We’ll start this week’s Fresh Goods off with Benji’s new Long Termer, a Pivot Mach 4. He’s going to build it up with various bits over the next few months but the aim is to keep the bike nice and light, with 120mm forks up front to compliment the 100mm of DW Link travel out of the back. The bike has all the modern standards we’ve come to expect, with a press fit 92mm BB and a tapered headtube. The upper DW link is made from magic carbon fibre and the whole frame has dropped almost 300g over last year’s model.
From: Upgrade Bikes
Price: £1,599
Pretty blue anodised finish…
Tapered internal headset…
Extra wide BB shell..
Keep your eyes peeled on the Long Termers section of the site to see how Ben’s build goes…
Benji has also got these Geax Saguaro tyres in. Although their fast rolling tread design means they might be out of their depth in heavy winter slop, decent sized square side knobs mean they should hook up nicely an slide predictably when cornering. Hopefully they’ll be an excellent dry weather or wet trail centre choice. Thanks to the TNT sidewalls on these models you can run them tubeless with sealant without all the bulk of a proper UST carcass.
Price: £32.99
From: Upgrade Bikes
Ben’s also starting a round up of dinky but powerful helmet mounted lights for a grouptest in the magazine. This is the Lupine Piko 3, which offers 550 lumens from the tiny 55g CNC machined, twin LED light unit. Batteries are Li-Ion and will get you 2.5 hours of run time at full power with a three hour charge time. Night riding season has started…
Price: £275
From: Zyro
Sim has treated himself to a new frame! Despite knowing that oranges are not the only fruit, but he’s gone for a 2011 Orange Five, as modelled here by Dave Flynn. Sim has gone for a raw finish and it looks rather nice. Will he go for a lightweight trail build or will he take advantage of the tapered headtube, 160mm fork compatibility and ISCG05 guide mount to made a nu-skool enduro shredder?
Price: £1,399
From: Orange Bikes
Matt got himself a GoPro Helmet Hero 1080p just before he headed on his Trans Provence epic to record all his sweating, hike a biking and trail pinning. This is the latest model from GoPro and, as the name suggests, it does full HD 1080p recording to a SD card. You can also shoot at lower quality and get up to 60fps if you want to get some sweet slow motion footage. You also get a weatherproof housing and nicely wide angle lense to capture thrills, spills or, if you get the mounting angle wrong, a few hours footage of clouds, sky and the odd branch going past. It’ll all be in excellent clarity though…
Price: £299.94 (inc 4GB SD card)
From: Action Cameras
What are the odds of doing over 100mph on your mountain bike though?
Don’t worry! It’s not part of a malnourished circus troupe, it’s just Jon, who’s had a haircut and is here modelling some Onda XC Bib Shorts. We spotted this Portugese brand at the Cycle Show and liked what we saw, so Jonathan from Onda popped in yesterday to give us a load of their kit for test. They’ve only been in the country for a couple of weeks so they aren’t in shops just yet, but they should be soon. These XC bibs are made from a nice feeling pre-shaped Polyamide/Elastane mix with flatlock seams and Eschler Pro 3D padding. We think the contour line detail on the legs is a particularly nice touch.
Price: £49.95
From: Onda
If you’re less keen on subjecting passersby to the sight of your lycra covered outline then Onda have these nicely understated MTB Shorts. These ones have a demountable pop fastener lycra liner in them. The waist is elasticated, they’re made from a lightweight polyester outer with cordura reinforcement on the inner leg and the side pockets use bonded zippers. A cheaper version of the shorts with a non-removable liner is also available.
Price: £74.95 with removable liner, £54.95 with fixed liner
From: Onda
Did we mention the mesh venting on the legs?
In a more freeride style are the Onda Technical Shorts which are made from tough Cordura with mesh venting on the front. We like the mixed chequer design too, we reckon it’s stylish without being too garish…
Price: £79.95
From: Onda
Jon has got the microfibre Short Sleeved XC Jersey on here, which again has the contour detail down the left hand side. You get three back pockets plus a zipped key/change pocket, a half length zip on the front and the cut seems to be a nice cross between XC racer tight and DH baggy.
