Ion Madion Bike Tee - Review
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Ion Madion Bike Tee
While the Ion Bike Tee may look like a standard T-shirt, Ion have cunningly packed a lot of features in here. It is made from their Drirelease material that they claim dries four times faster than cotton, neutralizes more odors than cotton and doesn't discolour with stains (ie. sweat). Looking at the care label, the material is a blend of 85-percent polyester and 15-percent cotton. There are ventilated patches of their sanitized anti-microbial material under the armpits and at the front right, there is a glasses wipe on the inside. MSRP €59.90 (Ion is not available in the US at present)
Ion Products
It may look like a regular T-shirt, but there is more than meets the eye to the Bike Tee.
Pinkbike's Take:
 | The first thing you may notice when you have the Ion Bike Tee in your hands is how nice the material is - it feels thick, comfortable and soft. You wouldn't guess that it's 85-percent synthetic fiber from touch alone. The quality of the workmanship is top notch too, with big, precise seams inside and great little touches, like a second layer of fabric around the inside at the back of the neck. We also like the glasses wipe - riding aside, this is something that is going to be used a lot for shooting photos this summer as we usually never have a lens wipe to hand when we need one. On the bike, the Madion Tee did seem to be that little bit easier to live with than cotton, although we need to wait for long, hot summer rides to say for sure. We weren't entirely sold on the odor-neutralising technology Ion claim it contains - if you want something that resists odor, merino wool has always been the best option. Visually we like the shirt. It is discrete and we would quite happily wear it off the bike. If you are looking for a riding top that doesn't make you look like a Power Ranger, but want something that doesn't have the drawbacks of traditional T-shirts, the Ion Madion Bike Tee is a great option. We think it is even better for photographers than riders though - when you are running up and down mountains after shots, you need something that handles sweat better than a cotton t-shirt, and always having a lens wipe to hand is an utter god-send. - Matt Wragg |
Author Info:
Member since Oct 29, 2006
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@Matt Wragg: How much do you charge for a review like this? I have some Enduro shoelaces that could use the exposure.
We wanted a top that doesn't look like regular sportswear, but just a regular t-shirt with hidden features & functionality in a bike specific cut.
Apart from the mesh inserts and the goggle/lens whipe, it has some small (almost invisible during day) refelective details at the very end of the long back panel, as well. We just think that riding gear is always all about the small details.
For the prizing: you spend 30€ for any brand-X basic t-shirt made of cotton.
Dri Release is a quite expenive fabric that is used by other outdoor brands like Mammut or The North Face, but with at least the same prize tag, but sometimes even less features. And these guys produce like a looot of them, not like us (small upcoming brand), which makes the products even more expensive in production.
For more budget oriented buyers, we also have a 49,- € Drirelease t-shirt, which misses the mesh & goggle whipe inserts, but hey, it is 10 euros cheaper.
Sorry, we were not able to get the price tag more down than that. Therefore we would have to produce ten thousends of these, and we are not sure if, or when this will happen.
What the hell is going on?!
Btw, $120 is nothing for a tshirt in the world of high fashion.
Because we can, thats why, and thats the point of this shirt.
It gets a little annoying reading all of these comments of people complaining about high-end gear.
But no matter how you view it, having exclusive brands to the sport/niche products and thus high prices is part of mountain biking/cycling in general. Really when you consider it, mtbers are some of the most affluent people when it comes to all of the extremem sports out there, so one has to expect that you will run in to products that might seem like a stretch price wise.
Thats all I'm saying.
And in my opinion if you're going to review some product made by Ion, it should be the knee and elbow pads! They fit amazingly well and are comfortable to ride with.
(imaginary lat syndrome)
But that will be gone too soon enough. Instead of importing oil from China we will just import their workers to take our last good paying jobs.
Soon none of us will be able to afford to enduro.