FGF 440 – The Magazine Is At The Printers, We’re Hungover Edition. With Added SRAM AXS!

Yep, the magazine is safely off to our printers, Warners in Bourne, Lincolnshire. And, so it seemed only logical that a couple of evening beers were consumed. Perhaps that after-midnight pint of Jaipur was one too many though. So, today, assembling Fresh Goods, we’re steering away from fluoro-coloured goggles and gravitating more towards the black-hole light sucking of black, carbon bikes with black components…

Normal service will be resumed though. Although everyone seems to agree that a chippy lunch is in order. Especially because Hannah’s not here to look disapprovingly at our poor lifestyle lunch choices. Anyway, you’re not here to hear about what’s for lunch. You’re here to see what’s new and shiny and, oh boy, do we have new and shiny! Lots of shiny… Read on!

Yeti SB130 SRAM AXS

• Price: £Ouchy
• From: SRAM
  and Silverfish

This bike is so special that Yeti importer Silverfish doesn’t even offer it. Though you can build one up with a frameset and an AXS groupset if you wanted. It’s actually come from SRAM for us for a couple of weeks so that we can try out the new SRAM AXS (it’s pronounced ‘Access’, geddit?) electronic, wireless shifting system and the wireless Reverb AXS dropper post. Initial car park (and trail) tests have been positive, and we’re going to give it a couple of weeks of thrashing.

Pricing for and operation of the AXS Eagle group was covered in our first look feature here, but here’s a reminder.

AXS Eagle XX1 groupset: £1,950
AXS Eagle XO1 groupset: £1,900
AXS Reverb: £700

We’ll let you know how we get on. In the meantime, what do you think? Technology gone mad (bring back friction shifters!)? Or about time too?

Love Mud Rumour Integrated Headset

• Price: £30.00
• From: Alpkit

A sealed, integrated headset for tapered headtubes, or in this case specifically for the Sonder Transmitter that’s half built in Amanda’s front room.

RockShox Pike 2015 Fork Decals

• Price: £14.99
• From: Slik Graphics

Printed on pro-grade vinyl and laminated for durability, these stickers are great for tidying up a four year old set of forks that are about to be fitted to a nice shiny new Sonder Transmitter… in Amanda’s front room.

Kircabi Coffee Singletrack Deadline Blend

• Price: £6
• From: Singletrack Shop

The packing room at Singletrack is once again filled with the fine aroma of roasted coffee beans. It can only mean one thing – that we’ve had another batch of freshly roasted Singletrack Deadline Blend in! This coffee is unique to us and was blended and roasted with the help of Stu Taylor, a Highland Trail 550 veteran, so he knows his bikes as well as his coffee. Get some in! Or you can even take out a magazine subscription that offers a regular hit

.

Commencal Meta AM 29 Race

• Price: €3699
• From: Commencal Euro Store

This grey, black and red beastie just turned up for Andi to review and he’s already bedded it in and loaded it up to ride at the Tweedlove Vallelujah event this weekend. If you see him whizzing by, give him a heckle. He loves that stuff.

The bike? It’s got a 170mm Lyrik RC2 up front and a Super Deluxe RCT out back giving 160mm of travel with 29in wheels. The rest of the bike is suitably SRAM equipped for all of your enduro needs.

Bontrager Blaze Wavecell Helmet

• Price: £199
• From: Trek Bikes UK

As launched with much fuss this week, this Blaze helmet (in ‘Roarange’ colour fans) features the new squashy and rotatey Wavecell technology from Trek. The Blaze helmet also includes a neat full shell design, a removable magnetic GoPro mount and a BOA dial to keep everything snug.

Salsa EXP Series Anything Cradle

• Price: £125
• From: Lyon Outdoor

The Salsa Anything Cradle is designed to be a superior bikepacking solution to the dry bag and strap or handlebar rolls that folks have been using for years. The Anything Cradle holds your gear away from your bars using a couple of stand-off bar clamps. This creates room for cables and housing without fear of kinking, stressing, or otherwise damaging them. The cage is lightweight and tough nylon while the arms are forged aluminium. It’s compatible with 31.8mm bars and can hold up to 8lbs/3.7kg in weight. The straps are 25mm nylon webbing and can be deployed elsewhere on the bike too.

Salsa EXP Series Rescue Roll

• Price: £32
• From: Lyon Outdoor

The EXP Rescue Roll is an elastic strapped tool roll for keeping your tools in one place without them punching holes in things like your tubes or tins of mandarin segements. The elastic strap helps hold the bundle securely while the heavy-duty strap allows you to attach it to your seatpost, saddle rails, or onto your frame. Or simply use the Rescue Roll as a consistent tool holder and move it from bike to hydration pack or backpack as needed.

It features three individual pockets, with a zipper pocket for valuables and uses waterproof fabrics and ‘water-resistant construction’ in that the material is waterproof, but the seams aren’t taped.

Salsa Rack Lock Seat Clamp

• Price: £32
• From: Lyon Outdoor

Are you sad that your fancy new frame didn’t come with seatstay rack mounts? Not a problem with the Salsa Rack Lock Seat Clamp. It features one of Salsa’s legendary seat clamps (how many other companies have a seat clamp design that hasn’t needed changing in 25 years?) with an extension out back for fitting a rack to. These are 34mm wide rack mounts threaded for M5 bolts.

ABD Kochwuerste Grips

• Price: £0.99
• From: Charlie The Bikemonger

Like everything from The Bikemonger, there’s a story behind these fantastic, cut to length grips.
“I got a deal on them a few years ago, and got them at a great price, but accidentally bought 1,842 grips. Yes, almost two bloody thousand grips. But they are so much more than just a grip.

•  They are great fun, they are long and floppy.
•  The pink one is great.
•  However the glow in the dark one is great for surprising people when camping at races.
•  They can be fitted onto the end of a wine bottle for a unique big pink and floppy drinking experience.
•  Almost every wheel barrow and broom handle in Wantage has these fitted.

And before we send you on your merry way with Singletrack’s Spotify playlist and the latest tune in the MTB Chain, we’re going to give you Apache Indian… mostly because it’s stuck in my head and if I set it free, it might stop haunting my throbbing head. You’re welcome. 😉
https://youtu.be/kZzBd41NuZw

FGF Playlist of the week

The tunes that have powered our week here in the office. Each track picked by a Singletrack staffer.

Follow us on Spotify

The Singletrack MTB Chain

Our first reader submitted addition to our Singletrack MTB Chain playlist is ