Simon Smythe's gear of the year 2025: a superlight race bike, stylish shades and sustainable shorts

Six of the best from 2025 – the bikes and kit that impressed me most

Photos: Alessandra Bucci and Tomas Slavik Words: Simon Smythe

A ‘gear of the year’ roundup doesn’t have to be all about the lightest, the fastest and the most aero – but I do have to caveat that by admitting that first on my list is the 5.9kg Scott Addict RC Ultimate. Who could ride this bike up a hill and not put it down as a highlight?

After that I went back to the future with a new set of rim-brake wheels for the disc-brake age from Parcours and some Rudy Project glasses that pay tribute to a more stylish time for sunnies – but still feature all the latest tech. Next I sat in a tray of foam and photographed the imprint of my buttocks so that Posedla could make me the ultimate custom 3D-printed saddle. Finally, and still on the subject of posteriors I’m afraid, Kostüme are saving the world one excellent bib short at a time with their sustainable production model. Plus, I've had my best feet forward all along thanks to the dazzlingly white, glitteringly perfect Fizik Vega Carbon shoes.

So here are some of my highlights of 2025 in products.

Scott Addict RC Ultimate

Scott’s Tony Fawcett said to me some time around the beginning of 2025: “Life’s too short for bad coffee and heavy bikes.” I didn’t know who his preferred coffee roasters were, but I did know that Scott had just just launched the 5.9kg Addict RC Ultimate. It was intriguing. Could this bike bring the same pure sensory joy as a cup of Panama Geisha or Ethiopian Yirgacheffe?

It was mid-February when a large, very light cardboard box arrived, containing the flagship bike – with the HMX-SL carbon frame, top SRAM Red build and awe-inspiring Syncros Capital SL wheels (1,179g).

Since pretty much everything was ‘SL', I had to head for the hills despite the temperature being just above freezing and my fitness just above Christmas level. But as soon as I hit the first slope – Leith Hill in Surrey – everything was fire. Thanks to perfect race geometry it nails the downhills too, and has clearance for fast, comfortable 34mm tyres. Every bit of it is thrilling, including the look of it.

I concluded that the Addict RC Ultimate has “proven for me beyond doubt that it has set a new high mark for lightweight disc-brake road race bikes”. Yes, pro teams prefer aero bikes because at their higher speeds they get more benefit from better aerodynamics than low weight. But for the everyday enthusiast who rides bikes because they love how it makes them feel, I think a low weight gives that high better than anything – just like good coffee.

Price £12,799
Buy through Scott's website

Parcours Grimpeur

I own a few rim-brake bikes that I plan to keep for life – and I also plan to keep riding them – so it made me very happy, not to mention a bit surprised, when British brand Parcours launched a new lightweight carbon rim-brake wheelset with a wide 22.5mm internal rim width optimised for 28mm tyres.

Let’s be honest, if you’re used to riding fat, comfortable, fast-rolling tyres, going back to rock-hard, skinny 23mm is an unpleasant ordeal. Problem solved thanks to the Parcours Grimpeurs. Weighing just 1,250g, they’re lighter than most older wheelsets too.

Here’s Parcours founder Dov Tate’s rationale: “There are lots of beautiful rim-brake bikes out there that people are going to love and cherish. It will be the ones with a soul that stay on the road for a long time. We’re saying to those people that they don’t have to make do with old technology. This is the first rim-brake wheel we’ve launched in six years, so we’ve got another six years of knowledge of development behind us. It’s a generational leap within constraints.”

I fitted the Grimpeurs with some lovely tanwall Vittoria Corsa Pros and slid them into my 2019 made-to-measure aluminium Racer Rosa, which had just enough clearance. This is what I said: “They feel lightweight, nimble, responsive and… just fast. The whole system works incredibly well. They are perfect for the Racer Rosa which, despite all the assumptions about aluminium in the past, is not at all harsh. They only give it an even more nuanced ride.” I couldn’t bear to give them back, so I bought them.

Price £1,099
Buy through Parcours' website

Rudy Project Spinshield

These might be my favourite cycling glasses in about 25 years. Going back a quarter of a century I was a massive fan of the Rudy Project Tayo – the bug-eyed ones as worn by Jan Ullrich. There was also the iconic Mapei team edition with tumbling multicoloured cubes on the faces of Museeuw, Bettini and Tafi as they coolly bossed the Classics. I got a pair with plain dark blue frames – that was all they had left at Condor Cycles, but they came with white stickers so you could make them look more pro.

