fresh goods friday new mountain bike kit singletrack (14)

Fresh Goods Friday

by 30

Ahh, the changing of the season. No longer is Fresh Goods full of beautiful summery things; no, here at Singletrack we’ve started to get in more kit for the ‘other’ half of the year. With mud tyres being tested in the next issue of Singletrack Magazine (Issue 69, out October 20th) it means it’s time to get testing the next thing we’ll need to survive the night riding months – yup, bike mounted portable suns…

Lupine Piko 3 Light

Lupine are well know for their bonkers high quality, high output bike lights, but this is the baby of the range. The Piko pumps out  750 Lumens from the two CREE XM-L LEDS that suck up 10W of power and give a 22° beam angle. The case is made from  shot peened CNC aluminium. There are bar and helmet mounting options and we’ve got a 5.6Ah hardcase battery with built in battery level indicator.

Price: £325

From: Zyro

Lupine Wilma 6 1500 Lumen 26°

Stepping it up a notch or eight is the Wilma, which offers three different options for power and beam spread. One gives 1,200 Lumens output and a far throwing 16° beam for high speed riding, one with 1,300 Lumens and a 22° beam spread and then there’s this, the 1,500 Lumen model which gives a wide 26° beam to light up the biggest area possible. Even on full power you’ll get a reported two and a half hours of runtime from the 5.6Ah battery pack and it claims to take just two hours and forty fives minutes to charge up in the first place…

Price: £475

From: Zyro

Lumicycle LED3 XPG ATL Elite 26 Light

The Lumicycle The LED3 XPG blasts out 1,340 Lumens (400 Lux at 5m donchaknow) from three CREE LEDs. The lens aims to gives a medium beam spread but we like it because it looks a bit like a fly’s eye. The light uses a 2.6Ah battery pack and is said to give two hours output on the maximum setting but a more useable four hours if you can make do with a mere 950 Lumens. Head and bar mounts are included.

Price: £275

From: Lumicycle

NiteRider Pro 1500 LED Race Light

Guess how many lovely Lumens this puts out? Yup, a whole 1,500 units of lightness. Perfect for giving any badgers you meet long lasting blindness as well as lighting your way down the trails. This is the Race model, which comes with a four cell, 5.2Ah battery and three pre-set brightness levels. That gives a total runtime of  one and half hours on maximum output, but a ‘DIY’ version is also available, which has an additional two cells to give 8.7Ah and two and half hours of light at full power.

Price: £324.99

From: 2Pure

NiteRider MiNewt Pro 750 Light

Apart from squirting out 750 Lumens of bright, bright light from a single CREE LED, the dinky MiNewt 750 Pro now has the power control mounted on the lamp rather than the battery to make choosing one of the four power levels simpler. It’ll mount on bars or helmet and the 2.6Ah Li-Ion battery will give 1.5 hours at maximum power.

Price: £234.99

From: 2Pure

NiteRider  MiNewt Mini 300 USB Light

Offering 300 Lumens and a two hour runtime for a smidge under £90, this should be a good place to start if you want to dabble in the waters of night riding or if you need a backup light to mount to your helmet. The 2.6Ah battery can be charged with a wall socket or via USB, so if you are badly organised you can top it up during work for going out in the evening.

Price: £89.99

From: 2Pure

There’s a rather snazzy video of the 2012 NiteRider bike lights range on YouTube if you want to check out the rest of their offerings…

MTBbatteries.co.uk 1,000 Lumen Bike Light

This does very much what it says on the tin – 1,000 Lumens from a single CREE T6 XM-L LED. The battery is a 4.4Ah Li-Ion item which gives a reported three hours run time at maximum output, with an LED on the rear of the lamp to warn you when the battery is running low. It uses an O-ring to mount it on the bars and a helmet strap as well. Best bit? The price…

Price: £67

From: MTBBatteries.co.uk

Intense Spider2 29

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The latest version of Intense’s big wheeled cross-country bike takes more than a few design cues from its longer travel siblings, the Tracer 2 and T29. There’s the asymmetric back end with interchangeable G1 dropouts that make it compatible with either 135mm QR or 142x12mm Syntace, the new easy-to-extract lower bearing system and all the detail you’ve come to expect, including dropper post guides. The VPP suspension system has the option to run 108mm or 120mm of rear wheel travel and up front you can use 120mm or 100mm forks in the tapered 1.125 to 1.5″ headtube. The lovely root beer finish here is a standard colour too…

Price: £1,799 frame & shock

From: Extra UK

 

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This one is kitted out with a Shimano XT 3×10 drivetrain, Easton finishing kit including EA90 XC 29″ wheelset…

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Tapered headtube with a set of 15QR Fox 32 Float RLC 29 forks…

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Note the second shock mounting position to adjust the rear wheel travel. Direct Mount front mech

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Lezyne CNC Pedal Rod

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While some think that a tool is the utmost expression of function over form, we reckon that’s utter nonsense. Everyone like some pretty man-toys and this is about as good looking as a pedal spanner can get. The handle is made from a hollow piece of CNC machined aluminium and the head is made from heat-treated, stamped steel. As well as a pair of 15mm pedal spanner cutouts, it also has a handy beverage opener for freeing the most recalcitrant bottles of beer.

Price: £25.99

From: Upgrade Bikes

Shimano M162 SPD Shoes

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These are the successors to the M161 Trail shoes, which provided a good mix of pedalling stiffness, weather proofing and sat quite happily between their racey shoes and more skate styled efforts. The M162 has had a thorough going over, with the offset velcro straps seen on the high end Shimano race shoes making an appearance, as well as a tougher outsole with rubber protective bumpers. There are plenty of other nice touches too, with the option to fit studs for mud traction and the raised inner ankle should protect you nicely. They’re designed to be the perfect match to the range of ‘Trail’ SPD pedals shimano currently offer…

Price: £99.99

From: Madison

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Seeing as canines are outnumbering staff in the office lately, we’ve decided to forgo staff humilation and put them on a very depressed looking Gyp instead. He doesn’t even ride bikes…


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