TideRace Xcite (& an LED light…)

I picked up my new kayak on Saturday, it’s a TideRace Xcite – a very new design for which I see little point in repeating the blurb on the manufacturers website (you can read about it here), suffice to say when I demo’d one I loved it right away, having tried a number of other designs already. Of course, aside from the waterborne handling, the degree of analysis and thought in the design plus the copious amonts of carbon and kevlar in the construction are also immensely appealing to the engineer/geek in me :o) The construction quality and attention to detail really are top-notch and I can’t wait to get it on the water. I’ll keep you updated with a running review as and when I really get to know the boat… it won’t be this weekend however as I’ve a few days of getting muddy in the mountains to look forward to.. so I’m afraid for the minute you’ll have to make do with some pics of her parked in my garage (I left my bike in the picture just to add a little context.. ;o). In the interests of promoting small local businesses as well I’ll give a little plug to Drew down at Waterborne in Porthleven – one of only two TideRace dealers in the UK and a really nice chap with it ;o)

Now then, a little public service announcement for UK-based readers.You may already have picked up on this so apologies if this isn’t new news… but the Singletrack forum has been buzzing, as always this time of year, about what lights are hot and what’s not. Aside from the £300-£400 burn-yer-eyeballs out bracket of lighting, a simple £10 affair from Tesco is grabbing a lot of attention. It’s a twin-AA size LED flashlight (sorry, “torch” as this is a UK product :o) with a claimed 3W output. Not enough as a solo light for unlit roads and trails but plenty for commuting and as a helmet light…. To see what all the fuss was about I bought one… heck for a tenner I’ve not much to lose… It’s brilliant.. The beam is quite narrow as you’d expect but very bright and with good definition. Definitely a good back-up light for my night-time adventures and on my helmet for off-road forays. It’s not going to be hard to rig up a mounting of some kind, do a search on “Tesco LED” over at the Singletrack forum and see what other folk are doing. Battery life is about an hour with some decent rechargeable AAs, it feels tough with an all-metal construction, it is o-ring sealed all round so should be OK in the rain (but not for swimming…) and it measures just 15cm long. I think this one is only available in-store but there are larger c-cell versions available online. Hate to admit it as I’m generally anti-supermarket… but it is really rather good.