We’re staring out of the window at the moment, looking at the glorious sunshine bathing the building opposite – and watching the increasingly ominous grey cloud that’s coalescing just beyond it. So, as is usually the case, the weekend could go either way. There will be riding, inevitably – there may even be racing! Or at least, gentle pootling masquerading as racing.
But hell, it’s nearly the weekend! Point us to a Friday and we’ll point you to a sense of imminent expectation that beer may soon be drunk, that sleep may soon be had, that bikes may soon be ridden. And that, frankly, we all may soon get wet. So let the weather resolve itself on its own, while you peer at the pile of awesome we’ve assembled for your viewing pleasure – it’s Fresh Goods Friday!
Pace RC127
For issue 100, we’re heading back to our roots, and taking a look at machinery with a definite tie to that heady time in the very early 2000s, when men were real men, women were real women, and tall furry creatures from Alpha Centauri were just called Brant.
So Laydeeeeeez and Gennlemennnn, here for your delectation and amusement is the… wait for it… Pace 127! And will you look at that. Nary a square tube to be seen, but definitely all black an’ purposeful an’ ting.
Of course, it’s got 140mm Pikes, as it should. It’ll take 150mm with no problems, Nice yellow matching mudguard, too. Suave. That’s a great word to say: suave.
Speaking of suave (suuuaaaaave suave suave) we like the new graphics on the Pikes.
Mavic Crossrocs are shod with what can only be described as Minion DHFs. Beefy front rubber.
Rear rubber is the more svelte (ooh, another good word to say: svelte. Sveltey svelte svelte.) Maxxis Crossmark, and of course, it’s running 1×11.
A head badge of Heritage and Sophistication. And some cobbles of – to be fair – heritage.
Dropouts are singlespeedable if you’re subject to that particular masochistic peccadillo. The look of the dropout is very pleasingly technical in this pic, if you ask me (which no-one ever does any more).
Made of prime 853 fillet. There’s routing for an internal dropper too (though that won’t make it to production bikes – Ed. Something to do with not wanting to drill holes in thin-wall steel tubes).
127 is the name – but the numbers you’ll be interested in are 67 and 73 – head and seat, respectively (which adds up to 140, maths fans!). ETT is 610mm in this M, and bb drop is 45mm.
Interestingly, if you take 610, and divide it by the sum of the head and seat tube angles you get 4.36. Add those digits together, and you get 13 – the atomic number of aluminium!
But this is a STEEL FRAME!!
MIND.
BLOWN.
Sizes available are S, M and L.
Frame only for £499; a full build like this will set you back £2,299.99
From: Pace
Charge Cooker 5
We’ve got Charge King Kahuna Ash’s very own Charge Cooker 5 – it’s pretty much the production frame, but he’s got some non-stock bits and pieces on it. But FRET NOT! You can get the frame as a thing on its own should you desire it.
Always nice to see bicycle manufacturers who use punctuation properly. Not like these flybynight fellows who come in with their acronyms and their ‘fly’ and their ‘rad’. No! We demand manufacturers who put FULL STOPS at the end of things when they’re NEEDED! And spell things properly, like wot we do.
Yes, yes it’s 1x.. But in contrast to COOKER. XO’s not even a word – outrageous! Athough in internetsville it means ‘Hugs and Kisses’. Awww. Y’know, I remember a time (when I was at school, in the Victorian era) when a bike’s worth could simply be measured by counting how many gears it had. Not any more; those days are gone. Gone, I tell you!
*weeps*
*carries on weeping*
*still sobbing*
*pulls self together*
There’s some lovely welding and lugwork going on in that frame. This one has Nobby Nics in a frankly impressive and manly 3.0in size going on. Cookers normally come with 2.8s, as that’s the diameter Ash thinks fits the character of the bike best – compliant yet fast; rigid yet yielding.
I’m trying to come up with double entendres here, and frankly it’s not working.
