Chocolate Log

My old full facer expired, the innards coming away from the shell. I was on the market for an alternative.

I never liked the disco Troy Lee design, and the last few seasons' paintjobs have gone seriously wrong in my opinion. Alongside the fashion nightmare, I was fed up overheating or steaming up at the slightest sign of a climb, or on a technical section I want to push up to try again (this happens a fair bit with me on the Shore).

But I do still like the idea of having a jaw.

Along comes a shiny new Specialized Deviant in poncy Carbon.

It's been two years since the last review, so here goes.

Firstly, it does the job on the trail; it fits comfortably, and even fits my big ol' oakley goggles in just fine, and the light weight is very noticeable compared to my previous TLD lid, and it's cool enough to keep on for a little climbing, even for spectacle wearers like myself who are prone to steaming up.

The retainer straps at the back are easy to adjust to your head and hold things snug, but they are sharp, I buffed the edges off mine with some sandpaper and that seems to be ok, but it's not really a great piece of design.

The spongy bits inside at the back, and by the mouth guard, weren't too well stuck down (same thing happened with my old Troy Lees too), but a bit of plastic friendly superglue got that sorted. Pretty slack QA really, the kind of thing a biking behemoth like Specialized should have sorted.

The chin strap is way too long, and flaps about. There must be some slack jawed fuckers in the test team. That got chopped down too, and melted with a hot knife to prevent fraying.

The finish is ok, and after falling out of the car pre-ride it wasn't chipped or shattered like you might expect from something carbon. Most of the paintjobs are still very suspect, much like TLDs - especially the Claw one - but the 08 has a stealth black and a racier red/white/black combo.

It doesn't shout carbon pimp, and all in all seems to be a bit of a bargain for an all dayer fullface.