It's fisticuffs for the castelli brothers

Fresh Goods Friday 119

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As Wikipedia states ‘Friday is the day between Thursday and Saturday’ but let’s not think of it as blocking our way to the weekend. Oh no! For Friday brings Fresh Goods to the shores of the island of Singletrack and we’ve pulled in the nets to capture a massive shoal this week.

Read on; it’s all here for you to cast your eyes over…

Santa Cruz Tallboy LTc

Tallboy LTc - It's got pop and style
David Turner Sea Otter 2022
Latest Singletrack Videos

First up this week is Santa Cruz’  featherlight, yet aggressive all mountain 29er: the Tallboy LTc in a lovely fast banana/custard colour. Our test bike is in the XT AM build guise with full Shimano XT drivetrain, XT brakes and a Rockshox Revelation RCT3 29er 140mm travel fork.

Tallboy LTc linkage
135mm VPP rear travel

Fox takes care of the rear suspension with the frames VPP linkage giving 135mm of rear travel. A stable pedalling platform combined with a distinct lack of weight should see the LTc flying up climbs before hooning back down. You can see how we liked it in the next issue of Singletrack Magazine.

Tallboy LTc headtube
All hail the tapered headtube

Dave’s been a big fan of the Highball carbon and has been positively salivating at the thought of getting his leg over the LTc, luckily the carbon is wipe-clean…

Price: £5199

From: Jungle

 

Giant Trance X 29er 1

A true Giant
A true Giant

The Trance X 29er is a new addition to Giant’s line up for 2013. The tapered headset holds a Fox 32 Float 29 CTD with QR15 thru-axle and the bike comes with a SRAM X9/X7 2×10 drivetrain with Avid Elixir 3 brakes doing the stopping duties.

Take it away maestro

The Trance X 29er offers 120mm travel front and back. Giant reckon ‘Maestro Moves Mountains’, with this bike heading up north for a long term test with Sanny we’re going to be testing that concept to the max.

Price: £1999

From: Giant

 

Castelli

It's fisticuffs for the castelli brothers
It's fisticuffs for the Castelli brothers

A courier with clothing courtesy of Castelli caused Shaggy and Sim to cavort, or should that be catfight confusingly? (That’s enough alliteration. Ed) Sim hoped the power of windstopper would somehow protect him but it proved unable to overcome the sexy sight of Shaggy’s skinsuit. Phew.

Sim models the Castelli Mortirolo Due Jacket with Windstopper X-Fast2 front, perfect for spring/autumn conditions or drier winter days with zipperered chest vents to allow thermal control. The high-viz colour scheme and reflective tabs on chest,back and rear pockets make it a great commuting or road jacket.

Shaggy meanwhile is wearing the Castelli Cross San Remo Speedsuit a cross specific one piece with thermoflex fleece fabric and 3/4 sleeves to ‘take the chill off’.

Price: Castelli Mortirolo Due Jacket – £175, Castelli Cross Sanremo Speedsuit – £190

From: Saddleback

 

Islabikes Creig 26

Islabike
Small bike or a long way away?

Possibly the best little persons’ bike we’ve seen and not just because of the mango colour scheme. The Creig 26 is aimed at the 9+ market for ‘kids who are serious about their mountain biking’.  A 7005 aluminium frame, SRAM X5 1×10 set up with 11-36 cassette, Elixir 3 brakes and a 80mm Rockshox XC32 SoloAir fork all add up to us wanting to be kids again. Dammit.

Price: £699

From: Islabikes

 

Clif Bars

They're too tasty to last long

A box of white chocolate, macadamia nut Clif bars? What were they thinking? Let’s face it they’re not going to last long are they? Moar please.

Price: £16.99 per box of 12

From: 2Pure.co.uk

 

Mountain High: Europe’s 50 Greatest Cycle Climbs – Saddlebag Edition

Hard copy for your daydreams

A book that gives maps, routes,profiles, lengths and heights of Europe’s 50 greatest road climbs. Read it, lube up, wax off and tick em off.

Price: £9.99

From: Independent bookshops that pay their tax.

 

Bont Vaypor MTB XC Shoe

More bling than a very bling thing

Handmade carbon monocoque construction chassis for a stiff pedalling platform, replaceable grip sections on the soles, memory foam padding and scuff protection for the shiny shiny uppers. Probably the most thought out XC and ‘cross race specific shoe we’ve seen this year.

Price: £225

From: Saddleback

 

TRP Parabox

Stopping power for cross generation

TRP’s hydraulic disc adapter for the ‘cross generation, allowing any drop bar brake lever  to run ‘proper stoppers’ (they advise against using them on Di2, but we’ve ignored that and had no issues). Barrel adjusters allow on the fly adjustments and the whole master cyclinder sits neatly under the stem.

Price: £349.99

From: Upgrade

Praxis Works Chainrings

Twin rings to rule them all

Forged cyclocross specific  110BCD – 48/36 rings engineered and coated in ‘super slippery LiquidAno’ to shift in the worst of conditions. We’ll see how they like the local grit and mulch mix.

Price: £119.99

From: Upgrade

Manky

Kind of like a well mapped pirate

 

You've all seen this trick, right?

A proven success in the NZ mtb world Manky Maps are maps, err, on a hanky. Featuring either single or double sided print you can navigate with, wear, mop brows or even have a picnic on your Manky. No sweat navigation.

Price: TBC

From: Manky Maps

Magicshine MJ-872R

Magic shiny shiny

The Magicshine MJ-872R offers a claimed 1600 lumens for a burn time of 2.2 hours using 4 x CREE XP-G  LEDs. A remote switch makes scrolling between four light levels easy work. We’ll be adding this to our upcoming mini grouptest.

Price: £110

From: Magicshine.co.uk

 

Fusion SpeedLED

Nice box...
Oooh another light

The  Fusion SpeedLED boasts a claimed 3000 lumens with run times of 4-5 hours in a one piece integrated light and battery design. A solid build should ensure it survives any mishaps. We’ll be using it to un-dark the night rides we’ve got lined up and will report back on performance.

Price: £499.99

From: Full Beam

 

Thule Pack ‘n’ Pedal bags and racks

Thule
Thule do bike luggage

Lastly we’ve a whole stack of Thule brand bike luggage and racking, enough to head into the sunset and never be heard of again until we’re found living on a diet of sticks because we forgot to pack a stove. As you’d expect from Thule it’s rugged and well thought out and includes PDA and iPad carrying options for the more up to date tech savvy traveller.

Insert nice rack gag here.

The racks boasts the ability to attach to both the front and rear of the bike (even if you don’t have rack mounts) with a nice plastic platform to strap your baguettes to.

Tote – Black £70.00
Large Pannier – £100.00
Seat Bag – £15.00
Black Rain Cover Pannier – £17.00
Black Rain Cover Handlebar – £12.00
Wallet – £35.00
Handlebar Bag – £85.00
iPad/Tablet/Map Sleeve – £40.00
Sport Rack -£75.00
Tour rack – £85.00
Side frame set -£25.00
Handlebar Mount -£35.00

From: Thule


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