Friday has swung round once again, so it’s time to take a look at what’s come through the office door. After last week’s complaints of timeliness – there’s no pleasing some people –  we’re once again back to random ‘somewhere around lunchtime’ publication to ensure that your working Friday doesn’t peak too early…

Norco Shinobi 29er

Big wheels are moving everywhere – even into the world of all-mountain. This bike has got 120mm of rear wheel travel from the ART four-bar system and it’s all kept stiff with a 142x12mm axle. Up front there’s a mismatched 140mm of travel from the tapered Rock Shox Revelation with 20mm through axle. A SRAM X.7 drivetrain with FSA crankset (and 29er friendly 32/22T gearing) rounds off the build.

Price: £TBC

From: Evans Cycles

Swoopy hydroformed tubing and braced swingarm offer plenty of mud clearance with 2.2″ WTB Wolverine tyres…

Super dinky headtube keeps the front end low and, in an excellent bit of speccing, the bars are nice and wide at 760mm. Should be a fun one to wrestle down the trails…

Neat two-piece rocker link and the back end uses a simple to set up Post Mount brake mount.

ENVE Twenty6 XC Clincher rim

Yes, they are expensive. Now the obvious has been stated, we’ll move on to the interesting technical bits. At 32mm deep and with a 19mm width, these are the cross country versions of the renowned composite firms’ carbon fibre rims. At a claimed 350g they aren’t exactly lardy but ENVE reckon they’re super stiff relative to other lightweight kit. We’ve got a pair build on Chris King hubs (if you need to ask, etc) and we’re looking forward to giving them a sound thrashing through the grit and mud of winter.

Price: £700

From: Saddleback

They’re available as a clincher in 28H or 32H with tubeless rimstrip system and as a tubular rim in 28H if you like the smell of glue.

RWD Sintered Brake pads

Yorkshire based firm Race Winning Designs have a long history in the automotive world but their two directors also like to get out mountain biking, so their own range of pads seemed like a sensible idea. They’ve been testing the pads on the trails of Swaledale with the Dales Bike Centre and The sintered pads here are designed to have a high initial bite and high friction as well as a long life span. They do pads to fit pretty much every brake out there and they also have a semi-metallic pad in the pipeline. You can check out the difference via their rather snazzy graphs…

Price: £TBC

From: Race Winning Designs

Mountain High: Europe’s greatest cycle climbs

If you like to suffer in meticulously planned style, then this rather nice book could be just the thing for you. It’s a practical and historical guide to 50 of Europe’s hardest and most beautiful road climbs, including Mont Ventoux, Col du Tormalet and the Col du Grand St Bernard, listed in order of height. There’s loads of lovely photography and each climb has details of elevation, height gain, local services as well as the history of the climb and the riders that have tried, and sometimes failed, upon it.

Price: £20

From: Quercus Books

Dialled Bikes Alpine Ti

Dialled Bikes have hooked up with The Bike Chain to produce a pair of super bling titanium versions of their tough Mk2 Alpine hardtails. We’ve got the 18″ version, which has with a 23″ and a bit effective top tube, designed to be run with a 130-140mm fork. It weighs not-a-lot-at-all (about a kilo and a half) and may or may not be put into production, depending on the feedback they get from you lot. We’re looking forward to building it up and having some fun on it over the winter…

Price: around £1,100

From: The Bike Chain/Dialled Bikes

The many standard friendly 44mm ID headtube and ISCG mounts keep your options open…

Muc-Off Expanding Microcell Sponge

If you like to keep your bike nice and shiny then a giant pink sponge is exactly what you need. This one from Muc-off is compressed to one fifth the size and vacuum packed into a tiny bit of packaging, which means they can be transported more efficiently and with a lower carbon footprint. Once you’re finished watching it expand in amazement, you can also use it in the shower or bath.

Price: £2.99

From: Muc-Off

…going, going…

MRP 2X chain device

It’s what a load of people with doublering setups have been waiting for – and large BCD SRAM chainset owners who might have been struggling to find a compatible device in particular. You don’t need an outer bashguard thanks to the removeable lower skid plate, while the twin jockey wheel setup should help prevent the chain coming off the bottom of the rings. The back plate is made from aluminium and has a ‘fin’ to guard against the chain falling on the inside too. You can get it with a BB, ISCG or ISCG05 mount, black or white finish and it’s available in two sizes to fit 42-39T or 36-38T outer rings.

Price: £129.99

From: Ison Distribution

Timbuk2 D-lux Messenger bag

Ooh! Isn’t it nice? Sim has got this classic messenger bag for transporting his laptop and other man-things about town. Made from heavy duty ‘ballistic’ nylon, there’s a super sweet racing stripe to help him off the line at lights and they’ve improved the buckles over previous versions. As well as the conventional entry via the flap you also get a side entry pocket and there’s a well padded and studded ‘love glove’ to keep your laptop safe.

Price: £80

From: Timbuk2

Alma Win Sport + detergent

This soap-free detergent is designed to get all your stinky riding clothes smelling lovely without using chemicals that irritate sensitive skin and without clogging up the membranes of Gore-tex style clothing. It’s also vegan and vegetarian friendly, 100% biodegradable and will work in washes from 20°C upwards. Hopefully it’ll go some way to getting rid of the smell in the office.

Price: £9.90 for 750ml

From: Alma Win

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