Between the heat, the many (many) products, and the excitement about football Eurobike, we can barely think. SOme of you are probably past thinking anyway, since the Scottish school holidays have begun. The rest of us are frantically searching for improbable costumes for end of term plays, wondering whether we can squeeze another two weeks out of those disintegrated school shoes (we were wondering the same thing just after Easter), and trying not to buy any homemade ‘crafts’ at the school summer fair.
Phew. Grab yourself a gin, or something with ice, and get ready. It’s the heatwave hot-list Fresh Goods Friday 403…
Canyon Spectral:ON 8.0
- Price: £4,499
- From: Canyon
Dean hopped aboard this a while back, and now we’ve got one in the office to test. Only we’ve already been out on it for a huge day out, so you’re not getting any closeups because then you’d be able to see the dirt. 150mm rear travel, 160mm fork, 29er front wheel and 27.5+ rear wheel…nope, this is not just a Spectral with a battery strapped to it.
Maxxis Rekon Race EXO
- Price: £tbc/ $64
- From: Maxxis
Hot new fast rubber from Maxxis, Hannah got her first peek at this last week in Idaho and we’ve brought one home for some UK testing. Designed to be fast rolling but to tackle today’s aggressive XC races, Nino Schurter has already won a race on a prototype.
Schwalbe Racing Ray
- Price: €57,90
- From: Shwalbe
Designed to be the front mate to the rear Racing Ralph, this 29×2.25 is another new tyre designed for modern cross country circuits. The Racing Ray is made to have good steering qualities, while the Ralph focuses on traction and and speed.
Ladies Folding Pocket Secateurs
- Price: £12.99
- From: Apples to Pears
Identical to the unisex folding secateurs, except they’re green, these are arguably a more practical colour for out on the trail, as they’ll be easier to find if you drop them in the grass. Ideal for snipping at errant tendrils crossing your path, as well as secateurs there’s also a garden knife and mini saw held within.
Trek/SIGG waterbottle
- Price: nfs
- From: Wil’s travels
On his travels, Wil has picked up this bottle – great for collecting water from cool mountain springs, perhaps?
Gerber E-Tool Folding Spade
- Price: £107.99
- From: Gerber
What’s that? It’s a spade! A folding spade ideal for clearing blocked drains on trails perhaps? Maybe not a carry in you pack on every ride, but if you know there’s something out on the trail that needs some attention, this could be the tool.
Fabric 50to01 Mushroom Grips
- Price: £16.99
- From: CSG
Mushroom grips with a semi ergo shape. Soft, long, and durable, like…er…moving on. Ther’e 135mm long, 31mm diameter, and red, blue and green colours are coming soon. With input from Ratboy and Loosedog, you’d better have a cool nickname if you’re going to ride these.
Lizard Skins Charger Evo Grips
- Price: £
- From:
Apparently the most complex grips ever created by Lizard Skins, these have dual patterned textures to provide both shock absorption and control.
Saxx Performance Underwear
- Price: £29
- From: HKT Products
These were in Hannah’s Crank Tank bag of goodies, though she’s not sure she’ll be getting best use of these, with their Ballpark Pouch and semi compression. They only make pants for men.
Sock Guy BC Bike Race Edition Socks
- Price: £nfs
- From: BC Bike Race
This popular sell out race is about to set off. We’ve got some socks to mark the occasion, since we can’t be there to ride it. A fair trade…?
Welterweight Inner Tubes
- Price: £7.00
- From: Maxxis
Wait, is that…a tube? Yes! For when tubeless goes wrong, or you’re just old school. These are especially for aggressive riders who want durability from their rubber.
Moots Goodies
- Price: $22 (mug), $7 (patch),
- From: Moots
Moots, makers of titanium bikes in the USA, were at Crank Tank and while we didn’t get to bring home one of their bikes, we do get these – including a titanium bottle opener!
