FGF 392: Sticky shoes from Giro, flat pedals from Shimano, and a weird expanding tubeless foam thingamabob

Good morning all, and welcome to the three hundred and ninety second edition of Fresh Goods Friday!

I honestly have sweet FA time for anecdotes this morning, because this week it has been ALL GOING ON. Hannah’s still off on her family holiday in the America, and Chipps is about to jet off in the same(ish) direction to go to Sea Otter next week. It feels like we’ve covered the release of a billion new bikes and forks this week, and are getting prepped for A LOT more to come. Oh, and we’ve had to sell the Singletrack Magical Mystery Bus, which is sadly coming towards the end of its lease life. If anyone has any suggestions of what our new work vehicle should be, we don’t have time to look, so we’re all ears for your recommendations!

Anyway, so you won’t be getting any long-winded stories with tenuous links to bikes this morning. Instead, here’s a great compilation of Japanese TV commercials;

And with that theme tune stuck in your head, let us march onwards through this week’s FRESH GOODS FRIDAY!

Liteville 301 MK14 All Mountain Factory Machine

• Price: €5640 + €480 (Syntace C33i carbon wheel upgrade) + €80 (SRAM Guide RSC brakes)
• From: Liteville

Fresh on our chopping block is the MK14 version of Liteville’s venerable 301 trail bike. Beautifully sculpted with a raw-finish aluminum frame, the classic 301 silhouette remains, but this version comes action-packed with all sorts of clever feats of design ingenuity that’ll have German engineering students getting hot under the collar.

There are no fewer than six frame sizes available in the 301, and both the rear suspension design and wheelsize changes throughout the range. While most sizes feature 27.5in wheels and 2.6in tyres, the XS size gets 26in wheels and the XXL gets 29er wheels, in order to keep the frame-to-wheel sizing proportional. The rear centre length also changes proportionally to each frame size – something that isn’t the case on most mountain bikes.

Suspension travel is balanced at 140mm front and rear, though Liteville also offers  a 160mm travel version too. We’ve got the All Mountain Factory Machine that comes spec’d with the huge Eightpins integrated dropper post, a RockShox suspension package, and yes – a front derailleur. Although Syntace alloy wheels normally come on this model, ours has been jazzed up with some carbon fibre C33i hoops that we’ll also be reviewing separately.

DT Swiss CRC 1400 Spline 24 Wheelset

• Price: £1674.99
• From: Madison

We’d forgive you for thinking these are 29er XC wheels, given that they feature DT Swiss 240 hubs and carbon rims with a 22mm internal width. They’re not though – these are the new CRC 1400 wheels from the Swiss wheel experts, and they slot into a new category that DT Swiss is calling ‘Cross Road’, which is where the CR name comes from. Despite the label, DT Swiss says these are suitable for everything from racing cyclocross through to long distance gravel adventuring, so they’re billed as a versatile set o’ hoops.

Claimed weight on these is less than 1400g, and the rims are ready for tubeless setup with nice high volume gravel tyres. The hubs are straight pull 240 units with Centrelock disc mounting and thru-axle compatibility right out of the box. Tom Hill will be testing these for Grit.cx, and you can check out more info on these in his first look story right here.

Giro Riddance Flat Shoes

• Price: £109.99
• From: ZyroFisher

Snazzy new kicks from Giro – these are called the Riddance, which may or may not be what Giro is saying to the previous Jacket shoes that these replace. Featuring a Megagrip ISR rubber outsole made by Vibram, Giro reckons that this is the stickiest shoe compound that Vibram has ever launched, so it’s clear they’re going after Five Ten and its benchmark Stealth rubber. Lace up design and available in three colours from size 40 EU through to 48 EU.

Giro Roust Long Sleeve Jersey

• Price: £54.99
• From: ZyroFisher

Chipps is going for the casual-ambivalent look here, and it’s safe to say that he is having extreme difficulties pulling it off. The new Giro Roust long sleeve jersey can’t be faulted for that though, with its retro stylings and relaxed fit. Made from polyester, the Roust jersey is designed to offer room for elbow pads underneath, and features a goggles/glasses wipe for clearing off all the wet loam from your specs. These come in three colours and in sizes from Small through to 2XL.

