Way back when Royal Racing was the new kid on the block, they always seemed to be the apparel brand with a rebellious punk rock attitude to riding gear and one of the first to steer well clear of traditional cycling apparel styles and indeed what the moto brands were doing at the time. Roll on to 2013 and Royal’s attitude of old is very much there, but with it a finely tuned and professional edge, but I think that’s just part of growing up and maturing. With a roster of athletes that’s pretty nuts (Gwin, Peaty, Buhler, Donny, Neko, etc…) and a swanky new website on the way, Royal have got a lot of interesting gear to show off for next season…

Words: Olly Forster | Photos: Nathan Carvell

Royal’s range is pretty extensive for 2013 and quite possibly their best yet. With a clear and defined focus on trail specific apparel, their line screams versatility and certainly fits in with what today’s rider is looking for.

With a strong nod towards riding gear with a purposeful yet casual persuasion, and a theme that was evident at the show from quite a few different manufacturers, Royal’s gear had a bit more going for it I have to say. This blue plaid and buttoned jersey looked particularly good.

Royal have new styles and designs across the board and a good use of their logo was re-accuring them and one we like here at FJ.

Many of the styles from last year are back again for 2013, but with a few new colours thrown into the mix. Lots of blue here at Royal and why not? Blue’s one of those colours that looks amazing and is oftenly left out of the colour pallets of most brands? Colour is in and black, unfortuately for some of us, is out!

Never to forget your roots, Royal have listened to their factory race team and delivered a new line of race specific gear that takes light weight and toughness to new levels. Also in blue…

The materials and design are all about keeping the weight down and the rider comfy while sending gaps and avoiding trees. This is also the kit you saw Gwin, Mulally, Peat and Leov wearing in their nations colours at Leogang.

These are Royal’s new race specific shorts and they look and feel pretty special. Like the matching jersey above are super light, airy and likely to be popular for other kinds of riding outside of racing too…

Royal’s glove range is massive and to think they didn’t even make gloves till quite recently. Too many to talk about here, but rest assured we’ll be getting a few of these dirty soon!

Urge.

Urge approach helmet design from a distinctively different direction from most of the other manufacturers and by the looks of things, have got no plans to join them anytime soon. With a few new lids in their ’13 line and new colours and graphics throughout, Urge have once again caught the imagination of many of us…

New for ’13 is the ‘Realjet’. A sort of retro open-face BMX style helmet based around their enduro full face helmet and the first of its kind on the MTB rider’s radar since TLD stopped producing the D2 Open – which coincidentally are exchanging hands on ebay for crazy money! I can definitely see this helmet appealing to quite a few of you regardless of how practical it may or may not be. 

I think anyone who initially dismissed the ‘Archi-Enduro’ helmet when it was first released earlier in ’12 and race enduro, may well be looking directly at it next year, expecially if your in the UK. For 2013, so I’ve been told, enduro racing will require mandatory full face helmet use and at the end of the day, who wants to wear a big sweaty re-engineered MX lid for enduro?

This random looking helmet is designed from the ground up for enduro. At first it might just look like their popular full face number with some mods to the front, but on closer inspection the designers at Urge have added a few neat design features including a hydration pack friendly rear which is a little higher for more clearance.

The increased opening at the front increases air flow, reduces weight and removes a little of that claustrophobic feeling you can sometimes get with a full face and goggles on. The rubber section at the top of the mouthpiece is malleable to allow a bottle to be quickly thrust into your gob for some vital re-hydration.

This is Urge’s biggest new offering for ’13 – it’s all new All-M, which is off course short for All Mountain. Taking many of the radical design features from the hugely popular Endur-O-Matic, the new All-M has more vents than you shake a stick at and certainly addresses one of the only issues you’ll have with its big brother.

All day, all mountain. The new All-M is definitely designed with a specific job at hand and new for Urge, also incorporates a retention design in the straps. All this and at 305 grams!

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