Swiftwick Flite XT and Vision Five Socks
- Price: $23.99 (Flite XT, black), $19.99 (Vision, colours)
- From: Swiftwick
Made in the USA with yarns sourced in the USA wherever possible, SwiftWick socks set out to bring fabric technology to the sock market. The Flite XT range features a ball and heel with woven with a GripDry Fibre sections, which have greater texture than the rest of the sock. This gives additional grip in these areas, and it was this that led cyclists to say that they were finding the Flite XT range – originally designed for Cross-Fitters – (shown in black, above) very comfortable.
Swiftwick Vision Seven Socks
- Price: $21.99
- From: Swiftwick
The brightly coloured vision range is designed to be fun – there are plenty of different colours and lengths to choose from.
Swiftwick Travel+ Compression and Pursuit Business Eight Tall Socks
- Price: $24.99 (compression), 19.99 (business)
- From: Swiftwick
Apparently (according to the maker of these socks) 85% of people that die of Deep Vein Thrombosis are athletes. Erk. These might come in handy then. Or maybe we should just eat more pies.
Beyond Coastal Active Sunscreen and Lip Balm
- Price: $5.99 (sunscreen), $2.99 (lip balm)
- From: Beyond Coastal
SPF 15 lip balm, plus sunscreen that is water resistant for up to 80 minutes, and it rubs in rather than being greasy, so you don’t end up with sticky bike kit.
Sawtooth Brewery Crank Tank Ale
- Price: nfs
- From: Sawtooth
Every press camp should have a beer sponsor (not that there was much time for beer drinking, there was lots of work being done!). This was a local brewery making a range of nice beers. Step aside bad American beer, the future is here.
Rudy Project Tralyx Glasses
- Price: £179.99
- From: Rudy Project
Designed to provide good ventilation and a snug fit thanks to the flexible nose and temples, these are photochromic glasses from this Italian company. You can get additional lenses to suit different conditions should you so choose, but these photochromic ones should be perfect for most UK days.
Rudy Project Sintryx Glasses
- Price: £117.99
- From: Rudy Project
We’ve reviewed these before with a whole bunch of different lenses – because they’re designed to be easily swapped round. Hannah came back from Crank Tank with these, and they match the helmet below – which is important, obviously.
Rudy Project Protera Helmet
- Price: £135.99
- From: Rudy Project
This helmet comes with plenty of padding to keep you comfortable and to wick sweat away from you, there’s a quick change straps system for if you get your straps really manky and want to clean them up, and there’s a mesh liner for keeping the bugs out. There are loads of vents for keeping your head cool and refreshed too.
Orbea T-shirt and socks
- Price: nfs
- From: Orbea
Hannah was given this when she was testing out a new e-road bike. No, she didn’t even burst into flames! Hannah’s roadie husband was keen to nab the t-shirt, though not so keen to smile, so we cut his head off.
Wattie Ink Contender Jersey and Bib
- Price: $160 (jersey), $200 (bibs)
- From: Wattie Ink
With designs inspired by skateboard art and sleeve tattoos, there are plenty of loud colours and patterns to choose from. Originally a triathlon brands, Wattie Ink has started making more road and gravel kit, because triathletes do ride bikes too. Just in silly positions.
Dakine Descent 70l Duffle
- Price: £65
- From: Dakine
Especially branded with Crank Tank’s logo (on the other side of this picture) so that Hannah could haul all the gear back to the UK, this is a duffle bag designed with riding in mind. The end pockets can expand to hold shoes and a helmet, or you can compress them if you just want to make use of the big main section. The side pocket has a handy net so you can separate out all your little bits and pieces, like snacks, tubes, and tools.
Dakine Hot Laps Waist Bag
- Price: £55
- From: Dakine
This is the 5litre version of the Hot Laps waist bag range – this one includes a bladder, while the 2l version has space for a bottle, and the stealth option has only enough space for tools – you’ll need a bottle cage.