Brake Force One Bleed Kit & Spare Hoses

• Price: €32.90 (bleed kit), €5 per metre (hose)
• From: Brake Force One

The folks at Brake Force One have sent over a service package with a bleed kit and a replacement hose for us to sort out a busted hose on one of our test brakes. We reviewed the H20 brakes last year as part of our big disc brake group test, but we’ve since received a newer version that apparently addresses the issues we encountered last year. Stay tuned for the full longterm review on the latest set of these uber-powerful and very exotic disc brakes.

Shimano Deore XT Flat Pedals

• Price: £89
• From: Madison

We got our hands on the prototypes last year, but we’ve now got full-production spec pedals from Shimano. These are the first ever flat pedals to wear the Deore XT name, and whereas the Saint flats are designed for World Cup downhill racing, these are more of an all-purpose flat pedal for trail riding and enduro racing. Available in two sizes, we went with the bigger one with its enormous 110x115mm platform. Oof!

Tom Ritchey Bobblehead

• Price: Who cares – just look at that moustache
• From: Ritchey Logic

GÜP kwiki

• Price: £14.99 each
• From:  Cyclorise

Right, something slightly more functional, but arguably just as intriguing as Tom Ritchey’s Flavour Saver. This is a six-pack of Kwikis from GÜP – a San Diego company that aims to deliver an all-in-one solution for sealing and inflating a flat tyre on the trail. It’s a sealed canister filled with compressed CO2, and due to its huge 125ml size, GÜP claims this will inflate a 29×2.4in mountain bike tyre up to 29psi from dead flat.

Inside is where it gets tricky (and sticky). There’s a latex-foam sealant inside each Kwiki, which is injected through the valve and into your flat tyre in order to help seal up any punctures that your existing sealant may not have plugged up. Or it simply replenishes the sealant you thought was still in the tyre, but has since dried up ages ago. GÜP reckons its latex-foam will mix fine with other latex-based sealants, and says the mixture is formulated so as to not clog up the valve.

Here’s Chipps poorly demonstrating a Kwiki;

Ok, we apologise to GÜP for that terrible demonstration. We’ll have to make it up by getting Chipps to demonstrate it on video. Preferably live too.

At 147g, the Kwiki (great name right?) is being marketed more as an emergency solution that could be a race-saver. You can get a holster that straps it to your frame, which should appeal to XC, marathon and enduro racers who prefer the minimalist approach.

Smoove Prep

• Price: £14.99
• From:  Cyclorise

Also from UK distributor Cyclorise, we’ve just landed a fresh bottle of Smoove Universal Chain Lube, and Smoove’s newest product called ‘Prep’. Prep is a degreaser that’s designed to clean and prepare your chain before being applied with chain lube. Compared to other degreasers, Prep is very concentrated – Smoove recommend to apply sparingly. Inside each bottle is enough liquid for ten drivetrain preps, so it works out at a pound fiddy for a scrubbadub.

Zine ZLoc Flow For Reverb

• Price: €9.95 – €11.95
• From:  Zine Sports

Zine Sports has already brought us those clever stick-on Grip Tape patches for adding traction to your shifter paddles and dropper post levers, and now the German brand has got its next product – a retrofit for RockShox Reverb dropper post levers. Not the new 1x remote, but the regular plunger-style lever. The Zine ZLoc Flow is designed to replace the existing alloy button on a Reverb lever with a slightly larger and more ergonomic button that’s made of plastic. With a softer finish and rounded edges, it’s designed to feel nicer on your thumb, and it’s probably less likely to cut your knee open too. Black and Pink available.

