Despite the product fest that is Eurobike (check out our coverage here), we’ve not neglected Fresh Goods this week, as the steady flow of new and shiny kit has arrived at the office, just in time for the sunshine. This week we’re also introducing a spot of Todmorden street art which is a very useful backdrop, so enjoy.
Crank Brothers Iodine 3 wheelset
The Iodine range of wheels is Crank Brother’s all-mountain offering. These are the tippy-top end models, using a 21mm internal width 6061 aluminium tubeless rim connected to cartridge bearings hubs by 24 of their signature half-and-half spokes. The models we’ve got in are in the rather fetching black and burnt orange colour scheme. They weigh in at 1,780g on our scales.
Price: £699.99
From: 2Pure
You may also notice Todmorden’s new piece of street sculpture – a giant iron globe. We’ve got various theories on what it represents, from the holidays the traffic wardens have taken around the world from their ticketing revenues to the more likely display of the role Todmorden (and Britain) have played in the cotton trade.
Anyway, back to business. The welded rims are designed to run 2.3-2.5″ tyres and the spokes are connected to the rim via tabs and hollow pins. The hubs are available with 9mm, 15mm and 20mm front axles and your pick of 135x10mm or 142x12mm rear hub axles.
Gusset R-Series Race saddle
With a slim profile (and slim price tag), the R-Series is Gusset’s XC and race saddle. It’s got a minimally padded but not utterly spartan base and this ‘Black Jack’ version has a one-piece vinyl cover though they do plenty of other designs, including stitched three-piece cloth outers, such as the rather fetching tartan outer. This model uses cromo rails, but the Ti railed version is still a bargaintastic £39.99.
Price: £24.99
From: Ison Distribution
Repack Berino top
If you’ve seen old photos of Charlie Kelly, Joe Breeze and the like riding the repack and thought “I like the way those guys roll – and I don’t just mean sideways down fireroads, tripping hard” then now you can get some retro fashion to match their look, complete with extra elbow reinforcement. The Berino is made from modern mix of materials however, using the insulating and itch free properties of merino wool with the added strength and anti pong magic that bamboo charcoal brings.
Price: £70
From: Repack Clothing
It’s covered in pockets too, with two zipped side pockets plus three open pockets on the back. The zip is a full length affair and the arms are nice and long too. Repack reckon it’s perfect for mild weather use next to the skin year round, or with a base layer in the chillier months.
Schwalbe Racing Ralph and Hans Dampf 29″ tyres
We’ve got a great big grouptest of big wheeled rubber coming up in the next issue of the Magazine. Here are two offerings which show the distance than 29″ wheels have gone in recent years – as well the as the lightly treaded and fast rolling Racing Ralph (£49.99) with Snakeskin sidewalls and fast rolling Pacestar compound, we’ve also got the much blockier and more aggressive Hans Dampf (£49.99) with the tougher Evo sidewall and in their Trailstar sticky triple compound. Both tyres are tubeless ready.
From: Schwalbe
Bontrager 29-4 2.3″ and 29-3 2.25″ TLR tyres
The Bontrager 29-4 (£32.99) is another more trail rather than race focused 29 tyre. It’s got a nicely square edge with well spaced knobbles with plenty of support as you move from centre to edge. It’s got a folding bead with tubeless ready 120tpi carcass and a reinforced sidewall TLR version is available too. The 29-3 TLR (£32.99) has a more directional tread with the strengthened TLR casing and balances a fast rolling centre with plenty of volume to keep things smooth.
From: Bontrager
Maxxis Ikon EXC 29×2.2″ tyre
During the brief spells of dry weather, we’re really liked the 26″ version of the Ikon for being incredibly fast and ekeing out a surprisingly large amount of grip from it’s minimal tread. We expect the big wheeled version to do just the same, this version using the EXC casing to provide puncture resistance. It also comes in triple compound 3C versions. Correction: This is actually the mid-range Exception version, with 120tpi.
Maxxis also make the uber-expensive EXO version, which provides the extra puncture protection and triple-compound 3C rubber, and a cheaper £32.99 version which has a mere 60tpi casing.
Apologies to One Industries for the error 🙂
Price: £32.99 £39.99
From: One Industries
Mucky Nutz Bender Fenders
It’s hard to get excited about mudguards. Yes, they’re massively useful – and the Fender Bender is both lightweight, simple and effective – but they also signify the fact that every ride will involve lashings of mud, water and cold extremities. That said, these trio of guards should make it all more tolerable.
From their original offering, they’ve now introduced the Fender Bender XL (top, £11) with additional coverage to reduce the chance of muck on your nuts even further, the thinner and lighter Fender Bender Lite (left, £9) and the original Fender Bender (right, £9) remains.
From: Mucky Nutz
Comments (4)
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Had a look at the Berino website after seeing an add in Privateer. Could be a purchase as it looks to be a good replacement for my Rapha Fixed jersey which is slowly dying and they no longer make (one of my fave jerseys of recent years). Add to the fact that the Repack is a lot easier to swallow price wise than Rapha (though to be fair I think my first Fixed was £70 but they did go up drastically before they got out of the courier chic look) and the pockets look good.
Just can’t like the Crank Bros wheels. “Eye of the beholder etc”.
I think the EXC casing on Maxxis tyres is the XC biased Exception casing, not the sidewall toughened EXO casing.
liking the look of the Fender Bender XL. Might give that a go…
I know its hard to make a buck nowadays & folk have to do all sorts of things to get by.
But..
Repack Clothing?!
WTF?!
Shamless bit of cashing in……
Are they even from Norcal??