Vital MTB's Top Reviewer Award - Presented by Jenson USA - Mountain Bike Feature

Every 30 days, we award the Top User Reviewer with a little prize. This month Jenson USA pitched in a $100 gift card! Vital MTB member vics26 wrote several great reviews, and we'd like to highlight the ones that helped earned him the Top Reviewer spot.

Five Ten Freerider VXi Shoes - "The first thing I noticed about the Freerider VXi versus the standard Freerider is the lack of bulk, the VXi although still offering quite a bit of protection are nowhere as bulky and stiff/rugged as the older Freeriders. This is great when the shoe is used as a casual sneaker but there have been some occasions that I’ve missed the thick toe covering of the old shoe, this was noticed when sticking the foot out around fast corners or dabbing in the rock gardens. You can definitely notice the lack of material in this shoe versus the Freerider on the whole shoe, even the tongue is less bulky, but most noticeable is the toe piece has quite a bit less martial and protection. This is not necessarily a bad thing; it’s just if you are looking for the same kind of protection as with the Freerider version you may not find it in this shoe. I like to think of the VXi’s as a lighter/softer version of the Freerider..."

DT Swiss FX1950 Tricon Wheels - "You could argue that there are a lot of other options and at even cheaper prices for high end wheels but these ones truly are pretty unique. Right out of the box you can see that the wheels are a strong quality build while at the same time being super light, plus they look simply amazing. The black/green color design along with the white spokes makes for an amazing looking wheel set, they definitely have a one of a kind styling to them. In terms of ride quality, the first thing I noticed was how incredibly stiff this wheel set is, it’s almost scary how much flex my old wheel set must have had as these feel totally solid, it’s almost a night and day difference in stiffness..."

Specialized Demo 8 Frame - "Overall a couple of words come to mind when speaking about the Demo’s ride quality, speed and momentum. This thing just loves to go fast and within a couple of first rides I was riding my local trail at a faster speed, this was more so evident in the corners, the bike just seems to convey confidence in the corners. It also seems to carry its speed out of turns and bumps, no matter what you throw at it, the bike just accelerates. I remember reading reviews about the Demo and everyone raved about how well it corners, I can now say this is absolutely true. This thing just loves to corner, it somehow allows you to enter in corners faster as well as accelerate out of them at top speed, the bike just seems to carry its momentum very well. I assume this is due to the angles and the short chain stays, so far I am a big fan of this..."

GoPro HERO3 Silver Edition - "I purchased the GoPro Hero 3 Silver edition shortly after my Contour camera stopped working. After a couple of months of use I can say that I prefer the GoPro quite a bit more. The picture quality seems to be significantly better than that of the Contour and the GoPro also boosts a lot of smart options on how to capture your biking shots. The camera allows the user to configure the video capture resolution along with the frame rates, plus has the ability to take 11 megapixel photos. The photo options also allow for burst mode as well as a time lapse mode allowing you to snap photos every couple of seconds (you can configure the photo interval). Another great feature of the GoPro is that is allows you to capture in “upside down mode,” meaning you can set the camera upside down and it will record correctly, this is great as I’ve been experimenting with different angles and most recently capturing video from underneath my helmet visor. This is a great capture mode as it allows for an almost true from a riders eyes perspective capture."

Big congrats to vics26! Thanks for helping out the riding scene with your thoughts on these products.