5 cool things from Lizard Skins, Five Ten, 3T, Lezyne and Santa Cruz

Grips for your brake levers, Santa Cruz's hardtail and some mighty spendy wheels land in the office

Liam Mercer

May 27 2022

We've got yet another fresh five cool things to show off this week. We've got a gravel specific floor pump, mega spendy gravel wheels and the first clip shoes built for adventure from Five Ten. Along with those, there's Santa Cruz's do-it-all hardtail and grips... For your brake levers.

Lizard Skins DSP Lever Grip

£14

Possibly one of the more curious of this week's roundup, Lizard Skins' Lever Grips are sticky slithers of textured DSP (Durasoft Polymer) rubber that you put on your brake levers. This new product is said to improve upon the previous brake lever grips but this new model further improves grip on the brakes when riding gloveless. Each pack comes with a spare set, just incase you were to wreck a pair.

Five Ten Trailcross Clip

£140

Clip shoes from Five Ten are rather unheard of but the brand looks to be giving them another push with the Trailcross Clip shoes, claiming that they're the first clip shoe build especially for adventure. They've been designed from the ground up, says the brand, to perform just as well off of the bike as they do on, becoming ideal for those hike-a-bike situations.

The shoes come with an environmentally-friendly build with 25% of the upper being made with a minimum of 50% recycled content.

Lezyne Sport Gravel Drive

£70

Oh yes, a gravel-specific floor pump. I can already hear the grumbles but it's definitely a thing, we're not joking here. As it's built with a larger than usual barrel for (Lezyne), it's designed to fill tyres 32C and wider. The Gravel Drive is said to push more air into the tyre per stroke while still offering easy operation.

3T DiscusPlus i28 LTD

£1,949

3T's DiscusPlus i28 Plus rims run a whopping 28mm internal width in a bid to give tyres more support in the corners. The brand says that this width offers an ideal balance between that support, and weight, keeping any potential heft down to a very respectful 1,500g on our scales.

This wheelset is also packed with some pretty tasty tech, including sealant-resistance chrome plated brass nipples paired with stainless steel washers and spokes, in order to fend off even the harshest of sealants (although its recommended you stay away from alkaline, or ammonia-based sealants).

Santa Cruz Chameleon R AL 29

£3,000

Santa Cruz may not be synonymous with hard tails but in fact, the brand has a couple in its roster and After seeing Danny Mac wheelieing his Chameleon sans front wheel, we thought we should get one in for testing... But with both wheels.

This bike is Santa Cruz's do-it-all hardtail that can be set up almost however you like, whether that's with mullet wheels, fixed gears, or loaded with bikepacking kit. It's geometry isn't too shabby either, with the large frame on test coming with a 465mm reach, a 65° head angle and a 74.4° seat tube angle. Oh, and its dropouts are also adjustable, offering chainstay lengths from 425mm up to 437mm.

Author block

Liam Mercer

Since beginning his mountain biking career while working as a resort photographer in Greece in 2014, Liam became a freelance contributor at off.road.cc in 2019. From there, he’s climbed the journalism job ladder from staff writer to deputy technical editor, now finding his place as technical editor.

Partial to the odd enduro race, heart rate-raising efforts on slim-tyred cross-country bikes, hell-for-leather e-MTB blasts or even casual gravel jaunts, there’s not a corner of off-road cycling where Liam fears to tread. With more than 40 bike reviews under his belt and hundreds more on MTB, e-MTB and gravel parts and accessories, Liam’s expertise continues to be cemented and respected by the industry.