Price: £49.95 for short sleeved, £54.95 for long sleeved
From: Onda 
Here’s Sim with the long sleeved version in a tan colour. It’s got all the same features but with the added advantage of a bit of extra coverage to keep sun/wind/biting cold away. The arms also have mesh venting by the elbows.
Contour details above, gangster lean below..
Onda also do these baggy FR Jerseys, again with long or short sleeved versions available. There are mesh inserts on the back of the neck and sides and they also have flatlocked seams to stop them chafing. Onda design sports kit for a number of big manufacturers, including Adidas, so they’re pretty good with technical clothing.
Price: £49.95 for short sleeved, £54.95 for long sleeved
From: Onda
Looking mean in green.
To match the Technical Shorts we’ve also got this DH Jersey with the same pattern on. There are plenty of mesh vents and it’s cut baggy to hide any body armour you might be wearing underneath.
Price: £54.95
From: Onda
Finally in our Onda bag of goodies were these MTB Gloves. There’s a bit of gel padding in the leather palm, the cordura backing has neatly made ventilation slits that articulate nicely and there’s a piece of thin rubber across the high wear area where the fingers join the palm.
Price: £19.99
From: Onda
While he was at the Cycle Show, Chipps picked up some new Endura Mullet sunglasses (or darkers if you’re Matt) with a mulletless Jon modelling. These feature a two piece lense and sculpted TR90 frame with rubberised arms and nose pieces but have a new light reactive photo chromic lense coating to reactively change from light to dark in sunshine. We look forward to having enough sunshine to test them…
Price: £44.99
From: Endura
We’ve had a massive drop of new Giro gloves for us to test. You might be able to notice the final proofs for Issue 61 underneath the gloves as well. Starting in no particular order we have the women’s fit Giro Loma gloves in a white/rhone/charcoal finish with clarino palm and pull on fastening.
Price: £29.99
From: Madison
These are the new Giro Xen gloves with a 2mm technogel padding on the palm, stretchy backing and knuckle flex zones for a comfortable fit.
Price: £34.99
From: Madison
These are the Giro Rivets, a super stripped down lightweight glove for distance riding, with a nice thin clarino palm and breathable backing. There’s an extra big snot/sweat wipe too and the fit is nice and tight…
Price: £29.99
From: Madison
These bright badboys are the DJ gloves – not, not for spinning deep house record, these are for dirt jumping with a 3mm EVA crash pad in the palm for floor slapping antics and knuckle flex zones so you can pull all the shapes you want. They’re also available in some more understated designs if you don’t fancy this pattern…
Price: £34.99
From: Madison
Equally eye catching, these are the Remedy gloves have a Pittards leather palm for maximum feel and strength and also have magic d3o material in them to protect your hands during the rough and tumble of all-mountaineering or riding free. The rubber armour on the outside also offers extra protection but you still get a nice bit wipey bit on the thumb for the uphill bits.
Price: £39.99
From: Madison
The women’s fit Xena gloves have been out for a bit, but they’re still an excellent choice for anyone, male or female, with small hands, using a 2mm gel padding and moisture wicking upper.
Price: £34.99
From: Madison
Another super small light! This is the Light and Motion Stella 300 which gives a 300 lumen output but claims to be twice as bright as comparable LED systems thanks to the single focused beam. The Li-Ion battery weighs a measly 18g but there’s a claimed run time of five hours on the brightest setting. It really is tiny too – the pencil is there for scale…
Price: £224.99
From: Madison
While at the Cycle Show, Matt Hart from Torq Fitness gave a box of the brand new Torq Rhubarb and Custard flavoured energy gels. They’re packed with 2:1 Maltodextrin/Fructose syrup to help power your muscles and give you the comforting taste of pudding during your most bonky moments. Sadly work-ex boy Dom John wasn’t around to squirt one into so someone else will have to take a shot for the team.
Price: £28 for a box of 20 gels
From: Torq Fitness
Just in time for winter, we’ve got these fast rolling Continental X-King tyres. Although they’re not overly spiky, they use Conti’s special Black Chili rubber, so they should be able to eke out grip even in the slop and slime. Apparently these are Dan Atherton’s choice for 4x racing too, so they should have an excellent balance of speed and grip.
