Earn $100 at Jenson USA for Your Vital MTB Member Reviews

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 members dirtworks911 and Carraig042 battled it by each writing dozens (!!) of great reviews, and in the end dirtworks911 won out earning the Top Reviewer spot. Here's a recap of some of his best:

Niterider Pro 1500 LED Race Light - "My riding set-up consists of two lights, a 800 lumen on my helmet and a flood light on my bars. The most important light is the one on my bars because I wanted a light that would eliminate everything in front of me. That's why I went with the 1500 lumen. When riding my favorite downhill trails, I feel completely confident in being able to see everything when having the NiteRider Pro 1500 on high.

My only complaint that I have with the NiteRider Pro 1500 is that it takes asignificant amount of time to fully charge (5 hours!) I know that's not a huge amount of time, but when your have spontaneous friend who give you an hour's notice about going on a ride, that just not enough time to get it fully charged. Hopefully the next models will have a shorter charging period." - Read more»

POC Joint VPD 2.0 Pads - "The thing I love most about the Joint VPD 2.0 is the exceptional cup the pad offers around my knee. After a long ride, I find it almost difficult to even pull of my pad. I love this because that means that the chances of this happening in a crash are near impossible. The velcro straps, especially the top strap really help in holding the knee pad in place. The top strap is over an inch wide and has about 4 inches of attachment so I know its not going anywhere during a crash.

The back of the pad is thin elastic material that hugs the back of the knee but also allows the back to breath nicely. The front of the pad can get hot during more AM trails but the back being so breathable really helps with that. I also noticed the lack of pressure points or bunching up of material when going through a full pedal rotation which is a huge plus for a knee pad that offers so much protection." - Read more»

Smith PivLock V2 Sunglasses - "First thing I noticed when putting them on was how clear and clean their lenses are. If they aren't the highest quality lens out there, they are certainly close to it. There have only been a few times were my lenses have fogged up but that was expected considering the conditions. With just a few adjustments of the noise piece and reposition of the frames, the lens quickly de-fogged and I was back in business.On the subject of lenses is the easiness of swapping the lens out with one of the three different tints that comes standard with this product. In well under a minute you can remove the lens from the frame and replace them with a different one to match the lighting of your ride." - Read more»

Scorpion Bike Stand - "I purchased one of these for my Santa Cruz Nomad and loved it so much I got another one for my Trek Session. Compared to other bike stands out there, this is much more stable and durable. Working in the industry for many years now, I've seen horror stories about temporary bike stands and customers bikes. The stands might be poorly designed, need a trick to get the bike to set completely in it (like smashing the rear tire into the rails), or might just get worn out and loose over time. Whatever the reason is, I've seen customers, kids, and just gravity throw $4000+ bikes straight to the ground, or even worse, onto other bikes. The thing I love about the Scorpion Moto Style Bike Stand is that it's straight forward. You don’t need to guess whether or not the bike is placed properly. The stand also has a very wide base plate which means your bike is less likely to meet the ground. One of the neat things about this stand is that you can also work on the bike and make adjustments with it's stable platform." - Read more»

POC Cortex DH MIPS Helmet - "The Cortex is also one of the only helmets I am aware of that comes with certified "multi-impact" foam. In traditional helmets, when you hit your head hard enough, the eps foam will actually compress without returning to it's original shape. That is why companies recommend you replace your helmet after ever crash; and at $400+ a pop, this can be very pricey. POC's "multi-impact" foam compresses like typical eps foam would, but then returns to it's original shape afterwords. This means, as long as the helmet shell of foam isn't cracked, it's 100% structurally sound, just like the day you bought it. Note: There is constant debate on whether or not "multi-impact" foam offers the same level of initial protection, but from my personal standpoint, I feel 100% confident in putting my life in this helmet's hands." - Read more»

Gamut P20s Chainguide - "First off, the reason why I moved to Gamut is because of their simplistic, yet very effective design. Strong and light weight are the key to their success. Also having no moving parts means there are less things to break, loosen, or lose on the trail. I would have thought there would have been significant wear marks on the guide considering the chain slides on the lower guard instead of rolls like with other brands, but to my pleasant surprise wear marks and very very minimal. Its smooth and quiet which I love too.My only complain I have is that the bash-guard can crack or break easily (around the crank bolts) if over-tightened or if smashed against anything. This is typical of a plastic bash-guard and I don't really see a way around it. It's better to break a bash-guard than destroy your frame I would say. After talking with Gamut about getting a replacement bash-guard sent out to me, I could tell that this company really cared about what they were doing which was very impressive." - Read more»

Big congrats to dirtworks911! Thanks for helping out the riding scene with your thoughts on these products.