Single Track Lock On Grips – £11.95
2 in 1 Tyre Levers and Chain opener – £9.95

These products were vigorously tested and reviewed by a valued member of the UKMTBChat community, Kevin Phillips (@182target on twitter).

Thanks to @UKMTB_Chat I’ve been sent a couple of products to test from VeloChampion.

First up is a pair of grips. Grips can be a very personal thing as they’re obviously one of the main contact points between rider and bike.

On first impressions they seem very generic, they seem very similar to the likes of Superstar grips. Similar compound (quite hard) and construction, with 2 lock rings and separate end plugs. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing as they seem well built and of good quality.

The grips have 2 different textures on the grip body, I found them to be quite comfy and even tried a ride without gloves to see how they felt. Compared to my “go to” Death Grips, they weren’t as comfy, however as a lot of things with MTB, it all comes down to personal opinion. These grips are quite long, I had to move my brakes & gear shifter along the bars to get them to fit, so if you have big hands these could be the grips for you.

Bottom line, they’re grips. They allow you to hold the bars, they performed well, did what it says on the tin. Will they cause me to swap from my Deathgrips? Probably not, but would I be disappointed if a bike I had came with these grip? Definitely not.

Second up is a clever little tool that is 2 tyre levers that can be joined together to make a quicklink removal tool.

First impressions were that they seem really good quality, very robust and well made. Before I got to test these though I found one small quibble. They look like they should clip together so that when you get them out of your pack/pocket etc. They’re together and ready to go, I couldn’t get mine to clip together! Not a major issue as such, but I could see it being a pain if you were fishing around for the other part.

I first tested them as a tyre levers as I swapped my tyres over in the garden. They performed really well. They got under the bead of the tyres easily, felt really comfy in my hand and I had enough purchase and force to be able to get off a really stubborn tyre held on with old sealant!

I then tried out the quick link removal function. The levers slide together to form an X shape, it’s really simple to do and there’s only one way they’ll go together. I had some old chains in the shed so set about trying to remove the quick links in them. The tool didn’t seem to move that much, so I was a little skeptical, however this proved totally unfounded! The tool worked flawlessly, it easily removed the links, no struggle, no faff, just a quick squeeze and the chain popped apart.

This tool is going straight in my pack! Well made, well designed and performs superbly. If they clipped together for storage, they’d be perfect. As it is, they’re just very good.

www.velochampion.cc