Well you were going to have a musing on the habits of geese, the first (no doubt false start) signs of spring, and the joy of listening to birds as you ride in to work. But then this happened:
It was the vigorous flapping sound that first distracted from the musings of geese. But having located the source of the noise, there was nothing else to be done but to stand and gaze in wonder. Wonder only compounded by the knowledge that the occupants of the house have only just moved in – making a good impression with the new neighbours is clearly not high on the list of priorities. And then greater wonder, that such a thing is in such demand that someone has actually manufactured one.
So no musings on geese. Just wonders of manufacturing. Let us proceed to more wonders of manufacturing, it’s Fresh Goods Friday!
Gore C5 Trail Long Sleeve Jersey & C5 Light Cap
- Price: £54.99 (Jersey) £24.99 (cap)
- From: Gore
Gore has perhaps been better known for its roadie kit and somewhat Eurostyle MTB kit, but this year sees a rebrand and some definite mountain bike baggy styles. There’s no more division between the running and bike kit, with it all coming under a single ‘Gore’ brand. Here we have our very own running man Andy wearing a super light cap, ideal for hot weather as it is made of really floaty light fabric, with a reflective strip down the middle. He’s also modelling the first of the four jersey colours available in this new mountain bike friendly baggier cut.
Gore C5 All Mountain Shorts
- Price: £99.99
- From: Gore
As well as getting a bit baggier, the shorts have got longer, so you should find they meet your knee pads. These have two way zips for either added pad space or ventilation, a couple of zipped pockets for valuables, and stretch panels for bike wrestle-wriggling.
Gore C5 Trail Long Sleeve Jersey
- Price: £54.99
- From: Gore
This is the blue jersey option – with those blue shorts. There are also red, green or grey/black jerseys with matching shorts. The whole range of MTB kit is limited to these four colour options, so you can mix and match between jerseys and shorts to get the fit and function you want.
Gore C5 Trail Short Sleeve Jersey
- Price: £49.99
- From: Gore
Here’s the short sleeved baggy jersey in the black/grey option, again it comes in the same array of colours as the long sleeve. As with the long sleeved version, they’re a looser fit than we’ve seen from Gore previously. There are no bells and whistles, no pockets, just a couple of reflective tabs on the hips and an abrasion resistant fabric construction.
Gore C7 Pro Gloves
- Price: £
- From: Gore
Thin and light gloves for those that really want to be able to feel the ride. The palms and fingers are vented for cooling as you whip your way down the hillside – no doubt helped along by the aero effects of the snug fit?
Gore C3 Mid Socks
- Price: £12.99
- From: Gore
Available in a range of red, black or yellow in a choice of dot or stripe pattern, these are new socks from Gore that are a bit longer than in the past. They’re not slacker though, obviously, because slack socks would be bad. What you can’t see in this photo is that they’re left and right footed – there’s an L or R on the bottom of each sock to keep you straight.
Gore Windstopper Jersey and C7 GoreTex Cap
- Price: £140 (jersey), £29.99 (cap)
- From: Gore
A lightweight windproof jersey for cooler days, with three pockets on the back in the classic cycle jersey style. Has a natty red sleeve that will match Gore bib shorts too. Which strangely enough we haven’t persuaded anyone to model. We’ll bring you a look at those, along with a few other Gore items we’ve not had chance to model, next week. Chipps has coupled the jersey with a waterproof cap, so he’s hedging his bets a little on the weather front.
Off Grid Energy Tablets
- Price: £4.60 per pot/£11.50 for 3
- From: Off Grid
With no sugar, no aspartame and no synthetic caffeine, these are from a new brand. They’re made with guarana, rhodiola, green coffee beans, and ginseng – all of which are apparently good for mental alertness and memory. Maybe we’ll just have the lot right now. Bzzz. Speaking of bzzz, it has got a touch of manuka honey in it, so is not suitable for vegans. Speaking of vegans, let’s have a brief aside…
Amanda (vegan) has been on a press trip in France. We’ve experienced before the French approach to vegetarianism: confusion, followed by lots of cheese. Amanda has spent a couple of days fending off cheese. By last night she was pretty hungry, so was looking forward to some food – and hoped that they now understood that she is vegan, and what that meant. And then this text arrived:
Amanda is winging her way back to us now, a little lighter after three days of bread and water rations and hard riding. Check in on the 1st March to find out what secret new stuff she’s been testing out!
Fox Attack Pro Water Jacket
- Price: £200
- From: Fox Head
Uncertain Ross is modelling this waterproof jacket from Fox. It’s designed to be breathable and waterproof, and to sit comfortably on the body in a mountain biking ‘attack’ position. It’s got a bunch of features beneath its subtle exterior, such as reflective patches, sticky shoulder grippers for your packs, and abrasion resistant fabric.
Fox Attack Pro Shorts
- Price: £125
- From: Fox Head
Long shorts with a 4-way stretch fabric, tons of laser cut ventilation, and a couple of zipped pockets to keep your belongings safe. It has a ratchet style waist fastener too, to keep your belly safely tucked away.
Fox Attack Pro Jersey
- Price: £65
- From: Fox Head
The body of this jersey is ‘Polartec® Delta™, a cutting-edge fabric which not only wicks sweat but actually lowers your body temperature as you ride’ – so we’d best wait a while before we wear it or we’re going to get hypothermia. It feels like a lightweight sort of mesh fabric, and the sleeves are made of Cordura, with laser cut ventilation, so you can keep cool but not snag on those bushes as you ride by in a cloud of dust.
Smith Attack Glasses
- Price: £195.00
- From: Smith Optics
These have interchangeable lenses so you can swap them out according to conditions. All the lenses are made to maximise clarity of vision – so be glad you’re not wearing them now, imagine having to look at Chipps in extra detail. Magnets make it very easy to swap between lenses, but hold them together securely. They’ve also got hydrophilic nose and temple pads to keep them in place when things get sweaty.
Kryptonite KryptoLok
- Price: £69.99
- From: Kryptonite
This is a folding lock that you can fold up to carry around on your bike or in your pack, then open out to wrap round a bike stand, lamp post, bike that isn’t yours etc. It weighs approximately 1kg.
Kryptonite Keeper 12 STD U-Lock
- Price: £34.99
- From: Kryptonite
This new lock has a double deadbolt for added security and is ‘Sold Secure Silver’ standard. It’s also available as a mini version and a long shackle version.
By the time you’re reading this, the London Bike Show will be well underway. Pop along and see us at our stand – which looks to be ideally placed for watching the Air To The Throne display of ludicrous tricks.
On to the tune then. We’re having this for no reason other than Jazzy Brian and his band at Chipps’ birthday party played this and other tunes so well that I-never-dance-Hannah was compelled to go and have a jump about on the dancefloor.
Strut your stuff and shake your thing (no, not that thing, please), let the weekend begin!
Comments (1)
Comments Closed
Has it ever been mentioned before that Chipps looks eerily like John Malkovich?