The first Fresh Goods of 2011 has landed, which means that shortly we’ll see products from 2012 landing on the doormat, like some sort of freaky timewarp. Our first fresh product to be featured is a rather special one, as it’s here to be used as a photoshoot for Singletrack’s 10th anniversary issue, number 64.
Fittingly to celebrate that anniversary, it’s the Kinesis Decade Virsa Prestige. Double butted Tange Prestige cromo tubing on a frame than can be run geared or singlespeed with the SwopOut dropout system, capable of running 100 to 130mm of travel up front, depending on whether you see yourself doing all day epics or just ragging about in the woods. The bling is as high as you’d expect with, carbon fibre Reynolds clincher rims, sparkly white Marzocchi Corsa SL forks and a SRAM 2×10 groupset.
Price: £349.99 frame only
From: Upgrade
Prestige: prestigious, a bit like us. Aww.
A full decade of the mag? Who’d have thunk. This year also marks Chipps’ 20th year in the bike industry. Pretty good for a passing fad of a sport…
We’re not just going to have one bike in the covershoot, oh no. We’ve also got this lovely baby blue Cotic BFe. There’s some sort of steel hardtail theme going on here which is nice, as we like to think the magazine was ahead of the curve realising the potential of burly, long forked hardtails for technical play riding. We would like to think that though. The BFe, like the name suggests, it a burly ferrous hardtail, using a mix of Reynold 853 and the magic, air hardening Reynolds 631 tubing in a compact frame that can take up to 160mm forks on the front. We’ve kept it a bit more relaxed than that with 150mm travel Fox 32 forks.
Price: £375 inc. delivery for frame, seat collar QR and neoprene chainstay protector
From: Cotic
The BFe shares the same geometry as the original and popular Cotic Soul but adds ISCG05 chainguide mounts for the pinners and senders…
Matt’s replacement Lapierre Spicy 516 has landed! As you can see, it’s currently mid-fettle, with new Avid Code brakes and a RS Reverb uppy downy post set to go on. Matt’s very eager to get back out on the 160mm travel machine and do his best Nico Vouilloz on full chat impression. Syntace bolt through rear end, ISCG05 mounts and e13 dual ring chaindevice, tapered Fox 36 forks and long, low and slack angles make it an all mountain cracker.
Price: £3,299.99
From: Hotlines UK
Talking of Lapierre, this is our recovered Lapierre X-Control 410, covered in fingerprinting dust. In your face, thieving scummers…
Price: £2,499.99 (2011 model)
From: Hotlines UK
Wrexham based brake pad specialists Fibrax have sent us a batch of their new anodised cage bolts, frame protectors and organic long life disk pads. Fibrax reckon that, as well as being very good value, these are the best performing pads out there and they have graphs to prove it. We look forward to giving them a go. The frame protectors are designed to slip over you cables in high wear areas and the anodised bolts are perfect for the colour matching perfectionists out there, in blue, green, red, black and gold.
Price: £11.99 for pads, £5.10 for four frame protectors and £4.08 for two bolts.
From: Fibrax
Ahh, the lovely ladies of cycling in clothing that borders on bondage gear. It can only be the CyclePassion Calendar 2011. Here’s Miss January, Trek’s Willow Koerber. The calendar also features Hanka Kupfernagel, Heather Irmiger, Julie Krasniak, Liz Hatch, Veronica Andreasson, Mona Eiberweiser and Fabienne Heinzmann. Are those shoes SPDs though? We’re thinking of doing a similarly dressed ‘Boys of Singletrack’ version of it for 2012, which we expect to sell literally none of.
Price: £29.99
From: Cyclepassion
Tom dB is modelling the Scott Schizite cap, a classic FlexFit baseball cap. Contrary to what some people think, the dB after his name doesn’t stand for database as it’s actually the other Tom that deals with all that.
