Bikes, beer, kitten. What more could you ask for on a Friday?
Pivot Firebird
This is a lovely custom build Upgrade have put together for us based on Pivot’s freeride/aggressive trail machine, the Firebird.
All 6.6in of its DW-link travel are destined for Matt’s tender grasp (ahem). This build rolls in at a cool £5,300 and complete builds start at £3,900. Upgrade also supply the Firebird as a frame/shock only ready for you to hang your favourite stop and go gear on, so we’ll be looking at the X-Fusion Vengeance 170mm HLR DLA fork and the Reynolds Carbon AM wheelset they’ve fitted here seperately, too.
Price: £1799.00 Firebird (frame only), £674.99 X-Fusion Vengeance 170mm HLR DLA fork, £1299.99 Reynolds Carbon AM wheelset
From: Upgrade, upgradebikes.co.uk
Intrepid Apparel Ultimate MTB Softshell
Here is our man in black Jamie modelling an acquisition from his new favourite clothing brand, Intrepid Apparel. Their Ultimate MTB Softshell is a softshell designed for mountain biking in, though it wouldn’t look out of place down the pub. It’s nicely cut, it’s got a hood, has ‘just enough’ pockets, and looks cosy. Not that anyone else is allowed to wear it…
Price: £135
From: Intrepid Apparel, intrepidapparel.co.
Extremities Windy Lite Dry Glove
Clover the Poodle models some super light, super useful gloves from Extremities. They’re windproof, unpadded, weigh about the same as an envelope of feathers (scientific testing here) and are nicely warm, too. They’ll be going straight into someone’s dry bag of emergency/overnight kit and if it keeps snowing/hailing/raining like it has been will sadly probably see weekly use all the way through ‘summer’. Grumble, grumble, British Summer, grumble…
Price: £20.00
From: Terra Nova, terra-nova.co.uk
ODI Longneck Pro grips
Very long, very green, very squidgy grips from ODI. Not much else to say apart from: LIKE.
Price: £9.99 the pair
From: Ison Distribution, ison-distribution.com
Dark Star Brewery goodies
Dom from Kinesis came up to do a feature with us this week and very kindly brought up a big box of goodies from Dark Star Brewery, who share a postcode with Kinesis/DMR/Upgrade HQ down south and who have sponsored Drink Beer At Your Desk Friday this week. Here we have Chipps and a nice Dark Star t-shirt: …and a healthy supply of Sunburst, Six Hop and Espresso Stout ales. If you want to talk to us on the phone today, we suggest you do it soon…
Price: Beer, from £2.65 a bottle. T-shirts, hoodies etc £9.50 upwards
From: Dark Star Brewing Co., darkstarbrewing.co.uk
DMR T-shirts
More t-shirts, this time from DMR. At this rate we’re not going to need to do any laundry until September. Which is just fine by us.
Price: £14.99 or thereabouts
From: Upgrade, upgradebikes.co.uk
Summer kit from Gore Bike Wear
The lovely Ben from Gore Bike Wear popped in last week to show off some new summer clothing, including the following item which is sure to provoke debate (please play nicely in the comments):
Xenon GT AS Jacket short
Gore say: Wear this lightweight, highly breathable jacket for ultimate weather protection and temperature control for all-day rides in uncertain conditions. We say: we’re looking forward to sending Chipps out to test this!
Price: £199.99
Xenon S jersey & Fusion Shorts
A very racy jersey with acres of mesh that’s crying out for summer. Some proper gnar baggies for off-roadin’ in. We made Chipps wear them both at once to see if the universe imploded. (Jury still out on that one.)
Price: £109.99 jersey £119.99 shorts
Xenon 2 bib short
Very posh bib short for boys. (What is it about bib shorts that compels you to peer inside them?)
Price: £149.99
Power Lady bib short
Slightly less posh (and very good value) bib short for girls. Sim is wondering how the zip-off bum works but we’ll let him work it out…
Price: £79.99
Base Layer WS Shirt
Now this is a good idea: it’s an underlayer with Windstopper front, sides and shoulders, to cut down chill without getting sweaty under a pack. It also means that you can keep your swanky logoed-up jersey on display without freezing when the weather is sub par. Brand whores and sponsored riders rejoice!
Price: £49.99
Power Thermo arms, legs and knees
Cosy warmers to turn your summer gear into winter gear. Not that any of us can tell the difference at the moment.
Price: £34.99 arms, £39.99 knees, £44.99 legs
All from: Gore Bike Wear, gorebikewear.co.uk
Peter Kitten
We told you there’d be a kitten!
Despatch Fairy Claire’s cat Poppy had kittens a few weeks back and Peter is off to a new home with Sarah (our Director of Chaos) and her young family. The jury (said young family) are still out on what name to settle on but have come up with a shortlist of Sooty, Smokey or Herbert. Place votes now! Winner wins unending cuteness and an extra fab weekend 🙂
Comments (25)
Comments Closed
Cute cat…
Malcolm
Herbert. Great name for anything.
And — hold the phone — coffee and beer combined?!?!?!? That sounds like a splendid idea…
Polite request – could Intrepid Apparel introduce some cool gear for girlies please? Baggies especially!
Like the dog too.
Dark Star Espresso beer is pretty good, although I find one is enough before the coffee flavour gets too much.
C_G – I tried the baggies we had recently and, apart from large being too big, the cut was fine. Small sizes definitely worth a look.
Herbert and the soon-to-be many variations; Herb, Herbie, bert.
Dark Star Espresso rules!
name of cat. Wifey.
so you can say ‘ got to take Wifey down to vets’ or can’t stay too long as I got to let the Wifey out or she’ll crap everywhere!’
sHerbert
Hector is a great name for a cat
I would love Intrepid Apparel to make gear for fat blokes like me. I really like the look of their stuff…
defo a Herbert
Can you not find a model to fill those arm warmers?
I would suggest “I kick schord in the testies ” as cat’s name, but a bit too long, although acronym is IKSITT which is cooler than a whole bow of cucumbers. Failling, that hobbs is by far the coolest name for a cat.
I meant schrod and not schord indeed
rhayter: not sure Herbert is a great name for a wife/GF… Anyhoo, keen to hear reports on the vengeance!
Herbert!
beer = good
espresso = good
beer + espresso = bad
Herbet is an ace name.
Brakes, you need to taste Dark Star’s take on that combo before passing judgement… they’ve get it SO right.
Herbert, a sound choice.
That pivot is not a looker
Beer=Good
Espresso= Good
Therefore (Beer+Espresso) = 2Good
Herbert = Kitten
Kitten = Fido
Santa’s Little Helpurr.