We’re feeling conflicted today. On the one hand we’re excited because it’s Friday, and that means we’re inches away from the freedom of the weekend. On the other hand, our local trails have transitioned into sodden rivers of mud as incessant waves of rain have continued to lash across Calder Valley this week. And that makes us feel a bit miffed, because according to science, it’s still meant to be summer.
And yet, it’s all feeling rather chilly…
Ok, so perhaps things aren’t quite that chilly yet.
But if anyone has a passing encounter with the weather gods who manage the skies over the Grim North™, would you mind asking them if they could flick on some late summer sunshine for us? Right after kicking them in the shins and spitting on them of course.
Whoa, whoa, whoa! Sounds like someone needs to get out of the office…
Lets take our minds off the negative, and focus on the positive – that positive being FRESH GOODS FRIDAY YO!
Giant Anthem Advanced Pro 29er 1
- Price: £4249
- From: Giant Bicycles UK
Arriving at Singletrack Towers this week is the brand new 2018 Giant Anthem Advanced Pro 1. You may have already caught our first look at this brand new short travel 29er XC race bike, which has got loads of info and detailed shots of all the neat features going on with this evil-looking machine. If not, the basics are this: it’s full carbon front to back, has 90mm of rear travel, a 100mm travel fork, and weighs under 11kg for the complete bike you see here.
Like the latest Anthem 27.5 we reviewed, the new Anthem 29er gets a revised suspension package that’s built around a new metric rear shock with a trunnion mount for the upper eyelet. The rocker link is a single piece that’s molded from composite fibre, making it lighter and stiffer than the alloy version used on the old Anthem 29er.
We’ll be testing the new Anthem 29er against two other short-travel 29in full suspension XC race bikes as part of an upcoming magazine group test, so stay tuned to find out how Giant’s return to 29in wheels has panned out.
Mavic XA Pro Carbon Wheels
- Price: £1495
- From: Mavic
The XA Pro is Mavic’s high-end trail wheelset, using carbon fibre rims, straight-pull spokes and lovely machined alloy hub shells. We’ve actually got a set of these on test already (check out the first look feature here), though this set features Boost hub spacing and will be going into battle against a bunch of other lightweight carbon wheels in an upcoming group test.
The carbon fibre rims are hookless and tubeless compatible, and they’re running at a 26mm internal width for use with tyres up to about 2.5in wide. Despite the carbon fibre construction, Mavic has built the XA Pro wheels to provide plenty of compliance to avoid them shaking your teeth out on the trail.
The XA Pro carbon wheels are available in both 27.5in and 29in diameters, with the option of Boost or non-Boost hub spacing. You can also spec a Shimano or a SRAM XD freehub body aftermarket, though tubeless tape and valves are included with the wheels in the box.
Kärcher OC3 Mobile Pressure Washer
- Price: £149
- From: Kärcher
First shown earlier this year at the London Bike Show, the Karcher OC3 is a compact mobile pressure washer that’s ideally designed to go in the back of your van or car. Inside is a rechargeable battery that powers the pump, and a small handle and trigger deliver a fine low-pressure spray for hosing off dirt and mud from your bike before loading it back in to head home.
The tank will hold 4 litres of water, and the battery will last about 15 minutes if you get trigger-happy and spray continually. It’ll take about 3 hours to charge back up, which you do via a mains plug. Obviously with the aid of an inverter, you could charge it via the cigarette lighter in your car.
Kryptonite Avenue F-65 & R-30
- Price: £TBC
- From: Madison
The Avenue is a new urban-centric range of bike lights from Kryptonite, and it starts off with these little doo-dads called the F-65 and the R-30. The numbers refer to the amount of Lumens beamed out by the LEDs, which can be configured in various flashing and constant modes.
Kryptonite Avenue F-70 & R-35
- Price: £TBC
- From: Madison
Stepping up the power marginally are the two-LED versions, which offer a greater variety of flashy modes so you can minimise the number of excuses drivers can come up with when they apparently didn’t see you.
Kryptonite Avenue F-150 & R-75
- Price: £TBC
- From: Madison
Looking like the eye of a cyborg, the more powerful Avenue lights step up to 150 Lumens for the front, and 75 Lumens for the rear, which is pretty bright for a set of city lights. These also use the same rubber attachment design, and are USB chargeable.
