We are all about getting rowdy on a trail hardtail from Sonder this week with a new Transmitter making an appearance. There's also been some tasty new snacks sitting temptingly on our desks from Namedsports, plus large glasses from Smith Optics, fresh rubber from Hutchinson and a carbon gravel bike from Rondo to round things out. 

• First Ride: Mondraker F-Podium R
• Five mountain biking myths that just aren't true
• First Look: Sonder Transmitter NX1 Revelation hardtail from Alpkit
   

Sonder Transmitter

You'll probably know by now that, here at off-road.cc, we like a reasonably priced trail hardtail mountain bike. The latest one to grace the dirt of our test trails is this Sonder Transmitter from UK based brand, Alpkit. We've got the SRAM NX1 specced bike with Revelation fork to give a razzing, and razz we will. Want to know more? The first look is here. 

• £1,299
• www.alpkit.com

Namedsports Sport Gel, Crunchy Protein Bar and Total Energy Fruit Bar

This a relatively new brand to the UK, with a full range of gels as well as protein and energy bars. The cappuccino flavoured protein bars are already proving quite popular in the office, with a white chocolate coating that helps ease the usually not-so-palatable texture of protein down.

The energy bars have a rice paper coating so they're less likely to stick to everything in sight (and your pocket) once you've opened one and the energy gels are claimed to have a time-release formula to prevent you going all sugar mad and then crashing.

• £ various
• www.namedsport.com
• www.raleigh.co.uk
   

Smith Wildcat Glasses

These cool looking Wildcat glasses have been causing a bit of stir it seems in the UK. The goggle shaped glasses from Smith cover a huge area of your face and also are the only pair from the range to come with a clear lens (plus one chromapop Black sunglasses lens). We've got some on test to follow a review of the equally large rimless Ruckus glasses. 

• £179.99
• www.smithoptics.com

Rondo RUUT CF2

The last Rondo RUUT we reviewed was the RUUT AL, we gave that a mighty four stars out of five which means that it makes its way into out 'best gravel bikes under 2K' round up. We are keen to see how this carbon RUUT CF2 gravel bike with the same adjustable geometry gets on in the hands of our mates at road.cc.

• £2,700
• www.rondo.cc
   

Hutchinson Griffus Racing lab

The first tyre to be born from Hutchinson Tyres 'Racing Lab' programme.  The Griffus tyres we have on test are a front and rear combo (27.5 x 2.5 front, 27.5 x 2.4 - rear) combo bred for gravity racing. They weigh 980 and 930g respectively and both tyres will come in a 2.4 or 2.5" width and in 27.5 or 29er. 

• £45 (ish)
• www.hutchinsontyres.com
• www.windwave.co.uk

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