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Mavic Crossmax Clothing Review

Reviews > Mavic Crossmax Kit Review

Mavic Crossmax Clothing Range | TESTED!

This year I have been mostly riding in the new Mavic Crossmax range of mountain bike clothing. This includes helmet, tops, jackets, gloves, shorts and liners and socks. From spring through summer and into winter I have been testing the Mavic gear through all the weathers and over thousands of kilometres on the bike. I have deliberately not reviewed the kit as soon as I got it, instead I waited until I had used it for the season to see how it lasted and how I got on with it long term. The review won´t have lots of detailed product pictures in it, you can get those on the Mavic website, instead there are lots of pictures of us actually using the kit. There also won´t be many wet pictures because my camera isn´t waterproof! With all that in mind, read on to see how I got on with the Mavic mountain bike clothing I´ve been using.

Mavic CrossMax Shorts

I was really impressed with last season´s Mavic Notch shorts, but this year I have been riding in the new Crossmax shorts. They are very similar to the previous Notch shorts, which is a good thing, but this year they have some bright colours to add to the range. I have been riding the red and blue shorts for the whole season and have found them to be excellent. There are no adjustments on these shorts so it´s worth getting the right fit however I find that they are quite forgiving and don´t tend to slip down. I am riding the Medium and Large shorts and both are comfortable and stay in place. The colours have stayed bright and true despite twice weekly washes and they shorts still look great. These are my favourite shorts and I will outline some of the reasons for this rather than give you a boring run through all the design features.

1. Light weight means that they are comfortable in all sorts of weather and they dry really quickly if you have got them all sweaty or get caught out in the rain. I recently wore these shorts for a big mountain day out, where the temperatures were over 30ºC in the valleys and under 10ºC at the summit. They got very sweaty but dried quickly and I was comfortable from the start to the summit to the finish!

2. Bright colours. This is the year of enduro so either go bright or go home! They look great in photos which is a big plus for me.

3. Pockets. I have other shorts I like but the Mavic beats them all hands down is in the pocket department. The pockets are really well worked out and I find that I can always carry all my bits and bobs comfortably and without fear of loosing or breaking them.

4. Durability. Our stuff gets washed a LOT. And crashed in, especially this year as I have a shoulder injury and am crashing more than normal. The shorts are all as good as new.

Mavic Mountain Bike Socks

Let´s be honest, socks are socks… Right? Well I don´t think so. I have the Crossmax Socks in black and also in yellow and they´re just a pleasure to wear. They are stretchy and go on easily, very important given that I have a spine injury at the moment and bending = pain. They stay cool when it´s hot and stay warm when it´s wet. All perfect stuff!

Mavic Crossmax Gloves

The new Crossmax gloves are really worth checking out. They last really well, are a good weight and offer plenty of protection. I find that the gloves fit me really well, giving a nice snug fit with stops them bunching up and giving me blisters. The sizes are also a real size, with so many glove manufacturers you have to by XXXXXXL to get a glove that fits but Maxic´s XL is perfect for me and there is still an XXL size above that for people with really big hands. Bad gloves get found out really quickly on our mountain bike holidays, and comfy gloves find their way to the top of the pile. The Mavic Crossmax gloves live at the top of my gloves pile, they´re either on or in the wash!

Mavic Mountain Bike Jackets

Crossmax Ultimate Convertible Jacket

This is hands down my favourite mountain bike jacket out of any I have ever owned. It´s light, really breathable and very versatile. The arms zip on and off and they have two types of zip; the main zip closes tight and is watertight, the big yellow zip doesn’t close tightly and provides lots of ventilation. It lets water in a bit at the armpits but I find that isn´t an issue and is worth it for the extra breathability. The cuffs are perfect, longer on top than on the bottom which provides protection over the gloves. The overall cut is great, a nice fit to allow warmer clothes underneath but without being too baggy and flappy. The double zip up the front is a great idea, open the outer one and get loads of ventillation, then zip it shut at the next rain shower. The jacket is perfect for warmer days with light to moderate rain.

Crossmax Jacket for shorter, warmer rides. The Stratos H20 for the ultimate in protection

Stratos H2O Jacket

This is a high quality, heavier weight rain jacket. I wear this on bad days, when you know you are going to be out in constant rain for prolonged periods. It´s not as breathable as the Crossmax Ultimate but is a lot more weathertight and also warmer. It folds down small and easily slips into my pack. Again, I´m not going to go through all the features because this jacket has a lot of them, look it up on the Mavic website! I wear this jacket a lot when it´s windy or wet on the mountains, it´s really sung to get into and the best thing I have ever tried for keeping the water out. If I lived somewhere colder then it would probably beat the Crossmax Ultimate Convertible jacket above as my favourite jacket!

Crossmax Pro Helmet

Simple and effective pretty much sums up the Crossmax helmet. It´s light and looks cool and, for my head anyway, it´s very comfortable. I bought some replacement pads on eBay, it was the only place I could find them, so that I can wash them an change them back and forth and the padding has lasted all season without any problem. Our helmets have a pretty hard life, they get ridden in and then thrown in the back of the van for each uplift and at the end of each day. The Mavic Crossmax helmet looks a bit used but has lasted with no problems at all and will probably do another season as well. Helmets suit different heads and it´s always worth testing them out but for me the Mavic offers a fantastic fit with lots of coverage but also really light and breathable. I have a massive head and lots of other brands won´t fit but the Mavic fits with space for a buff underneath if I want. Definitely try before you buy but if it fits then I highly recommend it.

Mavic Crossmax Clothing Review | Conclusions

I am lucky that I get some Mavic clothing direct from Mavic for testing but I also have to buy plenty of kit myself to make it through the season. I choose to buy Mavic which really sums up all the words above. It is also true that when we get clothes for testing, if it´s not top notch then I just don´t wear it, life it too short for uncomfortable kit or kit that does´t function really well. We spend most of our lives dressed up in our bike kit and it´s very important that it works very well. You will see me dressed in my Mavic kit almost every day and that´s because it really works well. The Mavic gear gets a full double thumbs up from basqueMTB.

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Established 2008, basqueMTB have been offering amazing mountain bike holidays across the Pyrenees, San Sebastian and Northern Spain. Dedicated shuttles, the most experienced guides and more than a decade of experience organising our award winning mountain bike holidays, come and visit us and see what all the fuss is about.

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