Kryptonite Street F-250 & F450
- Price: £TBC
- From: Madison
For those who face darkened pathways and tow paths on their evening commutes (and let’s face it, very soon on our morning commutes too), there are the more powerful Street models are high-powered head lights designed to provide a nice flood of light out in front. There are flashy and pulsey modes too, and you’ll be able to get as much as 24 hours of runtime on those modes, or as little as 2 hours on full burn.
Kryptonite Street F-650
- Price: £TBC
- From: Madison
The big daddy is the Street F-650 light, which packs…you guessed it…650 Lumens! Rechargeable battery inside will get you 2 hours of runtime on full noise, or as much as 26 hours on the ‘Economic Flash’ setting. Peep holes on the side of the head unit offer more side visibility in traffic too.
Light & Motion Vibe Pro Headlight
- Price: £49.99
- From: Madison
We’ve had a few lights turn up lately, and that’s usually a sad indication that things are about to get a whole lot darker in the near future. But at least you can get excited about new light time with the brand new Vibe from Light & Motion. Made in the US, the Vibe is a (I can’t believe I’m about to say this) smart light. Yes, the Vibe is packed with in-built light sensors and accelerometers to work out when you’re moving, so it will automatically turn on by itself, and will alter the power output depending on how light or dim the conditions are. Whoaaaa.
The Vibe Pro head light packs a considerable 200 Lumens of power into its compact head unit, which is removable from the mount without need for tools. And when you remove it (say if you’ve locked your bike up), the light knows you’ve removed it, and switches off.
Mind. Blown.
Light & Motion Vibe Tail Light
- Price: £39.99
- From: Madison
There’s a matching trail light for the Vibe series, and you can either get the standard Vibe (50 Lumens), or the Vibe Pro (100 Lumens). The one we’ve got here is the standard model, and it has the same clever tech built into it. Once you remove the light body from the mounting bracket, you’re left with an exposed USB key that can be plugged into a laptop or charger to re-juice the battery.
Light & Motion states you’ll get 12 hours of runtime out of the Vibe tail light, though it kinda depends on your moving time, as the auto shutoff function means it should preserve battery life for those times that you forget you left the light on.
Bycyclogical Gripster
- Price: £9
- From: Bycyclogical
I could say that this is a solution to a problem I didn’t know existed, but having been a Renter 4 Lyf™, I’m well aware of the sensitivities of cramming bikes into a tiny apartment and the resulting mess it makes of lovely white-painted walls that don’t belong to you. And so herein lies the premise of The Gripster – a little rubber doo-hicky that’s designed to clip onto your bars and both stabilise your bike, and protect the wall that it’s leaning against. Available in loadsa colours, and designed to clip onto your handlebars while riding, so you can provide a storage solution for those cranky cafe owners.
Roval Traverse SL Fattie 650B
- Price: £1320
- From: Specialized UK
Joining the Mavic XA Pro carbon wheels (and a few others that you’ll see soon enough) is this set of plastic fantastic hoops from Roval. It’s the Traverse SL Fattie wheelset, specifically in a 27.5in diameter and with Boost hub spacing. Claimed weight is just 1537g, making this an impressively light set of wheels destined for being smashed into rocks and roots under a full suspension trail bike.
The carbon rims are hookless and run a 30mm internal width that should be good for nearly-plus width tyres. Specialized has spec’d these wheels with 3.0in wide plus tyres on some of their plus bikes, but we reckon that’s a little optimistic, and would probably stop at 2.8in wide maximum. In any case, we’ll be setting them up with some 2.3-2.4in tyres as part of the group test.
The hubs are Roval’s own design, though they come loaded with DT Swiss hub internals, including the Star Ratchet freehub body on the rear. Spokes are also from DT Swiss, being the lightweight Revolution double-butted spoke that’s used 24 times for the front wheel, and 28 times for the rear wheel.
Spank Vibrocore Rim Sample
- Price: Free if you buy a set of Vibrocore wheels and cut them up yourself
- From: Hotlines
Shown off at Eurobike where we first got a look at them, Spank is going to be offering alloy Spike rims packed with foam. Dubbed ‘Vibrocore’, the concept is basically the same as their Vibrocore handlebars, that use internal foam to help reduce vibrations. We haven’t ridden the rims yet, but the bars work, and we’d hazard a guess that the Vibrocore material works better than this.
