Fresh Goods Friday 309

After a whirlwind tour through Belgium, The Netherlands, Germany and Hull, our very own office boy band (their name is “Spoke*n” by the way) arrived back in the building this week following their annual pilgrimage to the Eurobike bicycle trade show in Friedrichshafen. Which is a shame, because we were quite enjoying the peace and quiet around Singletrack Towers in their absence. Not that any of them can sing, they mostly just dance out of sync to backing tracks. Badly.

One (the only?) upside of Spoke*n’s return to Singletrack Towers is that they brought some seriously fresh and exclusive gear back for us to check out, which means we can probably put up with their heinously unsexy attempts at the electric boogaloo. So without further ado, let’s have a look at some of the piping hot gear that’s part of this week’s FRESH GOODS FRIDAY!

German Maggot Pasta

• Price: €7.50
• From: Eurobike

Thanks to a weeklong diet of nothing but salted pork, pretzels, schnitzel, and weird maggot pasta, our office now has the odour of an old leather boot that’s been soaked in cheese and German foot-juice. If anyone has any potential bookings for Spoke*n that would involve them going on tour again, please, PLEASE get in touch with us ASAP.

X-Fusion McQueen Roughcut HLR Forks

• Price: £549.99
• From: Upgrade Bikes

Less odorous and much more appealing visually than our office boy band is this new McQueen fork from X-Fusion. It’s a 27.5+ fork that James has nabbed to test on the front of his Cotic Flare MAX longterm test bike. Big stanchions, big clearance and a big 110x15mm thru-axle.

There are two McQueen models, and this is the glitzier of the two. It’s got the new Roughcut HLR damper that (believe it or not) features more knobs than Spoke*n, so you can adjust to your hearts content. Air sprung, and quite a bit cheaper than the equivalent Fox 34 or RockShox Pike, so we shall see how good at stunting this McQueen really is.

RockShox Reba RL Forks

• Price: £TBC
• From: Zyro

Trust the Australian in the office to take a swing and a miss with the new RockShox Reba RL fork. Bad Wil, put the fork down. It’s not for smashing sixes (though we’re pretty sure this one is going straight through to the keeper), it’s for bouncing up and down on, and preferably when attached to the front of a mountain bicycle.

The latest Reba is available in a myriad of different options, though we quite like this fetching all-black number. It’ll take 29in wheels and 27.5+ wheels, and it’s BOOOOOOST’D.

SRAM Eagle Chainring

• Price: £87
• From: Zyro

Like the claws of a majestic eagle sinking deep into the flesh of a furry victim, so too do the teeth on the SRAM Eagle X-Sync chainring dig into the profile of your 12-speed SRAM chain for maximum retention-ing. New teeth profile promises better durability from an alloy chainring. Direct mount and all that.

Kali Protectives Interceptor Helmet

• Price: £TBC
• From: Kali Protectives

David’s body is still recovering from having vegetables and fresh fruit reintroduced to it after a weeklong Eurobike diet that consisted of salt, maggot pasta, salty croissants, buttered pretzels, salt, and salty meat. But while he sweats out all the gravy as his digestive tract attempts to repair itself, at least he will be protected on his rides with the new Kali Interceptor helmet. Some super cool tech in this lid that you should defintiely check out in David’s Kali Protectives Eurobike article.

Huck Norris Tubeless Puncture Protection

• Price: £TBC
• From: Huck Norris

Another rocking find at Eurobike was this Huck Norris tubeless protection system. Kind of like a cheaper Schwalbe Procore, the Huck Norris system uses simple high-density foam that goes inside your tubeless tyre to help protect the rim against heavy impacts that would normally damage the rim. We’ll be putting to the test to see if it works as advertised…

EVOC Lite Touch Glove Team

• Price: £TBC
• From: EVOC

New superlight gloves from EVOC, and in the same colour as Spoke*n’s matching underpants from their recent live show at the Golden Lion Pub in Todmorden. We didn’t get the chance to go see it (we were all really busy that night), but from all reports from the three people who unfortunately witnessed the show, it took about several hours to clean up all of their sick off the pub floor. Which funnily enough was the same shade of yellow as these gloves.

Norco Flask

• Price: You can’t buy me
• From: Norco

So David scored at Eurobike, with this empty flask provided to him by Norco. What should we fill it with? Leave your responses below, and we will attempt to fill it with whatever liquids we can afford!

WTB Mug

• Price: You can’t buy me
• From: WTB

A mug for a smug mug? Turns out David is the shwag king of Eurobike, after he sauntered into the office with all his wares. Next he’ll be taking Instagram photos in awkwardly adventurous locations with his new WTB mug filled with single-origin coffee that he made with an Aeropress and a gas cooker, which he painfully lugged up the side of a mountain.

WTB Sooper Dooper Intergalactic Socks

• Price: You can’t buy me
• From: WTB

Sooper Dooper Intergalactic Socks? More exclusive Eurobike un-purchaseable shwag, this time in sock form that apparently is only for use outside of the Earth’s atmosphere.

Maxxis Aspen Tyres

• Price: £44.99
• From: Extra UK

If these tyres don’t scream optimistically British, we don’t know what does. Actually, we can think of one other example: it’s the members of Spoke*n standing in line for the communal showers at their campsite at Eurobike hoping there’ll be zero eye contact from their European peers across the bathroom floor. Now THAT is optimistically British.

But back to the tyres. They’re for a ‘scary fast XC tyre grouptest’, and they’re certainly built for fast-rolling speed. Lightweight and supple 120 tpi casing and a sub-600 gram weight. Pwoar!

Moon Meteor Storm Pro Light

• Price: £TBC
• From: Raleigh

Brand new high powered front light from Moon. Well, not the moon. The Meteor Storm Pro Light confusingly comes from planet Earth. What isn’t confusing is its massive 1700 Lumen power output, battery life display, and it’s ability to be helmet or bar mounted. All-in-one design with no cables or extra battery packs.

Moon Shield-X Rear Light

• Price: £TBC
• From: Raleigh

Another brand spanker from the Moon is the new Shield X. A heart-palpitating 80 Lumens is punched out this tiny little body thanks to one solitary CREE XPG LED. Inside is a Lithium Polymer battery that’s USB rechargeable. Good things come in small packages right? Well if you’ve ever witnessed the dancing abilities of Spoke*n‘s smallest member, Andre, then you’ll know there are exceptions to that rule.

Skratch Labs Exercise Hydration Drink Sachets

• Price: £1.50
• From: Silverfish

US brand Skratch Labs has sent us more delicious treats for riding, this time in sachet form that makes them easy to stow in your pocket or backpack before dumping one into your bottle. Filled with natural good stuff, energy and minerals and available in lots of flavours. Currently not necessary for our Eurobike reporters, whose sodium levels are still through the roof.

The Coconut Company Organic Coconut Flour

• Price: £3.99
• From: The Coconut Company

If we told you this stuff was the ideal post-ride recovery fuel, would you call us crazier than a coconut? But seriously, Coconut Flour has loads of protein in it, so it’s the ideal baking agent for making tasty goods that you can eat on longer rides, post-training ride, or just for an afternoon snack when you’re a bit peckish. Hannah plans to turn this flour into delectable treats for hungry Singletrack employees. We’re envisioning a croquembouche?

Giro Terraduro Mid Shoes

• Price: £159.99
• From: Zyro

New kicks from Giro; the Terraduro Mids. Named appropriately due to their mid-top construction, these have got big flaps and lots of knobbly tread on the sole, so they’re very difficult to moonwalk in.

Flying Fergus Book By Chris Hoy

• Price: £4.99
• From: Flying Fergus

You know when something’s really good at something, and then it turns out they can do other stuff really good too? You know how that’s really annoying? Yeah, so that’s Chris Hoy. Turns out the track racing star can write like a boss too, and his latest children’s book has just come out. Wil has already nabbed this one, as it’s right around his reading level. Check out our review of the earlier Flying Fergus books.

Singletrack Issue #108

• Price: £4
• From: Singletrackworld.com

Here’s Wil attempting to read the latest issue of Singletrack, but really he’s just hiding the Flying Fergus book on the other side. But yes, the brand new issue of Singletrack Magazine has arrived fresh from the printers this week, and you can get your hands on a copy both in print and digital forms. Love what Singletrack does? Love the smell of fresh ink and the feel of those supple matte pages? Then show us your support and get yourself a copy here!

7Mesh Revelation Jacket

• Price: £TBC
• From: 7Mesh

Oh Rob, is that Gore-Tex? You must go on so many adventures! And by the looks of that face, it would appear that Rob just turning up to work and dealing with the residual odour of the Spoke*n members is an adventure unto itself. To help him cope with the challenging work conditions, the new Revelation Jacket features a fully waterproof construction and a hood for shielding his eyes against Chipps’ bright wardrobe choices.

