Where is Barney when you need him? We need words of wonder and wibble to kick this thing off here, and if you’re looking in ST Towers for them, you’re looking in the wrong place. We have used all the words. We’re left with the kind of dregs of letters you get at the end of a Scrabble game. Oh. It. Dammit, I’ve got a B, and a J and the Q has just turned up after I used the U to make ‘up’ last go. It wasn’t even on a double letter score square.
But wherefore art all the words? Did Jess the Dog eat them? Did the great social media meltdown of this week affect our highly intelligent AI driven Adventure Bot and Review Bot that write all our articles for us while we drink coffee and fondle tyre compounds?
No!
We put all the words into the next issue of Singletrack Magazine, so you should subscribe today, right now, before midnight tonight (15th March) to get it delivered to your door. There are lots of words in there. Good ones too. And pictures, for when you’re tired of words. Go check out what’s in Issue 124, and then get it delivered to you, wrapped in potato starch.
Subscribe To Singletrack from as little as £1.99
With the words we can find, here we go. Be warned though, we might have had to ask around the office for a few extras, just to fill in the gaps.
Canyon Neuron: ON 7.0
- Price: £3,899
- From: Canyon, canyon.com
Hot on the heels of the Canyon Spectral:ON, the 150mm full susser that featured 29/27.5in wheels on the same bike, the new Neuron:ON is a more conventional 29er featuring 130mm travel front and rear and power-assisted by a Shimano STEPS E8000 (XT level) motor and semi-integrated battery. And before you start, yes, they did think about just calling it the NeurON, rather than the Neuron:ON… but didn’t, OK? The bike does feature some neat little touches, like a USB port on the top tube that can charge your Garmin, or run a light, using the power of the Shimano battery. There’s also a new saddle – Canyon’s SD:ON, which is an e-bike specific saddle. Designed for the greater amount of seated climbing that e-bike riders do, it features a flat profile with a little kicker ramp at the back to push against while climbing in the saddle. We’ve got this bike in for a few weeks, so we’ll let you know how it gets on.
Sonder Transmitter [v2]
- Price: £300.00 frame only
- From: Alpkit
We’ve got a first look article for the updated Transmitter here, and our Andi is actually in the woods right now riding one, so keep your eyes on the site for his first impressions.
Vee Rail Escape 29×2.4
- Price: £49.99
- From: Vee Tire, veetireco.com
Originally developed in 2.20in for cross country, this tyre has now been made into a 2.40in. It features a complex tread, full of sipes and file pattersn and all sorts. Basically, it’s full of grippy stuff. And to add to that, it features Vee’s DCC compound, which is a dual 56/48A compound.
Vee Snap WCE
- Price: ‘Around £65.00’
- From: Vee Tire
This Vee Snap WCE tyre is brand new and very exciting if you love a bit of grip. It uses Vee’s ‘Top 40’ compound which is Vee’s stickiest, slowest rebound compound ever in a bicycle tyre. Previously, it only appeared in Vee’s motorbike drag race tyres, which is pretty cool. Yes, it comes in at 1.2kg or so an end, but the tread is comedically soft and sticky. One for race days and wet trips to the rooty playground of your choice. It’ll come in 27.5 and 29in x 2.35.
Michelin Wild Enduro 29×2.40 Tyre
- Price: £44.99
- From: Silverfish
Claiming to provide grip, speed and strength in a front tyre specific design, the Wild Enduro is suitable for both summer and winter riding with a tread pattern designed for terrain versatility. The strong, lightweight Gravity Shield casing is designed for the most challenging Enduro riding and the block tread design offers maximum braking grip.
Madison Flux Shorts
- Price: £69.99
- From: Madison
Simple yet stylish lightweight design, the Madison Flux shorts are constructed of a 4-way stretch material with thigh, hip and rear vents for air con.
Leatt Airflex Pro Kneeguards
- Price: £77.99
- From: Hotlines
Here’s one we reviewed earlier! The Airflex Pro Kneeguards are designed to offer great impact protection with a slim, lightweight fit.
Ross’ knee survived the intense impact of Chipps’ fist, but this aggressive move caused a full fight to break out. With Andi and Mark chanting ‘FIGHT, FIGHT, FIGHT’ from the window above, Jess the dog barking ferociously in defence of her dad, and passers by cheering for Chipps it quite an eventful afternoon. That was all a big lie.
Troy Lee D3 Fiberlite Helmet
- Price: £200.00
- From: Saddleback
This entry level full face helmet from Troy Lee Designs is a lightweight option offering good air flow with its multi-ventilation system. In case of emergency, the cheek pads can be removed with a lever so that emergency doctors can easily remove the helmet. Let’s hope that’s never needed! This helmet is an XXL to accommodate a full head of dreadlocks.
