Over the past few months I’ve had the opportunity to try out a few new goodies - some for my back, some for my bike, some for my head, some for my hands and, well, some for my nether regions. Now that summer is over and riding opportunities are slipping away for those of us in the Great White North, I figured it was time to do a roundup of a few new products I’ve had a chance to test out.

I recently had the good fortune of Hayes Disc Brake sending me a prototype version of the new Hayes El Camino 2005 Disc brakes. They popped a pair in the mail for me to test as they know that the massive downhill mountain bike rides here test any and all equipment -- especially brakes! We've run Hayes disc brakes here for many years and run through about 1,200-1,600 disc brake pads a year... so yup, we're doing a lot of braking out here.

Mountain biking is expensive, no question. Hell, just a frameset from many custom and mainstream builders alike can top well over $3000US - and that's just the frameset! Thankfully, there are some companies looking out for those of us without trust funds or six figure salaries. Companies building bikes worthy of pro-level abuse at mac and cheese prices. Complete bikes available for a fraction of what those high zoot framesets will set you back. Till now a virtual unknown in the North American market, Streak'X Bikes is one such company.