Bike Perfect Verdict
Light, breezy and super comfortable warmer weather kit but beware thorns with the jersey and gloves
Pros
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Instantly comfortably, cool and fast breathing jersey and gloves
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Lightweight, well vented but usefully tough trail shorts
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Practical touches without compromising performance
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Excellent glove grip and feedback
Cons
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Lightweight glove back and jersey fabric can tuft easily if you start shredding the shrubbery
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Shorts are a bit noisy and synthetic in feel
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Gloves aren’t ‘Smart screen’ compatible
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Dependable performance mountain bike clothing is Endura's bread and butter. With ranges catering from green trail beginners to downhill pros there's plenty of options to choose from. The Singletrack and MT500 ranges cater for the general trail and enduro rider looking for comfortable riding gear that is packed full of performance. We put some of Endura's summery kit to the test to see how it performs when the trails start heating up.
The sublimated print hides the fact that the Kali is actually made from a super-light, perforated ‘teabag’ fabric that feels pretty chilly to start with but you’ll soon appreciate the very fast wicking, air-con performance on hotter days. The cut is baggy enough to look cool and stretch over armour with plenty of length in the body and arms without flapping around too much. The ‘horned’ collar and sleeve construction helps mobility too making it a really comfortable jersey to ride in. The ‘teabag’ fabric does pick up small white tugs and tags pretty quick, but so far none of them have joined up into anything more extensive and the vibrant pattern hides them pretty well unless you’re up close.
The Lite shorts take the well-loved Singletrack short and switch it to a lightweight stretch nylon fabric with inner and outer thigh perforations for direct air con. They also lose the thigh phone pocket but you still get hand pockets, a double press stud and zip fly and rear zipped pocket. There are double velcro straps at the back to gather up the waist too but the back panel tends to bunch up dramatically if you’re on the skinny side as there’s not much elasticity in the fabric. It can also feel a bit ‘shiny’ and plasticky against the skin and it’s noisy when pedalling too. That’s only intrusive until you get used to it though and the fabric shrugs off showers and splashes really well and dries really fast if it does get wet. They’ve proved impressively durable despite some unplanned trail slides and the fabric doesn’t stain or get dirty easily either. That means as long as you switch out the liner shorts (it’s compatible with Endura’s popper secured ‘ClickFast’ shorts but they’re not included) you can keep wearing them for a long time without it being obvious.
The Lite’s are available in black, azure blue, two-tone green and tangerine/maroon (seen here). You can get the shorts in a standard length that sits just above the kneepad while pedalling or a shorter more Euro leg cut. Pricing is reasonable, too.
The latest version of the Humvee Lite gloves matches a tough and tactile palm with a lightweight summer back. The synthetic leather palm gets extra silicon patterning across the grip zone and first two fingertips and there’s no padding either so bike feedback is excellent. There’s a big sweat/snot wipe covering the whole outside of the thumb and the two-piece stretch mesh back makes for easy pull on/off and excellent fit. Lack of smartphone connection in the tips will frustrate some though and the fabric back soon starts to suffer if you’re punching through bushes on overgrown trails.
