Welcome to the end of the standard working week! This serving of Fresh Goods is an extra chunky, full fat, deep fried, battered sausage of chattel-calories. There’s enough here to feed the five thousand – well, as least kit out their bikes and wardrobes to bursting point.
Now we’ve whet your appetite, here are some socks. Not just any socks, oh no, these are Inov8 Racesoc 16 socks. Inov8 make lots of trail running kit and these socks use lightweight Coolmax fabric, having thick soles for a bit of damping and thin uppers so your feet can breathe. Inov8 say they’re ideal for summer riding – they’d probably stay in our sock drawer for the next six months but these are going off to our friend Shaggy John of Iditabike fame. He’s made of much, much sterner stuff than us and cares little for insulation in the relatively balmy winter of the UK.
Price: £10 for a twin pack
From: Inov8
Okay, enough socks for now. We’re having a grouptest of 140mm travel trail bikes in Issue 63 to that end we have the Specialized Stumpjumper FSR Comp Carbon. Yes, if you’ve been paying attention you’ll know this is the second one we’ve had, as the horrible little rapscallions that broke into Matt’s house made off with the first. We’ve already ridden it in Sicily and we liked it a lot. The carbon fibre front triangle uses a tapered headset and press fit BB, with a set of Rock Shox Revelation Dual Air forks up front. The alloy back end uses a Horst four bar linkage as ever, with a special Fox/Specialized rear shock unit is integrated into the suspension linkage. There’s an X.7 2×10 drivetrain, Elixir brakes and own brand Specialized tyres and control bits finish it off. After building it up, we put it on the scales – 26lbs from the box, not bad…
Price: £2,549.99
From: Specialized UK
It’s rather pretty in red with bit of exposed carbon weave too…
SRAM X.7 – 10spd for the masses?
That shock has three position platform damping too…
Just the right amount of swoopyness we reckon…
Switching back to the soft gear, here’s the Inov8 Race Pro 18 pack. Designed for the fast’n’lightweight crowd of running, walking and cycling, it’s lightweight (470g) but offers 18 litres of storage. In addition to that internal space, there’s an extra large mesh pocket for storing jackets other stuff you need to get at quickly. The 2L H2Orizontal bladder inserts around the hips, keeping weight nice and low.
Price: £55 for pack, £18 for bladder.
From: Inov8
The bladder uses the neat Source flip and clip system and is segmented to stop the water sloshing about on the move…
Rickshaw Bags Pipsqueak
So, here’s a cute little bag from Rickshaw Designs. It’s one of those things that you didn’t know you needed until you got on. It clips over your bars and holds all sorts of useful things, like your keys, mobile and wallet. It’s easy then to unclip it and wander round the market buying your provisions. *Christmas hint for the boys here* The cycling ladies seem to love them */Christmas Hint*
Price: £22
From: www.minx-girl.com
Look how the Marin Mount Vision has grown! From cross country race winning roots under Paul Lasenby back in the day, the latest middle of the range XM8 version has 140mm of travel as well as being longer, lower and slacker than ever before. It’s more ‘all mountain’ and less ‘XC’ than ever. Also in for Issue 63’s test, the Marin sports a heavily hydroformed frame and swingarm with tapered headtube up front and modular dropouts at the back for a full choice of rear axle standards. The redesigned Quad Link 2.0 rear suspension has a new, thinner upper link for better clearance and is matched to a set of 15QR Fox Float RL forks up front. It’s also running SRAM x.7 2x10spd, but has Formula brakes and Mavic Crossride wheels. We’re looking forward to getting out on it…
Price: £2,499.99
From: ATB Sales
Chunky hydroformed downtube and tapered headtube show the more aggressive intentions of the modern Mount Vision. That head angle is 67.5 degrees too…
The upper Y shaped yoke now joins to the top of the swingarm in a much neater and stiffer fashion…
Future proof dropouts…
The length and angles look bang on…
Scouring pads! They’re versatile! They’re tough on stubborn stain! They’re in a value pack! Ideal for cleaning thick coffee stains from office mugs! Maybe we should regulate that caffeine intake a bit more…
The lovely people at Morvelo have sent us a bumper pack of T shirts, stickers and badges to bring a smile to our faces and style to our bodies. There are lots of new designs that non-cyclists won’t think you’re weird for wearing…
From: Morvelo
Bella in Sella
£20
RPM
£20
Night Ride – it’s glow in the dark! GLOW IN THE DARK! Woo!
