You can probably imagine that as a supplier of custom cycling clothing we get a lot of requests for charity cycling kit and we do provide kit for some of the biggest charity cycling rides, such as Help for Heroes Band of Brothers Bike Ride. We are very happy to help out in one way or another, but we can’t just give away kit to everyone who contacts us. But we have a plan to help out anyone thinking of doing a charity bike ride….

You can help us to do some advertising and in return we will help with the cost of the kit. Most charirty rides use are semi-custom cycling kit option, where you pay €90 for the design and can then order any item of cycling kit you like at our normal list prices (so €29.55+VAT for a jersey and €38.25+VAT for bib shorts for example, if you buy at least 10).

So the deal is, if you become a fan of our facebook page and write a message on our wall about the fact that you are going to do a charity ride and want to get some kit made, we will take one euro off the design fee for every different person who comments on your post to support your ride. So if you can get 90 people to sign up to be a fan of our page and then comment on your post, you get the design for fee and only pay for the kit you buy and the postage. The only conditions are that it has to be for a charity ride and you have to buy at least 5 jerseys.

What is the catch? No catch – you get money off your design fee and we get more people visiting our facebook page to see what we do.

We are now supplying Evolution Tri in Windsor with their club triathlon and cycling kit for the second year and they have some sharp looking kit!

The club is run by Kevin Wallace, the most motivated man in Windsor who I first met at the TCR show in London last February when there was 6 inches of snow on the ground, but he insisted on wearing shorts. Now there’s a man who likes to suffer.

The club has a fantastic balance between serious training from qualified coaches and having a good laugh – as well as having the added bonus of being able to feed off Kevin’s ridiculous amounts of spare energy. You can go to their site or their facebook page to find out more about them.

I have to say we have quite a few headaches trying to get our female sizing right – to put it bluntly, the problem is that there are a lot of shapes and sizes to cater for, so we can’t keep all our female customers happy! We have a new female cut cycling jersey, which has a more contoured fit and shortened arms than our standard jersey and we also have new non bib shorts that are more waisted and have a female specific chamois. We already have female specific custom tri suits and female tri tops, which have proven extremely popular with the girls we supply.

We strongly advise all our clients that they get some samples for sizing purposes – there is no charge for this and we only ask that you post them back to us. We have now reworked our sizing chart, which gives more detail about the female sizing.

Click Here to Download Sizing Chart
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For skinny female cyclists, we would generally recommend that you go for the male sizing for the custom cycling jerseys and jackets, because you will probably not require the extra contouring that the female cut gives.

We have been supplying Londonskaters Speed team with kit for a few years now. We supply them with a whole range of kit, including the custom inline skating skinsuits pictured below. They also buy cycling kit, training jackets and other clothing paraphernalia that anyone who is involved with any sport knows they love to collect.

They are one of the UK’s leading and largest inline skating teams and have athletes of all abilities, from national champions to beginners and are very welcoming to new members if you are interested in giving it a go.

You have to pity anyone who doesn’t understand the joy of spending a Saturday afternoon in front of the telly watching the last 100k of one of the Classics or the extra spring in your step you have in July knowing that for 3 weeks you will have the Tour de France to bring light to your life.

Anyway here are the races you simply cannot miss this year under any circumstances. You can watch most of them on Eurosport if you are prepared to part with 4 quid (5 euros) a month (if you don’t have it on you normal television). The UPT races are Pro Tour and the HIS races ‘Historic’.

Wheelworx Bike and Tri Store in Dublin have moved premises to a new store (on the Fonthill Retail Park in Liffey Valley) 12 times (!) the size of the old one in Clondalkin. That must make it just about the largest and best equiped tri and cycling store in Ireland. We have been supplying the Wheelworx shop and pro racing team with kit for years now and they have been good enough to feature one of our tri suits on their new store front!

Rob Cummins at Wheelworx is a top man who is totally passionate about his sport and you can be confident that the highly professional advice that came with staffing his shop with people who really live cycling and triathlon will be continued at the new premises. Tri and cycling kit is getting pretty confusing these days and it is just such a good idea to buy from someone who will give you honest and meaningful advice and who will give you the kind of after sales service that can be missing when you buy from non-specialist outlets.

We would just like to wish the new store and the Wheelworx race team a great 2010!

Jaakko is a triathlete from Finland attempting to break into the disturbing world of elite triathlon. We are very proud to sponsor his custom cycling and triathlon kit for racing and training and this is a podcast with him about what it is like training for Ironman and also just how bad he feels with 25kms to go on the run.

Find out more about Jaakko at his blog. Best of luck this season Jaakko!