Fresh Goods Friday 257

Words of wisdom, wit and wassockry… it’s Fresh Goods time!

Barney is currently out at Eurobike so he isn’t around to pen us a poetic pre-FGF paragraph of puerility. Instead you get awful alliteration from those of us that remain confined to quarters in Todmorden. Interesting fact about Todmorden, while we are on the subject, is that it is derived from two ancient words for death – ‘Tod’ and ‘Morden’. So it effectively translates as Death-Death. The world’s best performing serial killer, Harold Shipman opened his first doctors surgery here too. These two ‘facts’ may or may not be connected. Anyway, on to to the more important issue of what has arrived at STHQ this week.

Liteville 301 Mk 12: All Mountain Factory Machine

Crikey. This, ladies and gentlemen, is the 301 from Liteville, a company who are not afraid of doing things differently. It’s dripping with 2×11 XTR Trail. Very bling indeed. The first thing you might notice is that the wheels are different sizes; 29in at the front and 27.5in at the back. This may inform the astute that this is an XL bike – a Long Termer for Our Jamie. The different wheel size thing goes on across the range; the XS bike comes with a 26in front wheel and a 24in rear one (like some DH bikes from years past, fact fans).

The Variospin head tube lets you tweak the headset angle by up to 1.5degrees. A basic reckoning on this one, involving Barney using his thumb, a slide rule, a tape measure and a log book, resulted in us checking the clinometer on an iPhone. We got somewhere in the region of 66 degrees.

The ‘All Mountain’ works machine comes with a Revelation. If Sir is after a Pike, Sir will be looking at the ‘Enduro’ build (which comes with – surprise surprise – 1×11 drivetrain!)

SQ labs provide the saddle. We’ve tried them in the office and although they’re not the most common in the UK, they can be very comfy indeed, under the right arse. And although they’re typically a *bit* nose down, we think Jamie might have to adjust this one a tad. Even he’s not that well endowed, despite what he keeps on telling us.

And that’s a 34.9mm seatpost for ALL TEH STIFFNESSES. The Seat Tube is dropper compatible, but Madam will therefore be running a shim [Ed. 34.9 droppers are available now].

Syntace hubs, and…

Syntace rims too. A Syntace wheel then, if you will. 35mm external diameter rims too. Nice and wide, in other words. For (yup – here it is) MAXIMAL BRAPPAGE!

Here’s the meat and potatoes of the Liteville philosophy – the unique rocker bisected by the top tube. Although it looks a bit ‘guillotine-y’, there’s little chance of slicing your carrot (so to speak) while riding – it’s actually pretty out of the way. Certainly more out of the way than it looks.

External cable routing on the down tube. The rear mech cable runs into the seat tube…

…goes out through the pivot, and into the chainstay…

…and emerges at the dropout pivot. Apparently this is the ‘most efficient’ routing. Nice little machined mech guard, too.

This is a neat little chain tensioner for your 2x systems, which will keep Jamie’s chain unflappable and out of the way, no matter what gear Jamie’s in.

XTR extends even to the brakes.

The Syntace X12 throughaxle has a handy little allen wrench on the end. And check out those pivots: that’s so you can run a 26″ or a 27.5″ (on this model – the different sizes vary, remember?) back wheel without affecting the geometry.

And finally, this little nubbin is all part of the sag setup. You sit on it, and get a mate to check whether it aligns with a little red thing on the inside of the rocker link. Sag nailed. Neat!

Price: €5,775
More info from Liteville

Now on to other stuff.

Moon… again!

We’ve got an upcoming lights grouptest in the mag and the goods are starting to flow. Now would be a good time to remind you that if you haven’t subscribed to Singletrack yet you can do so from just £1.49. Just hit this big yellow button of awesome to find out more.

Subscribe to Singletrack today from just £1.49

ADJ 1300

The ADJ is a blinding (both it terms of its goodness and, well, its ability to blind you) front light. It has a really quite hefty power pack for turning night into day and confusing nocturnal animals.

XP 2500

The XP 2500, as you’ve probably guessed from the name, pops a mighty powerful 2500 lumens.

Price: £179.99 (ADJ), £249.99 (XP).
From Moon.

Camelbak

L.U.X.E

Women, for the most part, are more curvy than men, therefore they generally need a bag as such to silhouette accordingly, and that’s what Californian container-makers Camelbak have done with these 3L’ers*.

*If wheels can be called “29ers” then bags can be called “3L’ers,” it will catch on, just you watch.

L.U.X.E NV

Both models feature the “Multi-Directional Magnetic Tube Trap.”

Price: £87.99 (both)
From Camelbak.

Lumicycle Explorer Extender Pro Pack

Lumicycle started out in a shed. No really, Mark interviewed the founder 16 years ago from inside a wooden garden shed in Bournemouth. There was a rake and spade in the corner and everything! They’ve moved on a bit now and these are their latest offerings. They put out a claimed 7000 lumens in boost mode, which is bright… VERY bright!

 

Price: £515
From Lumicycle

Hope Tech Vision

Right, so you probably understand the excerpt now (and you’ve just checked it again, haven’t you?). It’s more lights and these are from Hope Tech, the company that designs, builds and tests its products in little old Barnoldswick, England.

This is the R2i. It has six different settings and it’s pretty powerful considering it only weighs just over 250g.

Price: £185
From Hope Tech.

Vittoria Mystery Tyres

Ok, so these tyres came into the office and, as most people are out at Eurobike, we didn’t have a clue what or who they were for. What we do know is that they’re a prototype and they’re 27.5 inch. That is all. We’ll be back with more info on these when someone tells us.

NEWS JUST IN! They are apparently for Chipps and they contain Graphene, which is a good thing, we think.

Price: Uknown.
From Vittoria.

Asgard Bike Rack

 

It’s a bike rack but it’s unassembled cos’ we’re lazy because it just came in as we were taking pictures, honest. It goes with the Asgard shed which we reviewed a few weeks back.
From Asgard.

Socks!

New UK based, technical sock sellers Sock Mine sent us these.

They are merino and have Dennis and Gnasher on the back. Other designs for more mature adults are available, but these are just fine for us.

Price: £12
From: The Sock Mine

Findra make lovely merino clothing for ladies that looks as good off the bike as on it.

Here, Vic exclusively models the new Findra Caddon 100%  merino ladies riding top. You can’t even buy it yet it’s that new! Soon to be on sale from Findra in a couple of weeks.

Price: £85
From; Findra

Birzman Studio Tool Box

Birzman make some pretty good looking tools. They’ve neatly laid 37 of them out in this Studio Tool Box to keep your bike in a ship shape condition. There seems to be pretty much everything a home mechanic will need. We’ll be taking this to races for when Rich breaks something. You even get a decent sized persuader (hammer/mallet).

Price: £299.99

From: i-ride

And that’s it for today. As you read this most of us will be on a ferry from Rotterdam sipping cocktails and enjoying the cabaret and bingo as we return from Eurobike. Enjoy the long weekend and remember, riding bikes on a bank holiday is mandatory.

Click to read ALL our Eurobike 2015 coverage so far

ST out.

 

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