Renthal Ultra Tacky Grips & Grip Glue
- Price: Grips £11.99, Glue £3.99
- From: Ison
MS Mondraker athlete Laurie Greenland uses these grips, Commencal Vallnord’s Cecile Ravanel uses them too. Now Ross is joining their ranks (as a grip user, not as a totally awesome pro rider). The Ultra Tacky™ compound constantly produces and renews a sticky surface coating, which claims to increase control and reduce fatigue. If the grip loses its stickiness, you wash them and allow them to air dry to re-activate.
Potato Farmer
- Price: £nfs
- From: Jersey? Idaho?
We’re not sure. This guy has appeared in the office this week, so we’re assuming he’s responsible for the new potato starch wrappers for the subscriber editions of the magazine. We think that’s who he is. Certainly, if we’ve seen him before it was so long ago that we’ve all forgotten his face.
ODI F-1 Series Dread Lock V2.1 Tinker Juarez Signature Lock-On Grips
- Price: £29.99
- From: Ison
Designed to give padding and control on longer rides, these are made with an ‘ultra soft and lightweight A.I.R.E. compound’ and have an offset design to provide additional padding for your hands without the feel of a bulky grip. Soft TPE ends provide extra support on turns and help to protect your grips from impacts.
Muckynutz Short and Long MugGuards
- Price: £19.99 (short), £24.99 (long)
- From: Muckynutz
Handy when you’re riding your mountain bike around your muddy ploughed potato fields, perhaps. Keeps the clart off your face and the grit out of your teeth. These come with Velcro fasteners so you can more easily remove or swap them between bikes. The long option claims to be the longest on the market – great for really sloppy winter rides.
Leatt Velocity 6.5 Iriz Goggles
- Price: £79.99/$89.99/€89.99
- From: Leatt/Hotlines, hotlines-uk.com
Handy for hiding from paparazzi or covering up the results of your recent plastic surgery, these goggles will also work for riding a bike. These are Leatt’s first goggles, recently launched at the Bike Connection event and feature something like 17 frame colour combos and nine shades of (bulletproof!) lenses. There’s a whole load of tech going on there, so check them out, or stay tuned for a review in due course.
Knog PWR Rider Duo
- Price: £79.99
- From: Silverfish
Mount this to your helmet for a front and back light in one – there’s a red 12 lumen rear light on one end, and a 450 lumen white front light on the other. The front light has six different modes – three steady and three flashing, while the rear light has a choice of steady or flash. The light also acts as a battery pack, so in an emergency you could use it to charge your phone or bike computer.
Mavic Echappée Matryx Shoes
- Price: £160
- From: Mavic, mavic.com
Looking like they might double up as a fell shoe, and showing Mavic’s Salomon ancestry, could these be just what’s needed for those events where you run up a hill carrying your bike? They’re made of super light Matryx material that’s thin and fast drying, complete with a speedlace system. One for that off-road biathlon perhaps?
Relish Your Ride Bottle
- Price: $12
- From: Spurcycle
We hate to be pedantic, but that’s a pickle, or a gherkin, not a relish. The missing u in ‘flavourings’ gives it as away as being ‘merican english, so not really english at all. Relish, pickle, chutney, piccalilli…so much cultural confusion. Anyway, this is a bottle. You can put liquid in it. Water, maybe. Just remember to ask for ‘wadder’ if you’re in the USA.
Liqui Moly Bike Unguents
- Price: Dry lube €7,98, Wet lube €6,39, chain cleaner 200ml €6,09, cleaner 400ml €8,89, chain spray 200ml €8,19, chain spray 400ml €10,19, tyre fix €7,89, multi-purpose spray €4,39
- From: Liqui Moly
Hailing from the car market, this new range of products may be found in your local bike shop. There’s a potion for most scenarios here, and we’ve not had samples of the bike cleaner or gloss spray, but they exist too. We’re slightly intrigued by the tyre fix – it’s a sort of mousse that will fill a hole where otherwise you might use a noodle.
Spurcycle Tool
- Price: $69
- From: Spurcycle
The handle is made of titanium, so already we’ve surely got to be on to a winner. Tools are exciting. Titanium makes some of us go mmm, in a good way. So, this is a pretty hot little package, machined in California. Ten steel bits share the X-Pac pouch, which is hand made in San Francisco, and there’s room to tuck an emergency tenner in there too.
Metro 100 Head Set
- Price: £35.00
- From: eBay
Amanda has All The Talent. Not only can she ride bikes, make magazines, take photographs, draw pictures and do cool things with her hair, she can also fix cars. She’s perhaps not so great at buying cars, because the one she just bought needs a new head gasket. Luckily, she’s changed a few before now so thinks this will be no trouble whatsoever. We all hope she is right. Because none of us is going to be any help.
