Fresh Goods Friday 115

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A bit of a quiet Fresh Goods Friday this week. We’re just recovering from getting the magazine to the printers on time last week and we’re expecting a ton of stuff next week, so in the meantime, here are a few shiny things to keep you happy.

This photo of Jeff Lockwood, ‘warming up’ before the Three Peaks reminds us that it’s already time to start working on the next issue of the magazine and cyclocross bikes – and the Three Peaks will be making a bit of an appearance in it.

Jeff, as warm as he looked...

 

Scott Genius 720
Price: £3599
From: Scott Sports

And turning up in a box this week has been this controversial beastie. It’s one of Scott’s new 27.5in Genius bikes. The 700 series features 27.5in/650B wheels and offers 150mm of travel, or 100mm in Traction Mode (or 0mm in Lockout Mode…)

This bike comes with a carbon frame, XT level components and Schwalbe’s 650B Nobby Nics. Interestingly, it’s not as light as it looks. just tipping the scales over the 30lbs mark. This bike is set to have a bit of a thrashing next week as Chipps is taking it somewhere sunny on his holidays…

Outside in the rain, probably not its natural habitat.

 

Under the harsh glare of the STW spots

 

Gone is the complicated pull-shock of previous Genii, replaced with a DT Swiss-built 'nude' shock.

 

There's something a little home-made looking about those decals.

 

Bar-mounted lever gives instant access to the shock's three modes.

 

Lumenator XML bike light.

From: mtbbatteries.co.uk
Price: £115 + postage.

And here’s the new ‘Lumenator’ from Smudge at MTB Batteries. It’s £115 + postage and offers three hours of light on full beam, going up to 10 hours on 70% mode and 50 hours on 10% mode for the extremes of darkness. It uses two XML LEDs for a claimed 2000 lumens of power. There are four modes, plus flashing – which cleverly has a dedicated button. This saves you having to scroll through the fixed beams to get to it, but more importantly, means that you don’t have to scroll through ‘flashing’ to get back to full beam. There’s a gentle green light on the power button and matching halos around the lamps when not in use. Good old O-ring technology secures them to the bars, with a helmet mount included.

 

Polaris Vapour Jacket and AM 500 shorts

Price: Shorts £49.99. Jacket £89.99

From: http://www.polaris-apparel.co.uk/products

Ignore the messy desk and see that Chipps is modelling the new Vapour jacket from Polaris. Designed for UK conditions, the jacket has a thin fleece lining and a windproof and water-resistant nylon outer. It’ll keep you warm and if it rains, it promises to still keep you warm, if a little damp, and dry out quickly. It  also comes in under £100.

Draped over his Japanese jeans, you’ll see the AM500 shorts, which are shorts again designed for UK conditions. They’re water repellant and dry quickly, while being long enough to stay below the knee when pedalling so the rain doesn’t run up your leg. It also avoids that funny bunching above the kneepad that can happen with shorter shorts.

 

The AM Enduro Jacket is a simple softshell  for £89.99. There’s one front and one rear pocket and we’ve already been out getting it wet… We gave a preview of Polaris’ new stuff in our Eurobike coverage.

 

Ironically, it was too wet to photograph our new Singletrack umbrella outside, so here it is indoors. Grace reckons there’s no such thing as bad luck, so we’re watching to see if she explodes or anything… It’ll cost £19.98 and you can buy one here: http://singletrackworld.com/shop/acatalog/hardware.html#a726

 

Thule Pro Ride 591
Price: £92 each
From: Thule
We’re fans of either fork-mounted racks, or putting the whole bike into the car, so these Pro Ride 591 racks are here to see if they can tempt us away. They mount the whole bike on the roof, gripping the downtube with a pair of jaws that are operated by the bottom of the rack, meaning you don’t need to flail around while standing on the passenger sill.

Chipps Chippendale

Singletrackworld's Editor At Large

With 22 years as Editor of Singletrack World Magazine, Chipps is the longest-running mountain bike magazine editor in the world. He started in the bike trade in 1990 and became a full time mountain bike journalist at the start of 1994. Over the last 30 years as a bike writer and photographer, he has seen mountain bike culture flourish, strengthen and diversify and bike technology go from rigid steel frames to fully suspended carbon fibre (and sometimes back to rigid steel as well.)

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