By Tom Marvin

Published: Friday, 13 January 2023 at 12:00 am

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I’m sure everyone’s happy we’re almost halfway through January now. Mince pies will have been digested, New Year’s resolutions broken and at least one of your new Christmas socks will have been eaten by the washing machine.

So let’s look forward to spring. It’s not that far away really, and the nights are noticeably drawing out. Soon, the commute home will be in daylight and the trails might, possibly, be dry.

Okay, that last one is wishful thinking in the Northern Hemisphere for another couple of months, but we can dream.

Before we rattle through what’s hot at BikeRadar HQ this week, let’s see what’s been popping up on the site in the past seven days.

It has been a good week if you prefer a longer read, with a plethora of features having going live.

We delved into our crystal ball to predict what 2023’s MTB trends will be, as well as what the road cycling world will see trending in 2023.

From an advice point of view, we discussed how to set up your cleats, while Simon von Bromley paid tribute to his High-Mileage Hero, the dependable Elite Direto XR.

Tech aficionados will want to catch up on the best sub-£100 helmets and the best enduro bikes. Our Bike of the Week was Canyon’s Grail 7 AW gravel bike.

Robin Furtado brought us the first update on her Sonder Camino Ti Rival 1 long-term bike as she took to the mountains of Slovenia in search of cottage cheese and stellar gravel climbs.

Elsewhere, we served up in-depth reviews of the Portland Design Works Full Metal Fenders, Exposure Strada Mk11 SB AKTiv front light and Cube Stereo Hybrid 160 HPC SLT 750 27.5.

Finally, and this one is close to my heart, we rounded up the world of waterproof onesies.

With that rapid tour of the past seven days’ highlights complete, let’s get onto the most exciting tech to land on our desks this week.

Miche K1 Evo wheels

Miche might not be the first brand you think of when it comes to fresh hoops for your bike, but assuming performance matches the spec list, perhaps it should be on your radar. Testing will reveal all, of course.

These Italian-made hoops feature a broad UD carbon rim that’s 29mm wide internally to give plenty of volume to the latest generation of 2.4in cross-country tyres.

The rim walls, which have a hookless design, are 3.5mm wide. This might not sound particularly interesting, but the goal is to spread tyre bottom-out forces over a wider area, thus reducing the chance of you needing to fix a tubeless puncture.

It also goes towards adding a little extra strength to the rim wall – great if you don’t want to crumple your rims when rattling through their first rock garden.

The rim is 26mm deep and triangular in section. It has an offset spoke bed, which allows Miche to build the spokes into a more equilateral triangle shape over the hub, for more even spoke tension and a potentially stiffer build (Miche claims an 11 per cent increase).

Speaking of spokes, there are 24 per wheel, and they’re straight-pull, built around Miche’s own SKF-sealed hubs. Ours came with a Shimano Microspline freehub, but a SRAM XD driver is available, as is a Shimano HG freehub body.

The wheels are designed for tyres from 2.1 to 2.5in wide, and have a maximum rider and bike weight of 97kg. I weighed our set at 761g for the rear and 631g for the front, with tape and valve installed – a very competitive 1,392g for the pair.

Wheels come with tape and valves pre-installed, and Miche pops them in individual wheel bags, before dropping them in a box. Lovely.

• Miche K1 Evo: £1,885 / $2,050 / €1,884.90