Last week somebody got me some snacks. I don’t really question the ingredients of anything I eat, despite my strict dietary requirements, so I wolfed them down without a care in the world. Over time, my lady parts started to itch and I had a really red ear. Not ideal! So I went to the doctors, got interfered with, and came out feeling much better. Now, you’d think that would make me be more careful about what I put in my mouth, right? Wrong. Today I ate the milky froth off of someone’s coffee in the office, and I’m already doing the caterpillar across the floor. Discomfort will never outweigh my need to EAT ALL OF THE THINGS.
Jess might have had a bad week, but for the rest of us it’s been quite positive. Ross took himself up Helvellyn for a romantic sunset ride, Hannah has introduced two new sets of dungarees to her wardrobe, Andi didn’t get sunburnt, Amanda DID, and Chipps is still doing a fantastic job of avoiding being in England.
Moving swiftly on, imagine Hannah’s excitement when she came back from her snowy winter break (in the desert) to her new test bike:
Stanton Switch9er FS
- Price: £2500.00 frame only, complete bikes from £3975.00
- From: Stanton Bikes
Hannah had a hand in making this bike – though don’t worry, she didn’t do anything fundamental and structural like welding the frame. She did however drill some holes for the bottle cage, and brazed on the cage mounts. Hannah’s latest test bike is the 29in wheeled full suspension enduro/trail bike from Stanton, with 140 rear and 160 front travel. Hannah has gone for a standard 18in geometry frame, with no customisation (though that is an option as part of the ordering process). Since all the Switch9er FS bikes are made on site at Matlock, there’s a fair amount of customisation available, so you can mix and match the Seat Tube, Reach and Stack lengths for a slightly different feel to the bike. You can also choose to have ISCG tabs or not (Hannah did), and whether to have rear internal routing (Hannah did). The front triangle is steel, while the rear is aluminium – we’ll have a full first look coming soon, including behind the scenes footage of the building of the frame.
If you think this is a nice looking bike (and if you don’t, are you mad?) then that may be partly down to the carefully selected colour scheme. It’s RAL 3004, with RAL 8019 decals on the downtube. As well as the standard Stanton colours or their optional upgrade custom colours, you can go super-custom and pick any RAL colour you like for each of the front and rear triangles, plus the decals. Lucky for Hannah, she had a designer on hand to help her choose colours which will coordinate nicely with both the shock options that she’ll be testing on this bike.
IXS Flow Evo+ Elbow Guard
- Price: £64.99
- From: Hotlines UK
For those who haven’t noticed, Hannah has started popping her way down the trails like a Mexican Jumping Bean, so more and more body armour is arriving in the office. Here’s a lightweight solution from IXS, offering breathability coupled with high impact protection. Available in grey and green, these pads look fantastic, and in due course Hannah will let us know how they fair against the rocks and roots.
Natur Boutique Organic Ginger Tea
- Price: £2.99 box of 20
- From: Natur Boutique
100% pure organic ginger tea, this claims to be subtly sweet tasting with no bitterness at all, with a warming and stimulating after effect. Natur Boutique offer a great range of organic teas, so if like me you’re a a kooky natural remedy lover it might be worth a try at only £2.99 a box. If you can look past the intentional misspelling of nature.
Mineral Design Mini Bar Multi-tool
- Price: $39.99
- From: Mineral Bikes
This looks to be a neat little multi-tool. It comes with ten different bits so you can choose the ones relevant for your ride, and keep the remaining four safe at home (or somewhere safe/floating around in your riding pack).
Nukeproof AVS Sam Hill Handguards
- Price: £62.99
- From: Hotlines UK
Designed to protect levers and hands from branches and other disruptive elements on the trail, such as barbed wire, these plastic handguards come with aluminium mounts and two 10mm spacers to customise your setup. Conveniently, the mounts have a hinged clamp so you can fit them to your bars without having to remove your grips and levers.
Steelgard 5-in-1 Maintenance Fluid 400ml
- Price: £8.99 (Get 10% off – enter coupon ‘singletrack’ at checkout)
- From: Steelgard
Steelgard from Vapor-Tek is an advanced 5-in-1 maintenance fluid offering the following uses: Displacing moisture, starting damp engines (eMTBers rejoice!), corrosion control, lubrication, cleaning and penetration. I for one am interested in a spray that can both lubricate and penetrate. Manufactured in Bolton and available with 10% off to our readers, it’s worth a go for those who like to keep their workshop tidy by using fewer sprays.
