It’s the last Fresh Goods Friday of the year! And while many of you fine folks will have taken this week off, there are still a few people in at Singletrack Towers, keeping the lights on and being in to receive presents, er, parcels from the hardworking courier drivers. So, not surprisingly, it’s a quieter Fresh Goods than normal, but we still have some awesomeness lurking within: a season-appropriate bike, some brakes, a dropper, forks, and probably some leftover Christmas chocolate too. Talking of which, did Santa bring you fun things? Feel free to comment below, showing off what goodies you got that your mates will be jealous of.
In the meantime, we’re going to keep on keeping on here, balancing our sherry and pie intake, gently building into a crescendo of bubbly and whisky over New Year and then and trying to taper gradually into the Land of Abstinence that awaits us in the New Year.
Thanks for joining us on our journey this year – watch out for our ‘Predictions for 2018’ post coming up, as well as EVERY BIKE OF 2017’s FRESH GOODS coming on New Year’s Day. And then we can get on with making next year awesome. See you on the flip side!
Kona Unit X
- Price: £1199
- From: Kona
Reynolds 520 Cromoly and no suspension? Hold my mulled wine while I stroke this thing! 29inch wheels and 2.8inch tyres will have Chipps rolling up hill and down dale as this heads to our bike test for Issue 117.
Fox 36 Service
- Price:£119
- From:Fox UK Service Centre
Our office Fox 36 forks are just back from a tickle at the Fox UK Service Centre. We’ve had them looked over and the travel of the forks changed from 160mm to 150mm. Despite the recent change of distributorship of Fox in the UK, the service centre hasn’t missed a beat.
Bontrager XR5 Team Issue Tyres
- Price: £39.99
- From:Trek Bikes
With Bontrager tyres, the bigger the number, the more knobbly the tread. These XR5 tyres are 29×2.3in and look like they’ll be ideal in the conditions we’re currently, er, enjoying. Of course they’re tubeless ready!
Brake Force One Brakes
- Price: €549/pr
- From:Brake Force One
You might have seen our recent brake test where we tested a version of these innovative brakes that use a water-based fluid for actuation. With a huge amount of power on tap, the brakes come with a single finger lever (though two finger levers are available for those who want more to hold on to). The brakes are constantly being improved and Brake Force One wanted to get us these latest brakes so that we can see how much they’ve improved (again) over the ones we tested. So look out for a new review on these ones once we’ve had a chance to put them through their paces.
Ritchey Kite Dropper Post
- Price: £346.95
- From:ritcheylogic.com
Ritchey launched first dropper post at Eurobike 2016 but it’s taken until now for us to get hold of a production version of this, the Kite, dropper. Using a super-low pressure system (around 10-15psi) it should be pretty easy to look after, while still giving enough return spring to launch a beer can.
Osprey Viper 3
- Price: £75
- From:Osprey Europe
There are small hydration packs and there are teeny tiny ones. This one from Osprey has just enough room for the barest essentials, encouraging you to pack light. Phone, tool and tube, plus some water. What more do you need, eh?
Wil
- Price: Not for sale.
- From:Bendigo, Australia
Seeing as he isn’t here to protest, we thought we’d put this photo of Wil, sighting down the bottom bracket joint of his soon-to-be-finished bamboo bike. You’ll have to see how he get on with it in the next issue. For the moment, you’ll have to make do with this shot of him looking a little like a safe-cracker on a blag.
And because the members of the self-appointed Council of Taste aren’t in the office today, let’s lead out the year with some Country and Western! Brad Paisley tells you to enjoy the last hours of this year and to look forward to the next one. Besides, it has bikes in it. And Kitt the talking car from Knight Rider…
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Written after a few too many mulled wines perhaps? Thanks for the words and pictures all year Singletrack, FGF has felt like 52 mini-presents throughout the year. Keep up the grand job for 2018!
Haven’t touched a drop yet. 🙂
I thought it was Thursday!
Now I’ve caught up with myself, a question, are there a lot of companies rebranding the same dropper these days? The Ritchie seems to have the same concave collar as another post you recently reviewed.
@LAT – Not that we’re aware of. Often droppers may look similar, but it’s what’s going on inside that separates them. The Ritchey Kite uses a low-pressure air-spring, along with a mechanical locking mechanism that offers 3 set positions. That makes it similar in concept to the current Specialized Command and the old Fox DOSS dropper, but I don’t know if there are any similarities beyond the base concept.
ST Wil.
Thanks, Will.
A belated Merry Xmas to all at Singletrack towers and an ever so slightly premature Happy New Year!
Thanks for all the hard work you put into producing such a consistently excellent site and magazine. FGF is just one of the many awesome things that you guys produce to a consistently high standard. All the best for 2018!
“Kona’s Unit bikes have always been singlespeeds. This one has years, but with these dropouts you can always take them off.”
yep – not a drop…
How on earth does that Kona cost that much?
Not about to buy anything off the FGF list but loved Last Chance for Everything so bought it. Getting on a bit & it touched an increasingly raw nerve… Merry New Year to ya’all!
I’m liking the video to Last chance for everything! Great 80s homage!