Spank Spike Race Stem
- Price: £55
- From: Hotlines
Also in our Spank goody pack (Ed: that sounds like something else…) is a lovely Spike stem. Made from 2D forged and CNC machined alloy, the Spike stem comes in 50mm and 35mm lengths, though we’ve got the itty bitty one on test to go with some fresh bars too.
Spank Spike 800 Vibrocore Handlebars
- Price: £74.99
- From: Hotlines
Those bars being the latest ape-hangers from Spank. It’s the Spike 800 in ‘Race Team’ trim that sees them filled with Vibrocore foam to help dampen out those bad vibrations from the trail. These are going on one of Andi’s test bikes, and he’s elected for the enormous 50mm rise ‘cos he likes having the grips around his ears.
Spank Baseball Hat
- Price: $24.95 USD
- From: The Gravity Cartel
We also scored some fresh threads in our Spank goody box (Ed: again, still weird). Hannah’s embellished her head with a green snapback that Spank’s marketing department mistakingly sent us because they thought we were hip.
Rapha Insulated Brevet
- Price: £150
- From: Rapha
This jacket is a Large mens garment, hence why Hannah is looking like the ‘after’ photo in a weight loss ad. Chipps snagged this one at Eurobike when he visited the folks at the Polartec booth. According to Polartec, the Polartec® Alpha® insulation is used to provide warmth in all conditions, as well as being quick-drying and hydrophobic. Externally you’ll find windstopper fabric and a DWR coating as a barrier to the elements when the weather isn’t quite sure what it wants to do. So this week then.
Despite being of the insulating type, the Brevet Jacket is still slim with a tailored fit, so it’s not meant to flap around in the breeze (assuming you pick the right size, unlike our Hannah). It’s got reflective detailing for nighttime visibility, and there’s a concealed valuables pocket for carrying dru…err…valuables.
Spank T-Shirt
- Price: $24.95 USD
- From: The Gravity Cartel
Bet you didn’t see that coming! Hannah reveals a sweet Spank t-shirt underneath in a Rapha-Spank combo that is unlikely to ever happen again.
7Mesh WK2 Bib Shorts
- Price: £TBC
- From: 7Mesh
But it turns out Hannah was only just getting warmed up! We begged Hannah to take these photos indoors in the Singletrack office, but Hannah insisted the public open carpark would provide better light for the photos. Ever the professional eh?
So, err, the bibs. They’re ladies bib shorts from 7Mesh, and they’re called the WK2. They’re so new that they’re not on the 7Mesh website yet, but we can tell you that they feature ‘Pull2P’ technology, which basically means they’re really easy to pull down when you need a mid-ride visit to the dunny. There’s loads of other lovely details going on with these, including ladies specific bib braces, minimal seams for less abrasion on your skin, and an ‘Elastic Interface Road Performance Max chamois’. So there.
Strange T-Shirt
- Price: £25
- From: Orange
But Hannah wasn’t quite done yet. Not content with modelling bib shorts half-naked in public, she dashed back inside the office for a few moments, and came back out wearing another casual t-shirt to slip into the Fresh Goods Friday bonanza. And so before signing off for the week, she donned herself this snazzy black ‘Strange’ t-shirt from Orange, and gave us her most contemplative pose that just screams “I’m sophisticated, yet fun“. Take that, Friday!
So with that facial expression burned into your poor retinas for the foreseeable future, we’ll bid you farewell and sign off for today and the week. But not before you get yourself into a cool Friday groove courtesy of The Acid. As in, the band.
ST Out!
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Having been laid low by an emergency surgical operation yesterday, it is marvellous that this has arrived early to help me get over the boredom. I have been banned from riding until my wound heals, but dark is coming and you have shown some wonderful lights for the coming months. NB lest anyone is worrying, it was a non life threatening emergency and my life subscription is hopefully not going to expire in the near future.
Get Well Soon @Fatoldman. An office conversation over whether emergency surgery can be non life threatening has ensued. An opportunity for pedantry is always welcome.
I say!