Fresh Goods Friday 277

It’s been quite the week at ST towers. The Bike Place, Core Bike, and now at least two members of the ‘team’ are blurry eyed, under duvets, with thermometers probably sticking out of unusual places in which thermometers are not usually meant to be stuck*. Get well soon, Rob and Hannah!

But LIFE MUST GO ON! And for this particular minuscule fragment of the internet, that means a gloriously languid, nonchalant look at the new, the spangly, the impressively carbonaceous Fresh Goods Friday!

*nostrils?

Propain Tyee CF Race

This build: €4,299

From: Propain
First up in the carboniferous stakes is the impressively verdant Propain Tyee CF. Carbon fibre, 160mm front and rear travel – and it’s got ‘enduro’ metaphorically written all over it. Oh yeah.Magura brakes do the stopping, with Barney-approved dinner-plate sized 203mm F and 180mm R rotors for maximal stoptacularity.
This build has an X1 rear mech…

…and an XO1 chainset with scuff bumpers for maximum start-line posing.
It’s quite a tidy looking suspension system – centre of gravity is nice and low, kinematics look very promising, and that shock would probably be in the way of clart from the rear wheel…
…were it not for this substantial looking carbon fibre guard. Nice. We’re looking forward to giving this one a good thrashing.

SantaCruz Hightower CC XO1

Price: £5,379

From: Santacruz

If you don’t know about this, you’ve been hiding under a rock. It’s SantaCruz’s new spangly 29er/27.5+ chubster  – emphatically NOT a Tallboy LT 2, the geometry is closer in feel to a Bronson. It’s a lot longer in both reach and toptube than its predecessor, and it’s 2.5 degrees slacker in the headtube. More modern geometry, then, and in this scribe’s opinion it’s verr’ pretty. Barney’s even ridden it in Far Away Places before bringing it back here, still dusty, the SWINE.VPP3 suspension with redesigned pivot. Travel is mid range 135mm. This chip is the secret to happy enchubbification – you can keep the BB the same height and fix the angles to run either 29in or 27.5 plus tyres. Of course, if you run it as a 29er there’s loads and loads of clearance…

..not least as it’s boosted back and front. This one has SRAM X01 drivetrain with RaceFace turbine cranks……and SRAM brakes too. The slither will duly be embraced, worry not, mudfans!

Stan’s Flow EX Wheels

£450

From: Paligap

We’ve got an upcoming wheel grouptest – so what have we here? A pair of 26in wheels?? Crikey… Will wonders never cease? These puppies are aluminium, with a 25.5mm internal diameter rim width and NEO hubs. Claimed weight for the 26in wheels is 1837g.

Gamut Podium Pedals

£109.99

From: Madison

Oh, now these are nice. DH strong, with 295g weight? No bushings; only cartridge bearings? Pins that screw in from the back? And thin, too? Mmmm.

Maglock Magnetic Pedals

Price: £90

From: Maglock

Something a bit different, these – we first covered them last year and now we have a pair in to test! Flat pedals with extremely high strength neodymium magnets in them to lock your feet in place, without the physical restraint of metal clips and springs and things. The ‘cleats’ are steel blocks, which attach to your shoes in the usual way. Could be just the job; in terms of attachment we suspect they’ll be a halfway house between SPDs and flats. We’ll let you know! They’ll also presumably be dead handy for picking up screws and things from the carpet. And retrieving your iron hamster from behind the sofa.

HT AE05 Alloy Flat pedals

Price: £99.99

From: Ison Distribution

The last of the flat pedals which have come in this week are these pretty looking numbers from HT. Slim (11mm thin above the axle, held up by a mixture of bushings and bearings, back-screw pins, wide platform and a rather natty blue colour. You can adjust the nut at the end of the axle to remove play from the EVO bearing you can see next to it. Yarrp.

Spiuk Xenda Helmet

Price: £69.99

From: Silverfish

A new MTB lid from Spiuk, those hard-to-pronounce types from Spain. Lots more coverage than their other MTB hat, the Tamera, but keeping the light weight and distinctive looks.

GT Avalanche Trail Helmet

Price: £35.99

From: Cycling Sports Group

Trail lid, lots of protection, natty black and white colourscheme and a disturbing head it’s ensconcing. I’d be traumatized enough by that face though, if it weren’t for this:

GT Helion Helmet

£44.99

From: Cycling Sports Group

Um. This is the GT Helion helmet. Slightly different construction to the Avalanche, 18 vents, ratchet fitting system, and natty blue too! I’m trying to ignore the psychopath underneath…

Clif Bar Goodies

Price: Various

From: Clifbar

Clif stuff! And lots more goodies that Hannah brought back from the Core Bike 2016 show. There will be more gear from Core coming up in next week’s Fresh Goods, it’s just that for this one, Hannah was really, really hungry.

Builder’s protein bar. Contains protein for the growth and maintenance of muscle mass, apparently. And not actual builders. It’s a bit like shepherd’s pie not containing shepherds. Although they do look after them… do cyclists look after builders? I suppose if they’re doing some work on the house they might… I’ll shut up now.

I like the crunchy peanut butter Clif bar, but Hannah’s snaffled the whole lot of them, so no peanut butter goodness for me. *sob*

And here are the new spangly Mocha gels, with 50mg of caffeine to keep you properly wired. Don’t forget it takes 30 mins for caffeine to kick in, and it lsts for up to 6 hours folks! Would mocha gels let the fabled ‘other’ caffeine effect to kick in, we wonder? Or is it all placebo this days?

…which brings this to mind:

And with that, we’re off! Apparently it’s less snowy than it was going to be, so snowballs are off the menu, but soggy trailriding is back on! Hurrah! Have a lovely weekend, everyone.

ST out.

---