robot bike company r160 titanium carbon enduro bike rockshox lyrik monarch sram roam 60

Fresh Goods Friday 325

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It’s the last Fresh Goods Friday of the year. The last of 2016 – and what a year it’s been. 50 years on, this tune still seems pretty relevant.

It’s been a tumultuous year for many. Childhood and teenage heroes died. Families divided along political battles lines. Leicester City won the Premier League. And e-MTBs flooded the market.

What will 2017 bring? Many of us would love a period of stability. Maybe a year where good things happen to good people, bad people are shown the error of their ways, weather is predictable, and political boundaries are overcome as everyone unites to save the planet and eradicate disease. Some may set their sights higher still, and hope for a standardisation of bike industry standards.

What are you hoping the year ahead will hold? We know one thing we want, that we have control of: we want to ride bikes.

Salsa Woodsmoke

  • Price: £1799 Frame only
  • From: Raleigh
salsa woodsmoke 29 plus + carbon hardtail
Whose nose is that?

Available in 27.5+, 29er and 29+ sizes, this is the 29+ version of the Salsa Woodsmoke, a carbon fibre 120mm travel hardtail.

salsa woodsmoke 29 plus + carbon hardtail
You’re twisting my melon, man.

Probably the most striking thing about this bike (which is saying something on a 29+ monster truck) is the elevated chainstay. This allows for a short rear triangle, and still gives room for a front derailleur should that be something you want. And you might, if you load this thing up with luggage and take to the mountains.

salsa woodsmoke 29 plus + carbon hardtail
A headset cap that’s synonymous with adventure?
salsa woodsmoke 29 plus + carbon hardtail
Alternator drop out.

The chainstay length is between 400mm to 417mm depending on how you set the bike up – with the ‘Alternator’ dropout you can singlespeed it, belt drive it, Rohloff hub it, or even have some gears with a rear derailleur, like we have here.

salsa woodsmoke 29 plus + carbon hardtail
You don’t have to go 1x.

We have this set up with a SRAM GX1 drive train.

salsa woodsmoke 29 plus + carbon hardtail
Here’s the other side of that Alternator dropout.
salsa woodsmoke 29 plus + carbon hardtail
It’s the New Style…BOOST!
salsa woodsmoke 29 plus + carbon hardtail
Chubby. Like some of us after Christmas.

3.0in tyres on a 29er? Genius or madness? Innovation or evolution? We shall see.

salsa woodsmoke 29 plus + carbon hardtail
There are many places to carry your bottles…

There’s room to carry a bottle of water, a bottle of electrolyte…

salsa woodsmoke 29 plus + carbon hardtail
Top tube snack box mounts. Could be a handy spot for a pump too…

…and a bottle of Ribena.

salsa woodsmoke 29 plus + carbon hardtail
Because one day we’re going to want to stop.
salsa woodsmoke 29 plus + carbon hardtail
Ba-doiiingg.
salsa woodsmoke 29 plus + carbon hardtail
Mmm…whisky.

salsa woodsmoke 29 plus + carbon hardtail

It’s a fairly light week for deliveries this week, so let’s have a musical interlude to  string things out a bit. Another tune that could be the soundtrack to 2016.

Robot Bike R160

  • Price: £4395 frame only, around £8000 this build
  • From: Robot Bike Co
Is this the future?

Before you head down to the comments sections and squawk ‘How Much?’, read on. This is like the supercar of the bike world, except that it will happily clear speed bumps. The Robot Bike (named after one of its designers, honest) is a custom-built titanium and carbon fibre beast with a DW-6 suspension linkage at its heart. Made in the UK, the bike features ‘Titanium Additive Manufacturing’ lugs (we’re not supposed to say ‘3D printing, but you get the idea) combined with stiff and light carbon fibre tubes, all held together with really clever glue.

robot bike company r160 titanium carbon enduro bike rockshox lyrik monarch sram roam 60

Due to the unique way in which the lugs are made individually for each bike, the geometry can be changed for every frame. While Robot Bike has a suggested set of angles, it will change the tube lengths and lug angles to fit your dimensions – and for an extra fee offers a fully custom geometry if you have a particular idea in mind – though to be fair, Robot Bike seems to have a pretty good handle on things.

robot bike company r160 titanium carbon enduro bike rockshox lyrik monarch sram roam 60
Titanium additive manufacturing, right?

 

robot bike company r160 titanium carbon enduro bike rockshox lyrik monarch sram roam 60
Internal cable routing and how about that integral head badge?

 

robot bike company r160 titanium carbon enduro bike rockshox lyrik monarch sram roam 60
Stock, suggested head angle is 65°

 

robot bike company r160 titanium carbon enduro bike rockshox lyrik monarch sram roam 60
Lookin’ at a Lyrik

 

robot bike company r160 titanium carbon enduro bike rockshox lyrik monarch sram roam 60
What better addition to a UK made frame than a UK made Renthal stem?

