Fresh Goods Friday 305

It’s been a week of tired eyes at Singletrack HQ. The signs of deadly hangovers have been ever present. Bloodshot eyeballs, droopy eyelids, and overtired bodies have been shuffling in and out of the office every day this week. Grunting has become the main form of communication between staff members (more so than usual), while the tapping of keyboards has been just a little quieter than it normally is. Well, except for Chipps’ new ‘tactile’ keyboard that he bought this week, which is quite possibly just as loud as his Hawaiian shirts. Obnoxiously loud keyboards aside, it’s been a subdued atmosphere in the office this week. However, the signs of fatigue aren’t actually due to over-indulging in deadly sins of the alcoholic kind (we know, we’re surprised too).

Instead, they’re the result of late nights from being glued to TV’s/tablets/phones watching the first week of the Olympic games in Rio. Sure the mountain biking hasn’t started yet, but there’s been heaps of exciting cycling-related stuff to watch, and it’s been keeping us up all night long. How gnarly were the women’s and men’s road races? Those crashers were insane! And a timely reminder that while mountain biking is inherently dangerous, it ain’t got nothing on what those road racing peeps do on a regular basis. Oh, and don’t get us started on the Time Trial event – have you ever ridden a TT bike? Wil says he has, and that they’re a bloody death trap, let alone riding one IN THE FREAKING RAIN. (It should also be noted that Wil can’t ride on rollers though, so take his opinion with grain of salt).

Cycling aside, there’s also been a whole bunch of bizarro sports that we get to pretend we’re expert commentators on every four years. Like Race Walking. You know what we mean when we ask “what the actual hell is that?” Mind you, if you’re looking for quality commentating, then you gotta watch the Ozzy Man’s review of the diving (proceed with caution if you’re sensitive to foul language…)

So you’ll have to bear with us for the moment, because we’re a little under-slept. And slightly stabby from listening to Chipps’ new tap-dancing keyboard.

But all of that doesn’t matter right now, because we have a coffee machine and it’s FRESH GOODS FRIDAY!

POC Tectal Race Helmet

• Price: £169.99
• From: 2Pure

The Tectal is one of the latest lids from POC. It’s a cross between the road cycling Octal helmet, and the existing Trabec trail helmet. Together…with their powers combined…this helmet is…CAPTAIN TECTAL!*

No, that’s not actually true, though Captain would be a sweet name for a helmet right? This one’s actually called the Tectal Race. At a claimed weight of 340 grams, it comes in a little lighter than the existing Trabec, and it also has better (more) ventilation too. What’s surprising is that it offers a little more coverage around the back of the head, making it a better spec’d helmet in almost every respect.

POC products always look like they could be a really cool 3D jigsaw puzzle. Either that or some kind of tasty piece of candy. We secretly wish that their name stood for Piece Of Cake, but sadly it doesn’t. It actually stands for Point Of Contact. Which is kind of boring, but then we’d probably prefer to wear a helmet while mountain biking rather than a piece of cake. That’s just silly. You’d need a pretty big cake to offer any kind of protection anyway, and something that would offer up a decent crumple zone. Probably a sponge cake I guess, or perhaps a meringue?

Mmm…Cake.

So back to the Tectal. For a start, it’s got all the good stuff; EPS core, PC outer shell, adjustable visor, adjustable harness, and a neat split-strap system around the ears that looks really comfortable. POC have reinforced the outside of the helmet with what they refer to as a ‘unibody shell construction’, which basically means the polycarbonate panels interlock to create a stronger one-piece structure. Oh and it’s got a neat elasticated goggle clip on the back for carrying…goggles.

One of the unique design features of POC helmets is the use of Aramid fibre, and it’s utilised on the Tectal Race helmet too. Aramid fibre is the same stuff you’ll find in the beads of high-end folding tyres (Kevlar is a type of aramid fibre), and it’s super strong and highly cut resistant. POC use it in their helmets to help reinforce the internal structure to keep it in one piece in the event of a heavy duty crash. Though we’re kinda hoping we don’t have to test that out on the trail.

LIM Essens Down Jacket

• Price: £199.99
• From: Haglofs UK

There’s nothing more suspicious than a man loitering in a dog park without an actual dog. Then again, with an expression like that, you’d be likely to appear suspicious anywhere.