£20
Power To The Pedals
£20 – This tee also comes in a gift pack from Morvelo with coffee tee, the Maggy’s coffee (below) and a neat Morvelo musette for £28.
Kick Back hoodie – it’s a slim fit so should fit cycling types nicely..
£40
We’ve also been sent this Magnus Maximus Coffee, which is always useful at deadline time. It’s a mix of Java and Mocha beans, blended in Jersey by Cooper & Co. and is full of delicious caffeine. It’s named after Paris Roubaix winning road cyclist Magnus “Big Maggy” Backstedt too…
Price: £5.99 for 227g
From: Big Maggy’s
Shortly after this picture was taken we found Sim in the toilet, sniffing lines of ground up coffee to keep him ‘focused’. He got through half the bag before we could stop him and when someone mentioned ‘knocking up’ a design he started to shout obscenities and threats before sobbing uncontrollably. We had to force feed him Ovaltine to bring him back down. Deadlines can be stressful on a designer. Chipps is feeling the pressure too. We found him in this outfit, pretending to be a wood elf.
Here we have Sim in happier times, swinging from this new Pendle Hang Up Bike Holder. It’s a redesign of their popular wall mounted range of racks, available in three different lengths to suit every garage. The long version, pictured here, has a steel loop that allows the bike to be held in place with a strap or lock to prevent excess movement or theft. Along with the mid length version it also has a tyre guide to keep the bike in place. Made from laser cut steel, they’re easy to assemble and the hook is rubber coated to prevent damage. If you have wobbly walls or limited space then the shortest version just holds the bike by the front wheel. They may go some way to making your bike collection look organised…
Price: Short £17.83, Mid £25.72, Long £32.20
From: Pendle Bike
Yes, all our walls are carpeted. Honest.
The 11spd Shimano Alfine SG-S700 internal gear hub is here at last! It’s got more ratios, improved sealing, quieter, smoother engagement and Shimano say it’s much more efficient than the old model too. Disc compatibility and the lack of exposed parts mean it could make for an excellent winterproof off-road setup or as a welcome aid to anyone that’s finding their singlespeed frame hurts too much nowadays…
Price: £429.99
From: Madison
We’ve saved the shiniest ’til last. Our very own 2011 Shimano XTR groupset has arrived! Although we first saw it back in June when Chipps took a thorough look at it HERE, and we’ve ridden it on the Scott Scale tested in the next issue of the mag (Issue 62, out soon…) this is our very own set of the Shimano’s finest. Who won the office knife fight to put it on their bike? You have to wait and see in our Long Termers section won’t you?
Here are the XTR M985 Race Front Wheels. We’ve got a 15QR and a normal QR version for the front. Tubeless Scandium rims, 24 direct pull butted spokes per wheel and angular contact bearings mean they should be light and strong enough to abuse, despite being a top level XC race wheelset.
Price: £399.99
From: Madison
Those hubs close up. They’re all Centrelock to keep weight low…
The XTR M985 Rear Mountain Bike Disc Wheel has a 135mm spacing and QR fixture, again with 24 spokes and a new, quick engagement, titanium freehub body…
Price: £499.99
From: Madison
The rim bed up close. They have a 19mm internal diameter and can be run with up to 2.35″ tyres…
The XTR M985 chainset is just lovely. They’ve moved back to a more normal pinch bolt fixing over the old XTR’s confusing preload setup and it’s got a bit lighter too. We’ve opted for a double setup, although a triple is still available if you like a plethora of ratios…
Price: £439.99
From: Madison
Although we’ve gone for the light Race wheels we like to be able to stop quickly, so we’ve got the XTR M988 Trail brakes. There’s tool free reach adjust and adjustable pad contact, hinged clamps to easy fitting and the callipers sport the special heat sink pads for better performance under heavy braking. They also come fully bled, which is always nice.
Price: £199.99 per end
From: Madison
Here’s the new XTR M980 rear derailleur. It uses the Shadow design and has a revised leverage ratio for smoother shifting at the top of the range. The cage is half carbon fibre too…
Price: £149.99 per end
From: Madison
And here’s the front XTR M981 derailleur..
Price: £69.99 (not £439 as we’d originally put!)
From: Madison
You can’t shift without shifters, so here are the M980 XTR shifters.
Price: £169.99
From: Madison
Here’s the M980 10spd cassette. Three alloy carriers, five titanium sprockets and a nickel plated coating to stop it going rusty. You need to sing that in the styles of ‘the 12 Days of Christmas’. You can them in 11-34 or 11-36T spreads
Price: £199.99
From: Madison
Comments (31)
Comments Closed
That’s an expensive derailleur.
HOW MUCH for the XTR front mech!!!!
very shiney though!
A small typo there on the front mech. It’s actually a ‘mere’ £69. 🙂
Over 2 grand for a groupset. Insane !
xtr gear looks amazing, the dropouts on the marin look a smart idea.
Mmmmmm, XTR.
I can but lust from afar.
Love the Morvelo T’s
Those XTR hubs look dull as dishwater! They used to be so shiny-nice.
That will probably tempt me back to the XTR fold…
200 quid for a cassette??
When Paul Lazenby won the National title (when was that, ’99?), he was riding a Mt Vision equipped with 2×9 gearing – it’s taken all this time to add an extra sprocket.
And we talk about the speed of product development!
“You can shift without shifters”
But its alot easier with them 😉
I’m impressed by that Spesh … A 26lb, 140mm travel, carbon main framed mtb with the potential to be a one-bike-for-everything for £2.5k is pretty damn good imo.
“with bit of exposed carbon weave too…”
That’ll just be the paint layer, the lacquer is below that and then the carbon (if my ’07 one is anything to go by)
After your last review of a mount vision (2007?) and subsequent lack of marins in the mag since, I was thinking you’d never get one again
I love fresh goods friday, not for the fresh goods but because of all the typo’s. im glad you spend friday rushing to get finished early, just like me!
off home in a mo, bye!
Looking forward to hearing your thoughts on the Alfine 11. What bike you going to put it on?
I do like the look of that Spesh, although I’m really impressed with the new Mount Vision.
Where have Marin been this past couple of years? They seemed to be on a roll in 2008/9 and then disappeared off the hype radar for a while.
future proof dropouts on the Marin, my arse! I’ve been chasing Marin UK for a set of maxle dropouts for my mount vision 5.8 for two years now. Complete Vaporware!
Very tempted to get one of those Spesh’s to replace all 3 of my current FS bikes. At 26lbs (if that’s a weight with pedals) it’s only a pound or so heavier than my Epic and a couple of pounds lighter than my Enduro.
‘pretending’ to be a wood elf..
Nice moobage in the first pipsqueak pic.
more than double the price of the 8-spd Alfine?
nearly as much as XTR!
The dropouts on the Marin work just fine until you break the mech hanger part of it off with clumsy riding. Then there is very little left to tighten the QR up against. That makes for a very cautious ride home waiting for the rear wheel to part company with the rest of the bike!
if you want to send the alfine to me i can test it back to back against the old one on my whyte preston,,
That spesh looks great.
God I’m happy I ride Singlespeed……
That Specialized is going to sell like hotcakes imo. Great price for all that really especially these days.
XTR? Pffft…..
Hmm, my 99 mount vision now has 130 revs on the front and the clinometer says 67 degrees. Have we actually come very far ?
while the front mech price may have been over, the wheelset MSRP struck me as unusually reasonable for XTR. Looking at Madison and CRC, it is only for the rear wheel, I think
liking those brakes though….
mmmmmmmmm i like XTR and that Specialized. Hubbahubba.
They have put the front and rear wheel description and prices individually in the write up. Front = 399.99 Rear = 499.99