Here at Singletrack Towers, we’re nestled under about eleven feet of snowy slushy stuff*, wearing Company Issue bobble hats and grumbling about the slush. But up on the hills, it’s another story. Pristine sheets of white joy, here and there beaten down into rideable awesomeness, waiting for some unsuspecting idiot to round a corner and stare, slack jawed, at great duvets of ace. And when we’re not riding? We’re here, hats on heads, preparing the bumper crop of wondrousness you see here before you. It’s Fresh Goods Friday!
Enjoy.
*may be slight exaggeration
Saracen Mantra Trail
The last bike in our £1500 Carbon bike shootout for issue 96, the Saracen Mantra Trail ticks all the right boxes. Long? Check. Low? Double check (this is an XL, folks). This 27.5in machine is built for trails.
Shimano drivetrain, 142×12 (natch) and some funky looking stays.
Suntour Expion fork with a clever proprietary 15mm thru-axle.
Stop’n’go all handled by Shimano. Vroom!
Price: £1,499
From: Saracen
Sideburn Magazine
Like sideburns? Like motorbikes? This could well be the magazine for you! Magnificent pics (really – that uppermost covershot I could stare at all day), a quirky worldview and lots of sideways motorbike action. Completely awesome. And for those of you who think of sideburns and motor bikes and instantly associate them with one person: yes, Guy Martin is in at least one issue, at least once.
Price: £5
From: Sideburn Magazine
Pro-Lite Antero XC Wheelset
Light and XCesque 29er racer wheels. Two sets of 3 double-toothed pawls ensures silky smooth pickup and a headache if you try to work out how many regular pawls that’s actually equivalent to. Lots, probably.
Each wheel is handbuilt in Taiwan. Nice freehub anodising; it’s almost a shame you won’t be seeing it very often unless you’re a serial cassette changer.
Front hub comes with a carbon crust. Or a carbon hybrid front shell, if you’re not hungry right now like me*. The wheels also come with all the macguffins you need to convert them to thru-axles.
*mmmmm. Pie.
Price: £499.99
From: NRG4
MRP 1x Chain Guide
Pretty much does what it says on the tin: it’s a chainguide for those folks running 1x who want the extra chainnotfallingoff security that thickthinwidenarrow can’t provide. Black polycarbonate awesomeness with a E-mount can be yours for £54.99.
From: Ison Distribution
Ion E_Lite Elbow Guards
The latest iteration in Ion’s pad range, the K_Lite and E_Lite pads have swanky SAS-TEC protection, and a slim outline so your knees or elbows don’t look too knobbly.
Price: £66.95
ION K-Lite Knee Pads
Price: £58.95
From: Ion
Galibier Grip VTT gloves
6 different materials, lots of swanky detailing and 11 separate panels, with a calf skin palm. Nice.
Price: £18
From: Galibier
35 Bikes Brake Rotors
35 bikes is a new, Sheffield-based bike bits brand offering rotors and pads. This here is the 160mm rotor; they offer 3 different rotor sizes starting from £8.99 through to £12.99 for the 203mm one. They’ve also got floating rotors coming soon, apparently!
From: Hook it products
35 Bikes Brake Pads
They’re brake pads – what more do you need? Available in loads of exciting bike-related flavours.
Price: £5.99
From: Hook it products
Joystick
Joystick Digital Feather Saddle
Joystick saddles are available in a range of different padding/rail/weight/riding types. This here digital feather is an All Mountain/Enduro/everything saddle, with cro-mo rails and a leather cover.
Price: £44.99
Joystick Analog Bar
Sweet carbon 800mm wideness with a 31.8mm clamp and a 20mm rise. They also do a 35mm clamp with a 30mm rise.
Price: £129.99
Joystick 8-bit alu bar
Available in black or gunmetal, the 8-bit is a wiiide 800mm in a variety of rises and stem compatibilities (OS or 35mm, basically).
Price: £69.99
Joystick Builder Stem
Nicely designed clip on clamp with some neat touches like orientation arrows. Only in 50mm lengths for now; others coming soon.
Price: £79.99
All from: Hook it products
Sensus Swayze grips
Packed with the raw power of the Man Himself. A facsimile of His muscular physique even adorns the packaging. Macho enough to make even grown men go weak at the knees – Chipps has been silently staring at the pic and weeping for over an hour now. Strangely reminiscent of wavey ODI Mushrooms, these look very comfy indeed.
Price: £21.99
From: Hook it products
Vulpine Merino
More jerseys for our merino grouptest coming up in March’s issue 96.
Chipps models the Men’s Long Sleeve Alpine Jersey in Squadron Blue, £99.00…
…the Men’s Short Sleeve Merino Button Jersey in Lanes Green, £79.00…
…and the Women’s Short Sleeve Alpine Jersey in Black (black! BLACK! etc.), £85.00.
All from Vulpine, and heading to a trail near you this weekend.
Hope Crankset
New Hope crank awesomeness from.. er.. Hope! 175mm of slinky machined droolableness, with a unique spline locking system to keep ’em firmly placed onto your frame and creak-free. They’ve got a retainer ring system so you can run whatever spider and/or single ring setup you like. We’re really looking forward to giving them some beans.
Price: Crankset – £245, Bottom Bracket – £80
Hope 30t retainer ring
More black machined awesomeness from the Barnoldswick metalmasters.
Price: £45
All from: Hope
Tortec Universal Storage Hook
Hefty steel wall mounted hookage for convenient bike storage in limited spaces – especially handy for when the other half has a go at you for leaving muddy bikes all over the place.
Price: £14.99
From: Zyro
Singletrack 95
The latest issue of our esteemed journal has dropped! Packed with awesome pics and exquisite wurds. Ahem.
Price: £5.95
From: Quality retailers everywhere, or you can subscribe here!
Aaaaaand we’re done! We’re wrapping up warm now and getting out in the slush – there’s no better practice than embracing the slither! Have a great weekend, y’all…
Comments (9)
Comments Closed
Can you stick the Hope cranks on a scale?
Is 35 bikes stuff almost twice as good as 18 bikes stuff?
What’s that white stuff in the bike photos?
Hope stuff want
So, £245 for the crank arms and spider, £80 for the bottom bracket and then you buy the chainring on top. Sounds like good value…
Hope cranks look lovely & while never cheap the are usually great quality products! most wanted!!
Also like the look of the merino top, stem & gloves. Good week.
What watch is that on the Galibier gloves pic?
Beanum – it’s a Seiko Sportura SNL015 with a leather strap 🙂
Cool! Thanks Barney..