It’s another busy week here in the land of the Fresh Goods. Here’s a glimpse at a few of the things that have been weighing down the postman this week. Enjoy this little peek as you start ramping up for the weekend.
Canfield Nimble
Fancy a bit of Pacific North West action? How about this Canfield Nimble? Short, slack and 29in. There’s even room for (sshh!) 27-Chubby wheels if you want to try 27.5 x 2.8in. For the moment, though, we’re just going to do some hooning.
Price: Nimble 9 frame is £790. Bike as built is £2695.
From: www.cranknuts.com
Swarf Spline 29 frame
Barney’s taken receipt of this magnificent looking frame from Dorset-based builders Swarf cycles. It’s their Spline 29 hardtail, with a custom extra-long top tube and seat tube (Barney’s a big fella), and a quite startlingly spiffy two-colour paint job (well, kinda – that orange is all kinds of sparkly) from the folks at Fatcreations.
Lovely Guilloche head badge is lovely. It’s also extra. But it is lovely. Apparently the pattern is coated, but the ‘S’ and the outline isn’t. So over time you should get a lovely patina over some bits and the rest will remain shiny. Very swish/arty.
Lovingly crafted from Reynolds 853 main tubes and Columbus stays.
Adrian Swarf shipped the frames to Ali at Fat Creations for the epically spangly paint job. It’s really hard to get decent pictures of, but it’s really shimmery, and quite spectacular.
In computer graphics, a spline is a a curve that joins two or more specific points – so this might fit the bill. Ady from Swarf brazed the brace in to compensate for the our requested longer seat-tube, so it’s still got bags of standover.
And here’s a rolling chassis pic if you’re interested in how it looks a bit more built-up. I should stress that in this pic has a 140mm fork instead of the 120mm for which it’s been designed, but still… braaaaap!
Price: from £850 with powder-coated finish; fancy paint jobs start at £120 extra.
From:
Spline 29 Frame: Swarf Cycles
Paint: Fat Creations
KMC X11SL DLC chain.
KMC has found a day of adding a ‘diamond-like coating’ or DLC to its chains and it reckons that this black and blue beauty will remain that way for months to come, resisting wear (and conveniently, staying black and blue). As if you needed a reason to keep your chain clean, eh? Comes in black/black too for the shy.
Price: £82.99
From: Today’s Cyclist
Vee Tire Co. Trax Fatty Tyres
This previously behind the scenes tyre company is stepping things up dramatically this year. It aims to fill many of the gaps that other companies are slow to fill and so it was no surprise to see that Vee Tire has already got a 27.5+ tyre for a standard that no one even knows about yet. WTB is no longer the only player in this game. There’s even a bottle of Vee Tires’ secret new tubeless liquid. The formulation is so secret, it’s usually kept under lock and key but we hear it’s made from Unicorn toenail clippings.
Price: TBC
From: http://www.veetireco.co.uk
Bontrager Gloves
We have a couple of Bontrager gloves in for a future test. The Foray and the Evo. The Foray is minimal with no palm padding, but lots of ventilation and sticky silicon. The Evo is still pretty stripped down, but with some very 3D padding on the palm, as you’ll see in the pic.
Price: £24.99 (Foray) and £29.99 (Evo)
From: Trek UK. bontrager.com
SDG Bel Air 2.0
Coming in at 225g with its Ti-Alloy rails, this is the mid-range in the new BelAir range. It starts at £49.95 for the cromo rail version. A new flexible nylon base promises more comfort for this very popular marque.
Price: £69.95
From: Silverfish
Bontrager TLR Tyre Sealant
Looking very much like a Tesco Value tyre sealant, the Bontrager sealant comes in a US Quart (nearly a litre) and seals tyres – from the company that was into tubeless before tubeless was cool. (We assume there’s no model railway diorama ingredients in this formulation. Keith’s (creditable) early prototoypes did…)
Evoc Photo Scout
This 17L pack from Evoc is aimed at the few of us that choose to ride with camera gear that costs as much as our bikes. It offers a side and lumbar access to an SLR, with room for a 70-200, as well as a flash and spare lens or two. And there’s STILL room for a jacket and sandwiches…
Price: £179.95
From: Silverfish
Duck Smart Bike Ezee and Earth Mover
Duck Smart introduces two handy, squirty products. There’s Earth Mover, which is a fruity-smelling, bio-friendly bike cleaner. Just spray onto a wet bike, scrub if needed and hose off. Bike Ezee, meanwhile is a ‘dry wash and detailer’ and is a different thing entirely. For a start, it smells like Hubba Bubba banana gum and it’s intended to be either a spruce-up spray on an already clean bike, or as a sort of dry shower for a grimy bike. Just spray on and wipe off with a clean rag and you end up with a surprisingly clean and shiny machine. There’s no PTFE, so it can be safely used on and around brakes too.
Price: Bike Ezee £9.99 a litre bottle. Earth Mover: £6.99
From: Today’s Cyclist
LifeCycles Nano First Aid Kit
Designed to be small enough to carry all the time, the new Lifesystems Nano first aid kit has been developed with help from those outdoor adventurers at OMM. It contains things like bandages, low-stick dressings, plasters, blister plasters, wipes, zinc oxide tape, 50SPF cream and safety pins. All in a dry bag rated to 10m. For a tenner, it’s well worth a look.
Price: £9.99
From: www.lifesystems.co.uk
Alis Marsh
The latest addition to the Singletrack Extended Family, Alis is Barney’s new daughter. This pic was taken when she was less than a day old, in an uncharacteristically tranquil period. Awwww.
That’s it for Fresh Goods this week. To those of you at Battle on the Beach, this weekend, we’ll see you there. To everyone else, make sure you add one more hill to your ride this weekend. That’s what they’re there for, you hear?
Comments (15)
Comments Closed
Sideview of the Swarf, Nice.
Everything I’ve seen come out of Swarf is amazing.
Also Fat Creations.
The Canfield is nice but a lot of £££. I would love to know how it compares to the likes of Cotic, Ragley and Stanton.
the swarf looks wonderful, the nimble purposeful but expensive.
oh and congratulations on the new family member, Alis.
Alis Marsh
Cost: tens of thousands over the next couple of decades
Congratulations
That Swarf’s a stunner!
Is the Bonty sealant a replacement for their Super Juice sealant? Any idea if it’s changed much (still non-latex)?
That Swarf is lovely, not sure about the Comic Sans font though… 🙂
Bottle boss on the underside of the down-tube? Why bother?
Sandwich says:
Bottle boss on the underside of the down-tube? Why bother?
Why not? You might live somewhere hot and dry, you might want to put a tool bottle in it, you might have a bottle with a cap…… What are the downsides of having them?
agree with beanum – shocking type on an otherwise great looking frame and the cranfield suffers from this too (though the head badge redeems it slightly)
why is it that so many brands who will have spent hours getting every other aspect of a frame ‘just right’ mess up on the graphics?
£83 for a chain! Bonkers.
I’ll agree, the Swarf is a nice looking bike- I’d be afraid to scabble it..
Congratulations mr and Mrs barney!
Want the Swarf very much please. Paint job reminds me of an old Breeder.
Breezer