So Kevin is modelling a superlight down jacket from Haglofs. This piece of high-tech goodness is claimed to weigh under 200 grams, giving it quite an incredible insulation-per-gram ratio. It’s built with a lightweight ripstop fabric shell, and 800-fill goose down. While it might be sunny and warm at the moment…ok, who are we kidding. You don’t need to wait for winter, this jacket is perfect right now.

Sugoi RSE Alpha Jacket

• Price: £149.99
• From: CSG

The enthusiasm is infectious! Maybe Kevin’s just upset he forgot to bring his dog. Anyway, this is another lightweight jacket, but this time it’s from Canadian brand Sugoi, and it uses a very svelte ‘aero’ cut with a lightweight woven outershell and an insulated thermal inner fabric to keep you warm. Minimal bulk with maximal warmth where it counts, this looks like quite the versatile piece, and Kevin looks glad its over.

Fabric Semi-Ergo Grips

• Price: £15.99
• From: CSG UK

Fabric continues to expand its cycling range in 2016, with a growing line of saddles, innovative tools, and grips. Based upon their lovely silicone grips, the semi-ergo grips have got bulgy inner-sections that are designed to line up with the pockets in your palms when they wrap around the bars. Single lock-on clamp on the inside to keep them tight.

Victorinox Bike Tool

• Price: £34.00
• From: Victorinox UK

From the crew that brought you the original Swiss Army Knife comes the BikeTool. While it doesn’t have any cool saws or toothpicks, the BikeTool does look like a useful little gadget for the trail, with 8 bits held within their own plastic carrier that features integrated tyre levers. A decent sized L-shaped allen key provides the necessary leverage, and holds the socket head to supports each bit.

Bottle Pod

• Price: £19.99
• From: Gone Biking Mad

Storage solutions are so in right now. And why wouldn’t they be? Can we finally get past the concept of strapping tools and spare inner tubes with electrical tape to our multi-thousand pound rigs? Assisting in the not-using-electrical-tape movement, Bottle Pod have a neat storage solution for making use of a spare bottle cage on your bike.

A protective case features a zippered closure to keep your valuables safe inside. Don’t want to carry your keys and spares inside your jersey pockets where they dig into your back? Then why not stow them inside this neat little pod. You could even fit a banana in there. Or hot dogs even. Maybe cake?

ITUO XP2 (1500 lumens)

• Price: £134
• From: Bright Bike Lights

New lights from the crew at ITUO. You might recall that we previously tested ITUO’s bar-specific Wiz20 light earlier in the year, where it earned a Singletrack ‘Recommended’ label. This dinky little number here features the same 1500-Lumen output as the Wiz20, but uses an external battery back and offers the ability to mount to your helmet.

ITUO XP3 (2300 lumens)

• Price: £157
• From: Bright Bike Lights

Aptly named the XP3 (it’s got three LED’s duh…), this slightly bigger head unit pumps up the jams, and the Lumens to 2300. The LED’s are CREE XM-L2 U3’s (we know, catchy), and apparently feature active thermal management to stop them from melting your helmet shell. They’ve got some impressive specs on paper, so we’ll be interested to see how they fair in the slop of a British winter. Stay tuned…

nuun Energy Tablets

• Price: £6.49
• From: Extra

It seems that everyone is getting on board with BOOST these days, even sports nutrition companies like nuun. But is nuun BOOST just an annoying new standard that will force you to upgrade your existing bottle just so you can fit in the new formula? Have no fear, because the new nuun formula is still compatible with your old bottle! Same delicious taste, and same hydrating isotonic minerals that help your muscles to avoid cramp, but now with a stripped-back formula that has replaced some of the existing ingredients with natural plant-derived alternatives. Just like the nuun drink we’ve come to love, the new nuun formula comes in tablet form, so all you gotta do is drop it into your bottle/reservoir – no messing around with conspicuous white powders spilling all over the kitchen bench.

Continental Der Kaiser Projekt 2.4in

• Price: £59.95
• From: Continental

New treads from Continental. Made in Germany and nicknamed “The Emperor”, these chunky rubbers are meaty indeed. They’re designed to offer masses of traction in the kind of disgustingly gnarly trail scenarios that you’ll typically find during an Enduro World Series round, though there are also downhill versions available too. The ones we have here are the folding ProTection APEX versions, and they come in around the kilo mark for both the 27.5in and 29in diameters.