Price: TBC
From: Cambrian Tyres
Comments (28)
Comments Closed
I like the sag guide on the pivot’s shock. Where is that from?
Seriously, lycra on blokes, it’s just wrong
Baggy shorts are wrong!
That sag guide comes with the bike. Trek supplies one with its bikes too.
seriously, these pics of blokes in cycling clobber are stopping me from looking at this at work
Wow, that’s some seriously scary wallpaper leaning up against the wall
My eyes have taken a battering on this one!
First it was the camera-confusing Pivot blue on a whole host of direction-less tubes.
Then it was Geax packaging.
I managed just about to cope with the Orange 5.
I had to look away until all the mesh and flesh pics finished, only to be hit in the face with a cyan/yellow giro glove!
Men in BiBs so WRONG
I won a pair of them Endura Mullet from you guys at the cycle show, (thanks for the Roulette spin)I like them but my wife says i look like an American in them….. Whatever that means!
used Geax Saguaro for two years – great tyres
Not trying to be controversial but do you get sent all these goods as freebies to review….. as don’t seem to see that many of these Friday Fresh Goodies are reviewed in the mag
What’s the ex saturday boy from Sow Bros doing at stw towers?
Dave? Working for Orange.
I’ll try and get some words up (in the Reviews section) about my building/riding intentions for the Pivot Mach 4 early next week.
Currently thinking of 100mm/100mm and QR fork to begin with and then probably try 120mm QR15 fork.
Unsure what to do about drivetrain at the mo. Would quite like a not-too-bling 2×10 Sram setup. Then again, the new “All mountainy” XTR stuff looks great. Hmm.
The frame is a most excellent blue colour anyway 🙂
Really interested in the Mach 4, could be a nice alternative to the Turner Flux that I’m toying with. I know it says price TBC, but what ball park figures are we talking about?
Frankers: We squeeze as much as we can in the magazine with Grinders and try to put as much of the overflow online as possible, with web reviews, web Long Termers and so on. A very good proportion of things that get sent here do get written about, honest.
A lot of kit that comes through the door is destined for bike builds or is needed to make other things work (drivetrains, saddles, bars etc) so the totality of kit we get through (and comes up in Fresh Goods) reduces down to a smaller number of printed words, plus lots of the clothing that comes in is for use in photoshoots and so on. Some things are personal stuff for us that (shock, horror) we’ve paid money for.
We do try to review everything we get in, but sometimes it’s just not possible – we don’t have the space or time.
But yeah, basically we’re spoilt rotten with the amount of kit we get 😉
Sam – now been updated with a price – £1,599
So jealous of that five! Keep saving up… 🙂
Giro gloves: Recently bought a pair of them. They’re the first glove I’ve found in 16 years of riding that actually fit my enormous hands properly (XXL size).
Shudder, I feel my eyes have been violated by those clothing shots.
Ta. Looking forward to a ride review.
raw finish on the five?
how did you get that – it is not a standard option?
“but he’s gone for a 2011 Orange Five”
Another one? I thougt somebod had one (2009 = slacker 67deg HA right?) as a long termer not long ago?
I strongly dislike those colour schemes and even more strongly those fugly Pivot frames. The 5 looks ok though.
Good to hear what’s going on but the English in these updates is piss poor:
Sim has treated himself to a new frame! Despite knowing that oranges are not the only fruit, but he’s gone for a 2011 Orange Five, as modelled here by Dave Flynn.
…to made a nu-skool enduro shredder?
OK rant over… that Five looks nice!
“seriously, these pics of blokes in cycling clobber are stopping me from looking at this at work”
It does look abit specialist pron doesn’t it?
That Pivot has stunning paint/finish but boy is it fugly!
Some words about Project Pivot: http://www.singletrackworld.com/reviews/long-termers-benji%E2%80%99s-pivot-mach-4/
Geax Saguaro are a real good dry tyre front and rear, trail centre stuff wet or dry, real good tyre for all but the real trails in winter