 

robot bike company r160 titanium carbon enduro bike rockshox lyrik monarch sram roam 60
Neato seat collar

 

robot bike company r160 titanium carbon enduro bike rockshox lyrik monarch sram roam 60
The 160 refers to the rear wheel travel

 

robot bike company r160 titanium carbon enduro bike rockshox lyrik monarch sram roam 60
The upper link of the Dave Weagle-designed suspension

 

robot bike company r160 titanium carbon enduro bike rockshox lyrik monarch sram roam 60
Skinny shock mounts, but hey, it’s titanium!

 

robot bike company r160 titanium carbon enduro bike rockshox lyrik monarch sram roam 60
Bolt on rear 142mm dropouts and a brand-new DW6 linkage.

 

robot bike company r160 titanium carbon enduro bike rockshox lyrik monarch sram roam 60
There’s another link hidden behind the bottom bracket too. It’s quite the ride.

 

robot bike company r160 titanium carbon enduro bike rockshox lyrik monarch sram roam 60
Unlike previous DW-link suspension designs, this also features a rear dropout pivot

 

robot bike company r160 titanium carbon enduro bike rockshox lyrik monarch sram roam 60
The hidden link allows subtle extension of the chainstay length under compression

 

robot bike company r160 titanium carbon enduro bike rockshox lyrik monarch sram roam 60
It’s all super-tidy wherever you look. And a threaded BB is the only non-replaceable threaded bit on the frame.

 

robot bike company r160 titanium carbon enduro bike rockshox lyrik monarch sram roam 60
We’re not sure how long this all takes to ‘print’ but it’s worth the wait

 

robot bike company r160 titanium carbon enduro bike rockshox lyrik monarch sram roam 60
A glimpse of that sneaky extra pivot under the BB

 

robot bike company r160 titanium carbon enduro bike rockshox lyrik monarch sram roam 60
Every join is hand assembled and glued with F1 precision

 

robot bike company r160 titanium carbon enduro bike rockshox lyrik monarch sram roam 60
The Monarch Plus shock helps on the bigger hits that you’ll be seeking out after ten minutes on the Robot

 

robot bike company r160 titanium carbon enduro bike rockshox lyrik monarch sram roam 60
Had enough of these neatly made lugs? We haven’t
robot bike company r160 titanium carbon enduro bike rockshox lyrik monarch sram roam 60
Despite a vaguely similar look, it’s definitely nothing like the Dyna-Tec frames of the ’90s

 

robot bike company r160 titanium carbon enduro bike rockshox lyrik monarch sram roam 60
We can see this being a popular bike in the test fleet while we have it

Cube Helmet AM Race

  • Price: £89.99
  • From: Cube
cube helmet blue hannah
Pouting is not Hannah’s forte.

With 17 vents to keep you cool, and additional protection to the back of the head to keep you safe.

cube helmet blue hannah
2016 has driven Hannah to this.

Paul Components Bottle Opener

paul components bottle opener

A bottle opener on one end and a 15mm brake adjuster on the other makes this one handy tool. And it’s got a bottle opener. And it can open bottles.

Fox 34 Volume Spacers

  • Price: £2.78 each
  • From: Mojo
fox suspension tokens air fork
For tuning your fork.

Get more performance out of your fork with these Volume Spacers.

Hope Pro4 SRAM XD Freehub Body

  • Price: tbc
  • From: Hope
hope freehub xd driver sram
Shiny Shiny.

Four Pawl Ratchet with 44 tooth engagement.

hope freehub xd driver sram
Tick tick tick tick.

Lazer Revolution Chin Guard

  • Price: £69.99 (comes with long visor)
  • From: Madison
lazer helmet revolution chinguard enduro full face
Protect your dental work?

The helmet that this goes with has been out for a while, and the chin guards are now here. Go Enduro for 2017? The chin guards ship with a longer visor, which helps the helmet look more balanced when you’ve got the chin guard attached.

Clement PDX Tyres

  • Price: £32.99
  • From: 2Pure
clement cyclocross tyres tubeless
Tubeless Tyres.

These were meant for Chipps to ride the Three Peaks Cyclocross in September, but they’ve only just arrived. Maybe he’ll use them to thrash a few over 60s in what remains of the winter Cyclocross season? Designed to be fast rolling, but with side grip for slippy corners and such like.

The Heacket

  • Price: RRP $249, Indiegogo offer $119
  • From: Indiegogo
chipps jacket winter warm cold heated heatket
So hot! Chipps, dashingly handsome as ever.

It’s a heated jacket! Designed specifically for activity with a strong, flexible heated panel, and equipped with three controlled heating zones. There is a durable wiring system attached to heating zones in the back and two front pockets. A quick switch-on shows it to be surprisingly effective. The jacket itself is a softshell design with water-resistant zips and an integrated hood.

chipps jacket winter warm cold heated heatket
Not a Hackett knock off.

The outer shells are built with durable fabrics that are wind and water resistant.

chipps jacket winter warm cold heated heatket
Warm me up Scotty!

It has a small rechargeable battery pack that fits neatly into a rear pocket.

And there we have it. The last Fresh Goods Friday for 2016. There’s a lot of pressure on choosing a tune to play out 2016. It’s fraught with danger – there is after all one more day of 2016 to get through. Fingers crossed we make it through to 2017. See you on the other side, in 2017. The year of happiness, light, and more bikes.

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