Brooks C19 Carved All-Weather Cambium

• Price: £94.95
• From: Extra UK

Compared to Brooks’ traditional leather saddles, the Cambium All Weather range features a durable vulcanised natural rubber top that provides comfort and flexibility, without need for a Trans-American cycle tour just to break it in. Brooks says the nylon cover on the Cambium saddle is ready for all the blazing sunshine you can throw at it. For UK riders, it’s also waterproof.

The C19 shown here comes with a hole through the centre that aims to help with pressure relief, and the saddle uses steel rails to come in at a claimed weight of 473g.

Endura SingleTrack Gloves

• Price: £26.99
• From: Endura Sport

Endura sent us in some limited edition SingleTrack gloves in the distinctive ‘Petrol’ colour. The SingleTrack gloves come with a thin synthetic micro-fibre palm for feel and tactility, TPU overlays for knuckle protection, and a terry cloth snot wipe on the back of the thumbs.

Endura SingleTrack II Helmet

• Price: £74.99
• From: Endura Sport

At half the price of the Endura MT500 helmet (see our review here), the SingleTrack lid skips the fancy Koroyd straw panels in favour of a more conventional EPS foam construction. It features 14 large vents throughout, a huge amount of coverage around the side and back of the head, and there’s a single dial for adjusting the harness tension. Oh and unlike other helmet visors that can often have heated arguments with goggles, the one on the SingleTrack is claimed to be ‘goggle friendly’.

Nukeproof Horizon 29

• Price: £349 (pair)
• From: Nukeproof

Chipps first got a look at the new Nukeproof wheels back in February at Bike Connection, and we’ve just received a pair for testing. Available in 27.5in and 29in versions and with Boost or non-Boost spacing, our set of 29er Horizon test wheels is spec’d with Boost hubs and a Shimano freehub body. SRAM XD drivers are available separately.

According to Nukeproof, these are designed to cover everything from trail riding through to downhill and freeride, so they’re built burly. Claimed weight on our test wheels is 2120g, and they feature an alloy rim with a 29mm internal width that should be good for tyres up to 2.6in wide.

The hubs are made by Novatec, and they’re loaded with big sealed cartridge bearings, a 6-pawl freehub mechanism with 84 engagement points, and a user-serviceable design. On the Shimano freehub bodies, Novatec’s stainless steel Anti Bite Guard helps to protect the alloy splines from being damaged by cassette sprockets.

For your £350, Nukeproof includes eight spare spokes with each Horizon wheelset, and they also come taped for tubeless setup with valves included. Nice!

IT Appreciation Beers

• Price: Launching the new Singletrack website
• From: One of our legendary Lifetime Subscribers

Though our shiny new website may be looking lovely, it has been a monumental effort for it to have reached this point, and even now there are still loads of annoying little details that these two superstars are hammering their way through. Because we’re a 100% independent publication without access to a huge publishing house and a full IT department, we do everything for the magazine and website in-house, which means Tom and Andy get hassled every time something doesn’t quite work as it should. That means they’ve been getting hassled a lot lately – it’s no secret the new website has had its fair share of bugs, and these fellas have been working overtime to sort them out.

One of our lovely Lifetime Subscribers, who also works in IT, shares Tom & Andy’s pain of website redevelopment, and totally unannounced, decided to send them a case of Tower Pale Ale from Wimbledon Brewery. What an absolute legend! Tom & Andy are thrilled, and also now quite tipsy for 10:30am on a Friday morning.

Rossco

• Price: 37 years on Earth
• From: Ross’ Mum

No, this isn’t the look on Ross’ face when he realises that he doesn’t actually work in IT and the appreciation beers aren’t for him. It’s the look of realisation that he has just begun his 38th year on Planet Earth. So here’s a big Happy Birthday from everyone at Singletrack to our lad Rossco!

And on the Birthday tip, we’ve got a selection of tunes all mixed by ex-Jurassic Five superstar, DJ Nu-Mark, who recently fired off the Aries edition of his Zodiac Tracks mix sessions. It’s like he knew it was Ross’ Birthday! Or maybe not.

And with that, we shall wish you well for the beginning of your weekend!

ST Out.

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