Since then a lot of eyewear brands have entered what was as a two-horse – or four-eyed – race between Oakley and Rudy Project, but for me the Spinshield Air represents a return to the top of its game by the Italian brand. Its classic ski aviator aesthetic sets it apart from the samey oversize lenses of the competition, but it still has a totally modern performance. It weighs 25g, and that’s despite its one-piece lens having around twice the surface area of the Tayo’s lenses from back in the day. I actually dug out my own vintage Tayos and weighed them: they’re 34g – that’s over a third heavier. For a more up-to-date (and more relevant) comparison, the Oakley Sutro Lites are around 32g.

The ImpactX 2Laser Purple photochromic lens increases the cost over the standard lens, but it’s worth it, because it means you get to wear and enjoy these glasses all year round. Classic style, super lightweight, a high-quality lens, comfortable fit, unobstructed vision and made in Italy.

Price £162.99
Buy from Rudy Project's website

Fizik Vega Carbon

I’ll concede that shoe reviews are not always universally useful because our feet come in all different shapes and sizes. A lot of riders have welcomed the new wider fit that most brands are defaulting to, but this means the narrow-footed among us can end up with creases or bunching up where we have to ratchet up the Boas that much more.

The Fizik Vega has more room in the toebox, aligning it with the latest bike-fit thinking (cleats positioned further back and so on), but the design of the upper and the integrated outsole give it a smooth, enveloping fit that might be the best I’ve ever had in a cycling shoe.

The upper is made from a material called Aeroweave PRO, a breathable, high-tenacity mesh-like fabric that wraps around the whole foot from the bottom of the shoe upwards. It interlaces nylon fibres with filaments of thermoplastic polymers, according to Fizik, providing strength and support for pro-level racing, and is very lightweight. Thanks to the carbon outsole effectively being inside the shoe with the upper wrapped around it, the foot is closer to the pedal and stack height is noticeably lower.

The other thing about the Vegas is that they look incredible. Out of everything I’ve ridden in 2025, it’s these that have elicited the most admiring (read jealous) comments. They’re gleaming Persil white with sparkly bits that catch the light when you pirouette... I mean pedal. Keeeeeep cycling!

Price £389.99
Buy through Fizik's website

Posedla Joyseat

A custom saddle is for many people more useful than custom frame geometry – and based on my experience with Posedla’s Joyseat, this small Czech company has got everything down to Princess and the Pea perfection.

Posedla was first to offer custom 3D-printed saddles, and its process is unique. When you order a Joyseat saddle, a Smiling Butt Kit is sent out within a day. This contains a block of impression foam that you sit on, leaving an imprint of your sitbones. You photograph the imprint and upload the images into the configurator where you answer an online questionnaire about you, your bike, your riding style and the desired look of your saddle. Posedla’s algorithm creates a 3D model of your sit bones, generating the figures it needs for creating the saddle including the information from the configurator questionnaire, and the saddle is manufactured at Posedla’s factory in Varnsdorf in the north of the Czech Republic. Within two to four weeks the finished saddle is delivered.

If you have any doubts that iPhone photos of buttock-imprinted foam can produce the perfect saddle, Posedla’s founders have backgrounds in geography and they studied this stuff at university. The same photogrammetry software to create the 3D model of the saddle that is used for landscapes and aerial surveys.

My Joyseat is flawless. It feels firmer than you might expect, but on the road the different densities work so precisely that you don’t notice it’s there – which is the whole point of a saddle. As Posedla says – no pressure, just joy. Now I get what they mean.

Price from £299
Buy through Posedla's website

Kostüme

There are a lot of things that need to be right about a pair of cycling shorts, and increasingly sustainability is one of them. Brands have different approaches – using recycled fabrics is common, but British brand Kostüme’s “small batch preorder model” means it only makes what it has already sold. It says this allows it to spend more on the specification of the product without passing on the cost to the customer.

I can verify that everything about its bib shorts, which are made in Italy using 65% recycled polyamide in the shorts and 95% polyester in the straps, has a high quality look and feel that’s comparable with the established names in premium cycle apparel and in some areas even better I particularly like the cut and the fit. I went with the size small using the guide on Kostüme’s website.

The cut and the fit are excellent. As well as being form fitting, they are flattering on normal people and not just skinny pros. The fabric has a plush, luxury feel with a slightly compressive fit. There are discreet reflective logos on the shorts section, but Kostüme has compensated for the understatedness with zany straps, inspired by a business suit with an eye-catching lining.

For indoor riding, when comfortable shorts are essential, these are the ones I choose. I’ve actually worn them at every opportunity this year – everything is right about the Kostüme bibs.

Price £190
Buy through Kostüme's website