Kali Mission Elbow Pads
- Price: £44.99
- From: Kali
More armour for Hannah, these black on black elbow guards from Kali look like they will offer generous forearm and elbow protection. These pads are designed to be durable, lightweight and ergonomic for climbing and descending. Available in size S to XL.
Nukeproof Horizon Carbon Handlebar
- Price: £100.00
- From: Hotlines UK
The Nukeproof Horizon Carbon bar has been developed to be lightweight and comfortable, while ‘far exceeding’ the strength and durability of an aluminium bar, and in fact claims to beat the strength of many leading carbon bar competitors in lab testing, withstanding loads of over 700kg. The bars include a protection kit and come with a lifetime warranty.
PRO Tharsis 9.8 Handlebar 31.8mm
- Price: £74.99
- From: Freewheel
Pro’s Tharsis range is named after a volcanic range of mountains on Mars. The peak of which, at 18km high, is said to be the highest known mountain in the solar system. Of course it is…
PRO Koryak Stem 35mm and 50mm
- Price: £49.99
- From: Freewheel
Pro’s Koryak stem is named after the indigenous people of Western Siberia (because why not? They might love mountain biking too.) – the stem comes in a selection of lengths from 35mm up to a very aero and old school 100mm!
Gussett S2 Pedals
- Price: £79.99
- From: Ison Distribution
The latest addition to Gussett’s pedal line up, the S2 pedals come with a new double bush axle system that claims to be hassle free, long lasting and easy to service.
CamelBak Podium Flow Belt
- Price: £44.99
- From: ZyroFisher
A minimalist solution for riders who don’t like to carry more than the bare essentials. Featuring a secure zip pocket, reflective strip, breathable mesh and an adjustable buckle. The digi-camo design with a brown base makes this pack impossible to find if you put it down, so fortunately the bottle is angled in such a way that you can reach around to grab it without having to take it off.
ESI XXL 8.25″ Chunky Grips
- Price: £26.99
- From: VeloBrands
These grips are 60% longer than standard grips, making them ideally suited to Jones Bars and…anything you don’t have too many levers on, I guess? And perhaps other ALT bar Touring bikes. BMX? Exercise equipment? Garden rakes? Available in nine colours, with nine different colours bar ends, how ever will you choose?
One last thing to mention before you head off into your weekend: Chocolate milk + dark rum + ice = JOY. Please use the comments section below to make more mixing suggestions. Or talk about the products above, whatever.
Tune! This weeks’ staff picks
These are the tunes that have been in the ears of us in the office this week – each track hand picked by each Singletrack staffer. No warranty offered on quality and tunes cannot be returned once heard. Listen at your own risk but do tell us how much better your track choice of the week is in the comments.
You can follow us on Spotify if you like and browse through our previous weeks’ playlists.
Suggest a tune for next week in the comments and if we add it we’ll give you a plug and send you a Singletrack T-shirt.
And for Apple Music subscribers.
Can’t see the Apple Music widget? Click here
Comments (9)
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Well done, whoever picked Talk Talk. RIP Mark Hollis.
Chocolate Almond Milk (or Chocolate Oat Milk) + Dark Rum + a blast on the coffee frother, also makes for a decent dairy-free mid-ride warmer upper.
Love the Newton Stewart tyres on yer new bike, Han.
That Stanton is very handsome indeed.
Malibu and milk for me, goes down especially well around 2am.
last malibu & milk session resulted in projectile vomiting like the android in Alien.
What size of pump will the Camelbak fanny pack take?
Those hand guards – 63 quid for two bits of plastic!!! What world do the people who price this stuff live in?
the same world as these probably
https://www.amazon.co.uk/RockShox-Shaft-Fastener-Bolts-Washers/dp/B014RB8XJM/ref=pd_rhf_se_p_img_7?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=27SG2VMZZCDD5YJNGCG9
That Stanton looks great (new Mount Vision designers please take note on how to make a good looking bike).