It was only a last minute decision that made me go for the Xen helmet. I had used my Specialized helmet for a few years without any major spills and although it was a fairly cheap model it was comfortable and lightweight. My deciding factor came when I caught sight of Emma over my shoulder decked out in her black cycling gear and silver helmet she looked like a cycling ninja, where as I sported a bright yellow helmet that was more "safety first". So my hunt for a helmet began.

I quickly realised that my Specialized helmet had been a bargain at around £30 as the helmets I was considering were £60 plus. Deciding to put price aside and consider comfort (and Ninja'ness) I headed to my local bike shops.

• After trying on the Giro Hex I found the fit a little strange for me with the back of my head seeming to rub against the helmet interior.
• I also tried on a Giro Indicator, Giro Athlon and Specialized Instinct all of which felt less comfortable than the Xen.

After a bit of searching online I found the Xen at a discounted price of £60 unfortunately only available in "Titanium Fade", my preference was for Matt Black as what other colour would a self respecting bike Ninja wear?

My only smallish criticism of the Xen is that I prefer wheel based fitting systems rather than the sliding Roc Loc it has but then you only adjust the helmet oacssionally so its not a major problem.

My jacket decision was long and drawn out primarily because my Gill Freedom jacket was so feature rich and had served me very well through two London winters of commuting. The Gill jacket had numerous pockets, underarm vents, fleece collar liner and a cut that meant it didnt look out of place on city streets.

After visiting the London cycling show and trying on an Endura MT500 I was fairly convinced it was the jacket for me. The Endura range for 2010 has changed from being made from eVent to an Endura specific PTFE fabric. This fabric is considered to be more waterproof and breathable then eVent but according to the description requires re-activation with a cool iron. This re-activation proces worried me a little so I put my plans for the MT500 on hold. In the meantime Emma got herself an Endura Venturi jacket (made from eVent) and firmly told me I couldnt get a similar jacket making the MT500 look more of an outside option.

While purchasing our Hilleberg Allak tent we had visited another outdoor store in Stockport and had a chat to a salesman from Paramo about the Quito jacket. After further research and considering the reviews online for the Quito I decided to purchase one.

The other contendors for jacket were:

Not much of a story here really but hey Im writing about socks what did you expect! I was lucky enough to find Merino socks on sale at 50% off so I bought a bunch of pairs. They only had womens socks left in some styles so I bought these figuring how different is a female foot to a male foot?

I found these trousers at my local TK Max while looking for something to take on our trip to India and immediately liked the lightness, multiple pockets and ability to convert them from trousers to shorts. They worked well in India where you could wear them as shorts during the day carrying the zip-on legs in a day bag, then when the mosquitos appeared at dusk add the legs and keep safe from bites.