7Mesh Compound Long Sleeve Jersey

• Price: £TBC
• From: 7Mesh

But Rob intends to fight back against Chipps’ loud wardrobe collection with this snappy number from Canadian 7Mesh. It’s a long sleeve jersey with some wind-fighting fabric on the arms and the front.

7Mesh Henley Short Sleeve Jersey

• Price: £TBC
• From: 7Mesh

Who wear’s a beanie with a t-shirt? A delirious Art Director of a mountain bike magazine who’s working on multiple deadlines this week? Yes, that would be our cherished Rob. A little simple and a little topsy-turvy, but charming nonetheless. And really, how could you not love that smile?

So like all of the 7Mesh apparel we’ve got in this week’s Fresh Goods Friday, the Henley SS jersey is next season’s kit, so we don’t have prices yet. But we can say that it does look lovely, and it feels schmicko too.

7Mesh Flightpath Short

• Price: £TBC
• From: 7Mesh

Baggy shorts from the adventurous peeps at 7Mesh. The Flightpath baggy shorts have zippered ventilation, pockets, and they’re designed to work optimally with legs.

Lezyne Enhanced Super GPS Computer

• Price: £129.99
• From: Upgrade Bikes

Lezyne dropped the news about a bunch of new GPS computers on us last month, and now we’ve got one to play with. It’s the Enhanced Super GPS, and packs in a whole bunch of new tech over the old Super GPS. All of Lezyne’s new GPS computers now provide you turn-by-turn navigation, so we plan on programming this one with the directions back to Friedrichschafen, and telling the Spoke*n members that they’re going on tour again.

In case you missed it, Nico from Lezyne joined us at Singletrack Towers this week to show us through some of the new Lezyne GPS computers. Nico, Bruce from Upgrade Bikes and Wil went on a bike ride around Todmorden, though poor Nico forgot his cycling shoes and had to put up with a two-sizes-too-small spare pair of shoes we had in the office. We’ve been informed that Nico no longer has toenails, so we don’t expect to see him back in Calderdale any time soon.

Aficionadi Assorted T-Shirts

• Price: $39 – 49 AUD
• From: Aficionadi

This is our second delivery from Australia this year, though admittedly this package looks a lot prettier than Wil, and its likely going to be a lot more useful too. It’s a bunch of casual mountain bike t-shirts from a Tasmanian company called Aficionadi. Aside from making sweet threads, Aficionadi is also the crew behind the incredibly rad-sounding event called “Bermfest 92”. What, you haven’t heard of it? Get familiar with it right now;

Here our headless IT manager models an Aficionadi Bermfest ’92 T-shirt. Unlike the 7Mesh garments we also received this week, the Aficionadi T-shirts are compatible with or without heads.

GT Bicycles x Hans Rey 30 Year Anniversary Watch

• Price: Priceless
• From: You can’t have it

You want this watch? Well you can’t handle this watch! No really, you can’t, it’s like super limited edition and stuff. Number 27 of 30 so we’re told. Mind you, that description came from a drunk Hans Rey during his party at Eurobike where he was celebrating his 30-year sponsorship with GT Bicycles. So who knows if it’s legit, but it sure looks purty!

Blackburn Switch Multi-Tool

• Price: £TBC
• From: Zyro

Another sweet little Eurobike pickup, this is a clever multi-tool from Blackburn called the Switch. The tool bits are double-ended to pack in a few more functions, and they can be loaded in either end of the handle depending on the tightening/loosening conundrum you’re facing. And it comes with a neat little pouch too.

Phew! So we think we’ve just about gotten to the bottom of the Fresh Goods Friday pallet for this week. That’s a whole load of gear that we’ll be putting through the wringer starting this weekend. In case you hadn’t heard already, Singletrack and Grit.cx will be rocking out at the Up The Buttress event in Hebden Bridge on Saturday, and we’ll also be riding our bikes around in circles on Sunday at the Monster Cross event in Derbyshire. If you head along to either event, make sure you come past and give us a high-5!

In the meantime, we’ve got one brilliant of piece of music to leave you with for this week. It’s Frontier Psychiatrist by The Avalanches (our third Australian delivery for this year), and it’s inspired by Hannah’s culinary attempts with her bag of Coconut Flour. Enjoy!

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