Is it really Friday? Have we actually survived a whole week without proper coffee? No, this is not a Singletrack Towers health drive, this is a forced into abstinence scenario.
On Monday, our long standing faithful employee the coffee machine kind of exploded a bit onto Mark. Health and Safety notices were issued. The coffee machine was not to be used. It was switched off. Which is probably just as well – it takes quite a while to heat up, and there are those of us here who might otherwise have been prepared to risk a scalding in the quest for coffee.
A saviour was found. Someone who could come and fix the coffee machine. Shakily and slowly we came into work on Tuesday, safe in the knowledge that Nigel the Fixer would soon come to our rescue. Then a second disaster struck – he was called away to another coffee machine, to a cafe, whose needs were deemed to be more urgent than ours. Yes, they’re a cafe, but don’t they understand that our business is just as dependant on the smooth flowing of coffee as any coffee shop? We have needs too!
And so we sit. Forlorn in our tower. Waiting, hopefully, for Nigel the Fixer. Quite honestly, we don’t know what we’ll do if he proclaims the coffee machine irrepairable. Surely, if we don our hi-vis jackets, we could safely switch the machine on, just for a bit? Just one, short, teeny, espresso?
*wails*
HOW LONG CAN THIS SUFFERING GO ON!!!
Sorry. We’ll get a grip on ourselves. First world problems and all that. The show must go on. And so, without the assistance of coffee, we bring you Fresh Goods Friday*
*May contain less jabbering that usual.
Genesis Tarn 20
- Price: £1799.99
- From: Genesis
Looking strangely small in this picture – for it is in fact a humungorous size to fit our James – this is a 27.5+ steel hardtail from Genesis.
With 120mm travel up front and a hardtail rear end, this is going to be a fun change for James, who has been on a lot of big bouncers of late.
The Tarn 20 sits at the top of the Tarn range. There’s also a Tarn 29 -set up with 29in wheels – and a Tarn 10, which has 27.5+ and a slightly lower specced build kit. You could always go for the frameset option and build your own of course.
Ritchey WCS Trail Mountain Pedals
- Price: £164.99
- From: Ritchey
With a forged alloy cage for a larger footprint and greater stability, these pedals have a bushing, needle and cartridge bearing system for long service life and protection from the elements.
Ritchey Trail 35 Stem
- Price: £84.99
- From: Ritchey
For this stem, Ritchey has revised the patented C260 clamp to a 220-degree version that fits a wider variety of riser bar bends and still gives increase in stiffness and strength.
Ritchey WCS Locking Trail Grip
- Price: £26.99
- From: Ritchey
Made from dual density, no-slip Kraton rubber with dual side secure locking and anodized and laser etched end caps. And we love this green. So fresh, like the first shoots of spring.
Ritchey Trail 35 Rizer Mountain Bar
- Price: £71.49
- From: Ritchey
Triple butted 7050 alloy bars with 15mm rise. 780mm wide and 35mm OD. Fashionable numbers there then.
Giant Full E+1
- Price: £4099
- From: Giant
A second bike! This time an e-MTB from Giant, in the form of the Full E+1. It’s a 27.5in wheeled alloy plus bike, though as it comes with 2.6in tyres it’s the ‘new plus’. Plus-lite? Plus-minus?
Hannah will be riding this full sus e-MTB with 140mm travel front and rear. Actually, truth be told, she’s already been out on it – with assist to help her up the hills it gives her time to squeeze in an off road commute. Much nicer than the valley bottom.
The motor is a Giant SyncDrive Sport, 80Nm, 250W.
There are three levels of assist.
Equipped with a dropper post, this is a trail bike for trail riding – it just has a motor to help you get out there.
Wolftooth 1×10 Goatlink
- Price: £19.95
- From: Leveret
A little thingammyjig to get your derailleur correctly positioned when using a large cassette expander on a 1×10 set up. Also available in 1×11 version.
Manitou Magnum Pro Fork
- Price: £699.99
- From: Hayes
The Magnum is “specifically tuned to maximize the rolling inertia of the larger tyre patch”. The Manitou Magnum was one of the first suspension forks built for the new Plus size bikes and came fitted to top-end Trek Stache bikes. The suspension is tuned to work with the more supple, lower pressure tyres. And obviously comes in Boost only with tons of room for tyres up to 3.0. Ours here is 140mm travel with a 15mm thru-axle.
Manitou Mattoc Pro2 Fork
- Price: £619.99
- From: Hayes
Mattoc Pro 2 is the result of three years of racing and test feedback from riders all over the world. Incorporating the same dual-chamber, self-regulating air spring and Hydraulic Bottom-out system as found in Manitou’s race-pedigree Dorado DH fork, the Mattoc Pro 2 is largely regarded as the ‘downhiller’s enduro fork’. Ours is a 160mm travel beastie.
Syncros Matchbox 16 Multitool
- Price: £24.99
- From: Scott Sports
16 piece multi-tool including a chain breaker and a magnetic chain link holder. Ninja.
Stem CAPtain Clock
- Price: £22.99
- From: Cyclorise
If you’re like Hannah and always wondering how much time you’ve got before you have to be somewhere, then this could be for you. No more scrabbling to see your watch when it’s buried under your carefully tightened layers, or stopping to root for your phone in your pack. Just glance at your headset. Is there time for that extra trail? Or the route that goes via that pub?
Backcountry Research Tül Bag
- Price: £15.99
- From: Cyclorise
Big enough for a multi-tool, co2 trigger, tyre lever, spare links and your beer money. It has a sealed zip, rip-stop fabric on the front and a grippy rear to ensure it stays put in your jersey pocket.
Africa Solo by Mark Beaumont
- Price: £14.99
- From: All good bookshops
Mark Beaumont’s account of attempting to ride from Cairo to Cape Town in under 50 days. Very impressive – all that way in so little time, and he found time to write a book along the way?
Now we’re not obsessed, or addicted, or dependent, or feeling sorry for ourselves, but COFFEE. We can think of little else. This weekend may be spent doing long rides with caffeine gels, just to offset this week of abstinence. What will you be getting up to?
Comments (8)
Comments Closed
Hang on, didn’t you feature a coffee gadget last week for Espresso on the go from the distributor over the hill in Burnley, problem solved surely?
Looking forward to a demo of the ‘magnetic chin link holder’…
@gavalar The rest of team Singletrack took the Handpresso south to the London Bike Show.
Surely one of the mobile espresso franchises could park outside Singletrack Towers and dispense gallons of life-affirming beverage?
Or maybe that’s a Southern thing.
All of the coffee gizmos have been taken down to the London Cycle Show…
Someone MUST have an Aeropress knocking around??
Ooooh! A Giant mobility scooter.
Awful cover of one more cup of coffee. P,ease delete and link Bob Dyans version. Coffee deserves better