Usually when I rave about "best", it has to do with a particular piece of equipment that saved my butt under particular conditions. For instance, tubular CX tires are friggen' magical when you're taking a sharp fast turn on gravel. It's seriously like velcro, not a single hint of slipping or wobbling. However, I cannot recommend putting tubulars on, say, a commute bike, unless you're good at gluing quickly under duress on the shoulder of a busy street.

I've found OMG IT'S COLD redemption from Rapha's merino neck gator, Specialized's Deflect gloves (especially when I was skiing and that was all I had, heh), and Defeet's Wool-E-Ator socks.

Now that it's finally getting warm, my "bests" are a little more generic: the new Specialized Purist bottles, Sidi Dominator 5 shoes, and the giant green tin of Bag Balm.

If there's been one thing that rubbed me the wrong way, literally, it was Castelli's super-short bike shorts that went under their magical riding dress. The shorts were the perfect length to complement the dress (and I have stories of my husband finally riding behind me on the singletrack), but a few hours of pedaling rendered the inside of my thighs raw like hamburger. Ouchie.

-- gnat!