Price: £TBC
From: Scott Bicycles
Manly Sim is modelling the Osprey Escapist 25 pack which, with a 21L capacity, is ideal for all day bike adventures and lightweight bivvying trips. It uses all the cunning features that we’ve liked so much in previous Osprey packs, such as the Airspace ventilated back and BioStretch harness. There’s a neat helmet holder, quality zips that are dead easy to use with gloves on and the zipped hip pockets are perfect for storing a multitools or tasty snacks. Don’t mix them up though.
Price: £69.99
From: Osprey Europe
This is the Aquapac Waterproof SLR case. It’s designed for shooting in the ocean so it’ll probably cope with the torrential rain and howling gales that we do most of our photoshoots in. There’s a special hard lense to shoot through and the soft UV stabilised TPU material should let you tweak your ISO, aperture and all the rest of it without turning a few hundred (or thousand) quid into so much broken junk. The case is guaranteed waterproof down to 15M, it floats and there’s a neckstrap to keep it attached to you.
Price: £80
From: Aquapac
Feeding our rubber addiction is a full time occupation, so it’s nice when fresh rubber turns up. This is the Halo Choir Master tyre. It’s the same tread as the Choir Boy but now in a 26″ version and 2.35″ width. They’re folding with a lightweight carcass and nicely square edged tread pattern.
Price: £22.99
From: Ison Distribution
Keen are best known for their durable, comfy and long lasting outdoor sports footwear but they’ve moved further into the biking world with these, the Keen Springwater clipless shoes. They’re the first closed toe cycling shoe that they’ve made and they use a PU coated leather outer with a rubber sole and a ‘metatomical’ footbed to give excellent arch support as well as comfort. The treaded sole should give traction in the mud as well as on hike a bike sections and the wraparound toe cap will hopefully stop toes from being battered by rocks.
Price: £99.99
From: Keen
Comments (24)
Comments Closed
Not much featured this week. Were you expecting extra stuff through in the post? 🙂
Anyway….£3300 for a bike? You could get a car for that etc etc.
Kinesis Decade Virsa Prestige – £349.99 & its got carbon rims – that’s what I call WFM – where can I get one?
what a stripefest in that picture at the botttom there
Like the look of the keen shoes- and i’m loving the Kinesis, where can i get one?
Whats the frame weight?
Lovin the bikes, but you can keep those shoes. Keen Shoes or Kin awful?
I’m not….keen
Been running the Choir Masters for a while now, albeit in their “Lite” version. They’re cheap and light and, erm, grip (give me a job as a reviewer!)
Didn’t know Fibrax were based down the road from me!!
Those frame protectors look like a good idea too…
*waits for ‘Boys of Singletrack’ calender*
*/and do his best Nico Vouilloz on full chat impression/*
So not talking much then 😉
Like the look of those frame protectors – a bit like the clear fish tank tube I use at the moment but coloured.
Do they come in blue?
That Willow bird is game. Check the coast is all clear before looking at “June”.
I bought my dad the Cyclepassion calendar for his 70th birthday. My mam knocks before entering his shed now, to save him potential embarrassment.
“Osprey Escapist 25 pack which, with a 21L capacity”
CALL IT THE ESCAPIST 21 THEN YOU TWUNTS
Is it not 21 (internal) plus 4 (external) or something?
Sorry to shatter the illusion but those frame protectors are rubbish…..mostly because they still rub against the frame!! You still need a clear sticker under them to prevent cable rub.
I bought a Yeti branded frame protector tube and it wore part way through the dog bone on my ASR-SL. Thanks Yeti, nice protection.
Coloured electrical tape from Wickes is still the best frame protector imo.
They do it in red, black, white…
Would love to see how those Keen shoes look on a pair of size 12 uk feet-they are huuuggghhhee!
Is this Virsa any different to the one Benji has already had on a longterm from last year?
“it’s here to be used as a photoshoot for Singletrack’s 10th anniversary issue, number 64.”
And to answer your question, no the Virsa hasn’t changed since I reviewed it. And that’s still a particularly excellent green 🙂
That calendar will have TJ posting more pics of Beth Ditto for all us dribbling perverts on here…..
Not as fresh this week.
Funny how this pops up as ‘fresh’ when the forum is bust