one of the most old-school - and lightest - rides here.

READ MORE >>

KONA SHRED

With a reputation for no-nonsense ruggedness and a background in the always progressive and punishing riding of Canada, Kona have been building hardcore hardtails for longer than almost anyone else. The Shred is the most expensive bike on test but it’s a proper trail tank.

READ MORE >>

Scott Scale 750

We continue to swap over our different wheel sized sparing partners and returning to the 750 from a lap on the Scale 950, immediately, the smaller wheel and thus smaller fork means there's extra stiffness up front. It's still not as stiff as we'd like, a bolt-thru axle here would still be appreciated, but hitting the first few berms is more accurate and thus a touch faster.

READ MORE >>