Fresh Goods

It’s Friday and that means Fresh Goods! Here’s our end of week roundup of all the shiny new things that have arrived at the Singletrack lair for us to test. The influx of flat pedals hasn’t stopped yet, with Matt getting a set of the super low profile Canfield Brothers Crampon pedals in a rather nice golden finish.

Price: £135

From: Progressive Bikes

Here’s a 70mm long Salsa ProMoto stem. Made from forged and CNC machined aluminium it uses four bolts on the faceplate to keep it, as Salsa say, ‘strong like bull’. The edges of the 48mm wide bar clamp are all chamfered to make sure carbon bars won’t be damaged.

Price: £39.99

From: Ison Distribution

Here’s our very own Chipps throwing down gang signs in some new winter gloves. Yes, it is getting to that time of year. On his right hand he’s wearing a Giro Proof, a hardcore winter glove with a waterproof and breathable shell that uses an extended and adjustable cuff to keep out the horrible cold. It also has a removeable liner that will wick moisture from your sweaty palms. On his left hand he’s got a Giro Proof 100, which is an even-harder-core winter glove, think Iditabike. Albert from Madison tells us that it’s “a proper badboy weather glove” and that it’s endorsed by Canadian Mounties. We’re not sure if we believe the last part but the split finger 100g Thinsulate XT-S insulated outer is waterproof and has a silicon grip pattern to keep your lobster claws firmly on the bars. Again, there’s a removable wicking liner  and you can do as many Dr Zoidberg impressions as you want to lighten up those cold winter night rides.

Price: Proof: £49.99 // Proof 100: £59.99

From: Madison

He was broken but now he’s fixed. Web monkey and master of the internet tubes Tom dB sent his Dialled Bikes Prince Albert off to the lovely people at Orange to be painted this rather nice green colour. It cost him around two kilos of digestive biscuits but it was worth every single wheaty disk contained therein. He’s partially built it up in this dandyhorse setup in anticipation of his return to full strength, when he might put a chain and some pedals on it. Tom promises he’ll do the weeding soon.

Big enough to fit the torso of a grown man into (and probably the limbs as well) this is an Ogio Terminal travel bag. There’s 95L of storage space which is easily big enough for anything you might want to take on a riding holiday or in fact any other kind of holiday. It’s got rolling wheels and an extendable handle so you can trail it behind you in the airport with nary a thought for the shins or toes of your fellow travellers. It should be tough enough to survive the baggage throwers – sorry, handlers – too.

Price: £139.99

From: Madison

Benji has been sent some Sugru. No, it’s not a delicious energy potion, it’s a magical silicon putty that bonds to metals, ceramics and plastics. You can shape it in any way before it sets dry and you can use it for all sorts of stuff – well, anything that you could imagine using a sticky, shapeable, chemical and heat resistant silicon putty for. Sugru say it’s for “hacking things better”, which is a nice way of saying it’s the latest weapon in the bodger’s arsenal after zipties and duct tape. There’s a little video explaining more HERE.

Price: £6 for a pack of six 5g sachets

From: Sugru

Benji’s also embarking on a test of ‘pub friendly trail shoes’ and he’s just got these interestingly styled numbers. They’re Lake I/01 women’s shoes and they’re SPD compatible with a TeKtile synthetic leather and mesh upper with lightweight Vibram soles. They’re designed to be used for commuting, evil spinning classes as well as riding offroad.

Price: £79.99

From: Moore Large & Co

These are a set of dhb T1 shoes. Again, they’re casual looking shoes that are also SPD compatible. They’re got a decent, chunky looking sole on them with a cordura/suede mix upper with protected toe box and limited flex nylon midsole to provide a blend of comfort enhancing flex as well as pedal power transfer.

Price: £39.99

From: wiggle

More different looking Lake MX101 shoes. They’re designed to be equally happy hiking and cycling, which sounds a perfect blend for the kind of hike-a-bike epics we enjoy. The upper is a leather, synthetic TeKtile and mesh mix with a Vibram Trail V sole with replaceable SPD cover.

Price: £79.99

From: Moore Large & Co

Steve has got in these Freddy Fenders Cascadia mudguards in a 29″ wheel flavour to go on his Surly Karate Monkey commuter bike. The lovely pink colour is a limited edition finish but all of them are made from aluminium with a highly flexible polycarbonate coating. The mounting hardware is stainless steel throughout, they’re disk brake compatible and they fit tyres up to 2.25″ wide.

Price: $54.99

From: Planet Bike

Ed been sent some merino socks from a guy who came on one of his skills days. The brand is Teko, they are from Boulder, Colorado in the USA and they are even more organic and eco friendly than Hebden Bridge and Machynlleth put together. They are billed as being “Beyond Organic” as they use organic merino wool, chlorine free wool treatment, are made with wind power and packaged in recycled card printed with soy based ink! They are lovely and snuggly to wear and performance, comfort and durability are promised. In both light and mid weight and short ‘crew’ and longer ‘hiking’ lengths.

Price: £12.95 to £14.95.

From: www.anatom.co.uk or www.tekosocks.com

In for the Ibis Tranny Long Termer ‘XC’ build are these new Continental Mountain King 2.2 Race Sport tyres. This total redesign of the Mountain King was tested and reported on by Matt who went to the launch of this and other new Continental tyres. You can read what he had to say HERE.

They do look like a smaller version of the fantastic Rubber Queen tyre and promise to be fast rolling with well spaced tread and a decent shoulder for cornering grip. These tyres are Race Sport which is the ordinary rather than the Black Chilli compound. More details will be included in Ed’s Long Termer report on the Tranny when the XC build is complete.

Price: TBC

From: Cambrian Tyres

Howies Heslop jeans, From there new Autumn collection Skinny fit, five-pocket jeans. Button waistband and fly, two front hand pockets, coin pocket and two rear patch pockets. Triple needle stitched on the inside leg. Indigo (left), Black (right) | 30, 32, 34, 36, 38 (regular), 30, 32, 34, 36 (long) |99% organic cotton, 1% stretch denim | Machine wash inside out | £75.00 Well on trend! You can feel the stretch as well so high kicks like Irene Cara are no problem.

From: Howies