Stern but forgiving? I’ve never heard of ‘stern’ tyres before. Maybe they’ll become a thing? Strict? Disciplinarian? Well, hellooooo
Still, there’s enough clearance for 3.0. Nicely shaped stays, too.
Pots and POTS of clearance on the Boosted Reba.
Nice neat button welds. Ti has to be welded in an inert atmosphere; it requires real skill to do. Nice to see a decent gusset here. It’s always nice to see a decent gusset. Suave.
Frame £1,499
Bike £2999
From Charge
Here’s Ash chatting about it earlier this week. There’s a post-credits outtake thingy too! Sorry, Ash.
Continental Trail King Protection
Lots of rubbery goodness for Matt’s dungeon bike. There’s a tyre test going on in them thar hills, folks! YEEEHAW!
Price: £49.95
From: Continental
Easton Heist Wheels
Aluminium-rimmed wheels designed for bikes with up to 160mm of travel. Claimed weight is 1790g per pair.
We’ve got ours in a 142×12/15mm thru-axle flavour. 3 cross spokes for stability and strength.
Ours have a good wide 30mm internal rim width – you can get them in 24 and 27mm internal too, if you think 30mm is just too durned wide. Rich will be racing them at the ‘Ard Rock Enduro this weekend. And with his reputation, he’s a great person to test their longevity.
He’s fast in the same way that a brick dropped from a plane is fast. And about as good at cornering.
Price £189.99F, £259.99R
From Silverfish
Mountain Biking Around Buxton Guide Book
An excellent little book, this – seven routes all starting (and finishing) from Buxton’s train station. The author, Jonathan Wakefield, describes Buxton as the ‘Athens of the East Midlands’ – and who are we to disagree?
It’s been written to raise money for the charity Retrak, which works with street children in southern and eastern Africa – all profits go to them.
You can get it from local book and bike shops for a fiver; Retrak are half way through sorting things out so you can buy it from them online, or you could call them on 0161 485 6685.
Heck, even if you don’t think you’ll ever head to Buxton, it’s only a fiver, and you never know… Barney’s ridden round there a fair bit, and can attest to at leat some of the routes described. The White Peak is less ridden than her Dark Peak sister, but there are some crackers tucked away in there.
TomTom Bandit Camera
Just shake it to bake it edit! A 4K HD action camera with a built in media server. Does lots of clever things with your phone, and will automatically record the most exciting bits of your ride, apparently based on vibrations or something – and not how shrill your voice gets. Then, you give your phone a wiggle and it’ll automatically assemble things into a movie to make you seem radical!
Actually, it’d be ace if you could actually talk into it and the more strangulated your voice became, the higher resolution it’d shoot in. But that’s a patent for another time, I think. I’ll work out the kinks and get back to you.
This is how you charge it – it’s really neat. The battery but sort of unlocks from the body of the camera. No cables required! It sort of reminds me of a hypersleep pod from something like Alien. If Ripley was three inches long. Which she emphatically isn’t.
The website features an Extreme Goat (band name ahoy) with a better beard than Barney. Which isn’t hard, frankly. There’s three-week old cheese in the fridge with a better beard than Barney.
Price: £299.99
From Tomtom
Park Tools MTB Premium Rescue
Lots of tools, neat package. Rotor truing tool, chain tool, piston press, spanners, nipple wrenches (suave), tyre levers and the all important bottle opener – and lots more!
Price: £27.99
From: Madison
Yup, that’s it for this week! ENJOY the gloriousness of the weekend, don’t get too wet – or if you do, make sure you do it in style!
ST out.
Comments (6)
Comments Closed
Well there be a Alu cooker frame only option too?
Come on guys; those first few pics are underexposed by at least a stop.
That Pace just looks right, really really nice.
Flange is better than suave.
And I soooo had to have 24 rather than 21 speed.
just me or does this go a little ‘miranda hart’ in places?
Din brinking a bit av you?