Well, it’s raining. Hard. As predicted accurately by us – or anyone else with access to the internet, or a weatherman in the dungeon. And we know what this means!
Slither!
It means sideways grappling with trails which are more usually ridden with one wheel in front of the other. And it means fun – as long as you get the clothing right, the hilarity usually follows – but don’t forget the clothing (I particularly hate the repeated wet slap of soggy short against thigh). Or you could, of course, put off the inevitable moistness by sitting in front of your monitor/screen/ipad at t his week’s Fresh Goods Friday!
Last week, someone (we’re looking at you, Stuart) accused Fresh Goods of getting all Miranda Hart, which is a frankly preposterous thing to say. We don’t know the first thing about midwifery. Arf.
*pratfalls off chair*
Orange Five RS
Oh yes. The latest incarnation of the Five – a bike which in its essence has remained unchanged for many, many years. If it ain’t broke etc etc.
That’s not to say that nothing’s changed, though. Modern geometry, 140mm front and rear travel, powered by Rockshox; 1×11 drivetrain. Long top tube and trach, 66 degree head angle, and 74 degree effective seat angle. It’s got it all.
Short short stem, and wide bar combo (both by Renthal). And you’ll notice a certain unexpected (and welcome) change in shooting location – Chipps found a time machine nestled in a recess in his desk, behind the hobnobs, and sent the entire office back to the mesolithic, just so he could steal all the donuts.
Stiff single pivot suspension; 430mm chainstays. Plenty of clearance for the aforementioned mud…
They’ve got some very fancy folding technology in the factory in Elland – which you need to yield such complicated shapes. The bare components are then shipped a couple of miles down the road to Holywell Green for painting and assembly before being shipped out. This one has the optional Atomic Orange colour scheme.
Price:from £3,700 – Atomic Orange is £100 extra
From: Orange
Bliss protection
ARG Vertical LD Backpack
Has an integrated spine shield, as well as 12l of luggage storing room for those long adventures down gnarly steep things.
Price: £124.99
Day Top
A vest with armourgel spine padding.It’s also got pockets for whatever you like, and a bit for an included 2l bladder. It’s made with coconut shell fibres, so it’s antibacterial. W’re unsure whether you can use ot to make horsey impressions.
£129.99
ARG Vertical knee pad
Presumably ARG is the noise you don’t make when you fall off. The pads are making it for you, so to speak.
Price: £74.99
Minimalist and Vertical Extended Knee Pads
Minimalist knee pads – flexible armourgel so your delicate little joints can still breathe, and Vertical Extended knee pads in case your knees are preternaturally long…
Minimalist knee pads £39.99
Vertical extended knee pads £84.99
All Bliss gear from Madison
Shimano XT Wheels
They’re XT flavoured; they’re round, and they’re wide – it’s the XT trail wheels! 24mm internal width – so not craaazy wide, but still wide enough to make a difference.
Maximum of 44psi! And you can’t use rim brakes – don’t forget.
Price: F £179.99 R £199.99
from Madison
Schwalbe Hans Dampf Evo Super Gravity TL Easy 650B Tyres
It’s a super catchy name, folks! Essentially these are the easy folding, super flexible (the sidewall carcass has 4 layers of material, the cap only 2 layers; other gubbins and technological words and that promise DH performance at enduro weight. Tidy. And (this won’t be the first time I use it) BRAAAP.
Price: £55.00
From Ison Distribution
WTB Riddler Tyre
A sort of rear-specific tyre by those lovely people at Wilderness Trail Bikes, named after Nathan Riddle (no relation to Voldermort as far as I know) with very fast rolling top bits and very grippy edge bits for ultrahard cornering. Here it is installed on Matt’s bike, ready to schralp!
Price: £60
WTB Vigilante
An appropriate front tyre to complement sir’s rear tyre, perhaps? The Vigilante is the very thing (I’m getting a Batman vibe going on here…) An aggressive all-mountain tyre with Dual DNA and Gravity DNA rubber, apparently. But (and yes, here it is again) BRAAAP
From: Hotlines
Specialized Enduro Comp Shorts
Relaxed fit, long, baggy enough to fit armour underneath, breatheable – a quintessential trail short for the man-about-trail with an eye on style!
Price: £50
From: Specialized
Shimano XT 11 speed cassette
Fits on your back wheel; goes round a lot. This new 11 speed one has a 42 big cog, and an 11 tooth little one. The spider is aluminium to save money over XTR’s carbon.
Price: £79.99
Shimano XT Trail pedals
Minor tweaks from last year’s pedals – if it ain’t broke etc etc (again)
Price: £79.99
from Madison
Shimano 11 speed chain
Goes round the cassette thingy up there ^^, and – to paraphrase Mr Lebowski – really ‘ties the drivetrain together’. The eagle-eyed among you may have spotted that it’s the same as the Ultegra chain. Fancy that!
Price: £27.99
All from Madison
Gamut Trail SXR
A neat little top guide and bash combo from the lovely folks at Gamut. It’s ISCG-05, comes with a top guide and a choice of two ‘burrito’ bash guards; one for 28 -32t and a 34-36t too. Mmmmm, burritos…..
Price: £69.99
From: Madison
TwoNav Anima + GPS and HRM
Snazzy-looking GPS device with a heart-rate monitor (you can also get it with a cadence monitor too) – they all liaise with each other via bluetooth. Touchscreen, ANT+ connectivity and voice guided on-road navigation, it says on the back of the box. Coo!
Price £369.99
From TwoNav
That’s all for this week – some of us are tooling up to survive the slog home, smug in the knowledge that we’ve ridden in today, and we’re getting fit no matter what. Others of us, who drove in because of the rain, would be feeling equally smug were it not for the fairly high likelihood that the carpark will be under water come home time.
Ah well.
Have a great weekend everyone!
ST out.
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Comments (2)
Comments Closed
Hmm, interesting rubber from WTB.
I have an empty office this afternoon – I might try some chair swivels and falls…
Hope you guys compare the Riddler to the Trail Boss, look pretty similar but the Riddler looks even faster.