Foldable Bikes Party: 11spd: This week's best new bike gear

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Remember when Christmas was so exciting that you ruptured all your internal organs in greedy anticipation of gifts you definitely didn't deserve? It's hard to reproduce that degree of excitement in adult life, but you can take solace in buying expensive things to adorn your bicycles and to distract you from the relentless march of time. Yes, ladies and gents, it's our penultimate pre-Yule 11spd, and we've got all sorts of lovely new things that won't fit in your Christmas stocking unless you have feet like Canadian canoes...

New mountain bikes* and kit

Specialized CruX Elite X1

*No, this isn't a mountain bike. Deal with it.

Most cyclocross fans will already be familiar with Specialized’s popular Crux range of bikes. This one, the Elite X1, sits dead in the middle of the 2017 line up.Its carbon frame uses the same World Championship-winning geometry as its spendier S-Works sibling and wears a similar double dip paint job as the 2016 Crux line. Definitely worthy of a mention is the142x12mm rear axle, marking a move from Specialized’s unpopular choice to fit a narrower thru-axle to last year’s frame.

Spec highlights include SRAM’s Rival X1 groupset and hydraulic discs, DT Swiss’ popular R460 thru-axle wheels and plenty of own-brand finishing kit from the big S. Just take a minute to enjoy the look of this thing. We love the green and red contrast and the double dip paintwork that’s been carried over from last year’s bike.

It’s already done the rounds with one of our testers so keep your eyes peeled for a full review soon on BikeRadar.