Squirt Tyre Sealant
- Price: £tbc
- From: SquirtLube
A brand new sealant designed to last a minimum of 10 weeks. Containing no ammonia, it will clean off easily when you come to replace your sealant, and works between 0°C and 40°C. There’s a little sachet of ceramic beads which you add to your tyre first, then put the tyre in place, add the gloop, and away you go. With the ceramic beads, you should find it seals up to a 6mm cut.
7mesh Desperado Henley
- Price: £65
- From: 7mesh
This 47% merino henley is designed to have a dry feel to it and stay warm – so there’s no Lycra in it, but there is 53% polyester. Check out the interview with 7mesh designer, Ian, to see how much thought goes into a 7mesh item.
7mesh Glidepath Shorts
- Price: £99
- From: 7mesh
With a bit of 2-way stretch and a nice long inseam, these are lightweight but durable shorts that are ideal for riding in a whole range of conditions. They’re also available in a ‘jade’ blue/green colour, which we guess would match the top above rather well.
Redd Energy Bars
- Price: from $10.47
- From: Redd Bars
Suitable for vegans, these are a combined protein, energy and multi-vitamin bar. With Eurobike coming up, we might just need these to survive.
Outershell Drawcord Handlebar Bag
- Price: from $90 ($8 each for camera padding and shoulder strap, $10 for XPAC fabric outer)
- From: Outershelladventure
This little bar bag will fit flat or curly bars, and is quick and easy to take on and off. All models are made with a waterproof XPAC inner, and this has the additional XPAC outer fabric. With two side pockets, a front pocket, a inner space (possibly just about the size of 6 craft lager cans), and a zipped internal pocket for valuable, this is great for when you have things – like a camera – that you want to get to easily on a ride. If you’re going further afield, there’s a harness available so you can add a sleeping bag, and we’ve got the camera insert so that it can be used for carrying a proper camera on the trail. For more details check out Hannah’s FGF live from last week.
We’ve a busy weekend and few days ahead of us: it’s Eurobike. So stay tuned for lots of hot new products, weird and wonderful things, and probably a few pictures of pretzels. To see things as we see them, make sure you follow our Instagram stories in the Instagram app, and fuller write ups will be on the website just as soon as we can sit down and type them.
Party-party at the Eurobikes! (Let’s hope there’s not too much of this going on, migraine ahoy!)
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an almost identical version of that shovel is £13.99 (without the Gerber name) on an army surplus store, cheap enough to buy one for all your riding buddies…
An E-Tool? But it’s a manual spade! I’d like to see an electric spade…
So, is adding an ‘E’ the new version of: “make a product current / cool by putting an ‘i’ (lower case obvs) at the start” that seemed to happen to everything about 10 years ago??
I disagree with the suggestion that 85% of those who die of deep venous thrombosis are athletes. First, DVT itself is not fatal, it is the pulmonary thromboembolism that may follow which is.
In a career spanning 35 years, and more than 4,000 post mortem examinations, I saw several hundreds of deaths following pulmonary thromboembolism and deep venous thrombosis. Happily hospitals in recent years have become much better at prevention.
Not one such death was in an athlete, unless the term be extended to indicate persons with heart failure, stroke, cancer, major surgery, or major fractures. A few cases followed prolonged immobilisation, eg in aircraft, trains, and even cars, but generally they had other causes too.
If the manufacturers of the compression socks have provided information about the research on which their claim is based I would love to see it.
I suppose athletes who have artificially elevated their haematocrit by taking EPO would be at increased risk, but surely that isn’t many of us.
lovin the techno
^^Nothing quite like experience and facts to counter marketing! Fair play!
^Indeed, but I was quite keen on the more pies suggestion.
Never mind fatoldman’s brilliant take-down of Swiftwick’s BS, am I the only one troubled by the concept of “Performance underwear”?
If that label’s not enough to trigger insecurity in your average STW big-hitter, what’s with the whole “Kinetic – Long Leg – 8″”?
There’s nothing wrong with (slightly below) average. No-one likes a show off, and M&S briefs are very durable.
… or have I said too much?