Vroom. Hopefully by Monday Amanda will be revving her engine and doing donuts somewhere. Not under a blanket and comfort eating doughnuts. Wish her luck. Hope your weekends require much less mechanical input, and plenty of braap. Or Qjab. That’s a word, right? And with the double letter score…can we stop now?
Tunes of the week! Win a T-shirt
These are the tunes that have got each of us through the week. Each staffer picks a tune from their ears and we create a new playlist each week.
https://open.spotify.com/user/1body8yoqm0s7xqcagoh8d3o8/playlist/4zmRNyJYLP3YATpnOrVOYJ?si=Og3ZUgN2RiGNAM-zrza2CA
Can’t see the Spotify Player? Click here
Apple Music Users
Can’t see the Apple Music player? Click here
The Singletrack MTB Chain
We were considering in the office the tunes that we associate with mountain biking. Tunes that are part of bike video soundtracks or that just have some association with riding. So we thought we’d make a playlist of these tunes and add to it each week. Like some kind of chain of songs. A bike chain if you like. We don’t think there’s been anything like this done before. A growing playlist of tunes with a linked theme.
Anyway, we’ve started it off below with 4 songs and we’d like you to add to it each week.
Suggest a song to us and if we pick yours and add it we’ll send you a t-shirt. Make sure to explain the link.
Drop your suggestions to us by email editorial@singletrackworld.com, or via our social media channels. Use the hashtag #themtbchain
https://open.spotify.com/user/1body8yoqm0s7xqcagoh8d3o8/playlist/3PN3UBO1ciPi1HTA2gWnUt?si=pnuiputuSN6ky0tuKx2ZOQ
Picked by Chipps who says…
A song we’ve selected from the soundtrack to what we in the office consider to be one of the best MTB movies of all time. Roam
Picked by Mark and also a from a great film by The Collective, Seasons
Well, it’s called ‘Rollin’. Obvious? Too obvious? While you can be as vague as this with your selections we probably won’t pick it as a winner. Don’t be meh! Be better than us.
The Agony & The Ecstacy: by High Contrast, Selah Corbin
Chosen by Singletrack Art Director, Amanda. She says…
Perhaps a little personal, this track was chosen as it describes my relationship with bikes quite accurately, but I feel more people might share the link with the lyrics. It’s also the track I had playing through my headphones at the start line of my first major race to drown out the sound of the air raid siren.
Can’t see the Apple Music player? Click here.
Comments (16)
Comments Closed
“We don’t think there’s been anything like this done before. A growing playlist of tunes with a linked theme.”no indeed.. very original 😀 You can have DJ Shadow – Stem/Long Stem to add. I don’t sub to none of your streamers.
Two Shoes was on the soundtrack to Seasons, not Roam. Have at thee with some Friday afternoon pedantism!
Wherefore means ‘why’ not where… Just sayin’.
Oh, never knew that.
“A common misconception is that wherefore means where; it is occasionally so used in retellings of Romeo and Juliet — often for comedic effect. In Romeo and Juliet, the meaning of “Wherefore art thou Romeo?” (Act 2, scene 2, line 33) is not “Where are you, Romeo?” but “Why are you Romeo?” (i.e. “Why did you have to be a Montague?”).”
Good grief! I thought I was pedantic, but clearly I am just a beginner. Wherefore may be translated as “for what reason”. Perhaps, for what reason have we no words? Given that all words may be used as often as you like, the suggestion that they have been used up making the print edition is incorrect.
I blame the Potato Farmer, for truly he is the Custodian of the Singletrack Word Hoard
Yeah, but where art thou mtb tunes?
a metro!
poor poor gal…
Although good work on keeping it running 🙂
An E Bike specific saddle ? Give me strength ! Should be called Snake Oil
Depeche Mode! Proper tune. \o/
Cool colour for the Sonder frame.
Has anyone seen Chipps and Robert Llewellyn at the same time?
One and the same or separated at birth?
K series metro…. yuk
Don’t forget the stretch bolts
Yes those stretch bolts are one time use only and can be a nightmare to extract if the beauty has sat for a while unrun.
The k series was a dog but a loveable dog and worked fine if not revved hard when cold
Good luck and hope it goes ok
OK here ya go…
Go With The Flow by Queens of the Stone Age
The clue is in the title dur.. #themtbchain
Am I the only one that thinks this Juliet bird was a bit ‘high maintenance’? No sooner had she bagged Romeo than she was wishing he was someone else! Women
Wow! You’re right, it’s like magic. I post something, then the words just vanish
“Wherefore may be translated as “for what reason”.”
Or “why”, in other words.
Like LongBoard said…
“Am I the only one that thinks this Juliet bird was a bit ‘high maintenance’? No sooner had she bagged Romeo than she was wishing he was someone else! Women”
That’s 14 year-olds for you.