Solar Technical Women’s T-Shirt

• Price: £40.00
• From: Flare

Don’t dig the lycra-sausage look? UK brand Flare has got you covered with a range of sweet technical t-shifts like the Flare. Available in this sweet tie-dye throwback that has got us all thinking about peace and lurrrve maaaan.

Stage Women’s Enduro Shorts

• Price: £80.00
• From: Flare

Matching Enduro shorts, complete with just a hint of endoooro blue to tie-dye it all together. (See what I did there? Hey?? Ok, we’ll show ourselves out…)

Hope Pro 4 29er Enduro Wheelset

• Price: £380 (pair)
• From: Hope

‘And for my next trick…’

Ok, so these are some sweet new hand built wheels sent courtesy of Hope Technology. They’re going to be making their way onto James’ new Cotic Flare Max longterm test bike, so they’re specced with BOOST width hubs front and rear. Hope Pro4 hubs to be specific, which were introduced earlier this year.

The Pro4 hubs are available in a whole bunch of different options, including straight-pull versions and numerous axle configurations. They’re built snug and tight for wet British conditions, and the rear hub has had an upgrade on engagement, with a solid 4-pawl mechanism inside giving off that classic Hope clickity-click-click.

Being the ‘Enduro’ model, the alloy rims are built with a tough triple-wall design for lots of strength and muchos stiffness. They’re not super wide at 23mm internal (28mm external), but they promise durability and rigidity. Which is important if you’re bolting them to a slacked-out fun machine such as the Cotic Flare. Will James destroy them? Unlikely, but I’m sure he’ll give it his best shot.

DT Swiss XM 1501 Spline Wheelset

• Price: £764.98 (pair)
• From: Madison

Apparently Wil was standing like this for hours pretending to be a statue. We put a hat next to him to collect change for his busking efforts, but it turned out people gave him cash just because they felt sorry for him. Which we can understand completely.

Statues are boring, but new wheels from DT Swiss are not. They are quite interesting in fact, especially when they are this light and this wide. We’ve got a 27.5in version of the new Spline One wheels in to test, and they feature rims, hubs, spokes and nipples that are all made in house, then hand built in that same house. We’re not sure who lives in said house, but it would need to be someone who can put up with a decent amount of noise and thousands of employees making wheels.

The Spline One wheels are built around DT’s straight-pull hubs with a Centrelock rotor spline. Sealed bearings are found throughout, and the rear hub gets the proven Star Ratchet freehub mechanism.

Tiny thumbs, or wide rims? In this case, it’s probably a bit of both. Well, the rims are wide anyway – they’re 30mm internally, and 35mm externally. DT Swiss wrap them with tubeless tape from the factory, and they come with tubeless vales ready to go.

The Spline One range is available in multiple rim diameters, and multiple rim widths. Our test set features the 30mm inner rim width, but you can get a Spline One wheelset with a rim width from 22.5mm up to 40mm wide depending on what you need it for and what sort of tyres you’re going to run.

Brand-X Acsend Dropper Post

• Price: £139.99
• From: Hotlines

New dropper post from the Brand X stable at Hotlines. Sitting on the cheaper side of the spectrum, the Ascend dropper post uses cable activation with internal routing that sees the cable anchoring at the base of the post. It’s got a neat twin-bolt saddle clamp and a shifter-style remote lever.

The Ascend dropper post offers 120mm of infinite travel, and it’s constructed of AL7075 alloy, with a hard anodised main shaft. Brand X are claiming 550grams just for the post itself (not including lever and cable), and it also comes with a 2-year warranty.

And that about wraps it up for this week’s Fresh Goods Friday – phew! In an attempt to draw an extremely long bow, we’ll make the loose connection between the Rio Olympics and Ma-Ti, the Brazilian character from the 90’s TV show Captain Planet. For the millennial’s out there who recognised our slick reference we made earlier with the POC helmet, get ready to be transported back to your childhood with one of the greatest TV shows that was way ahead of its time.

Enjoy!

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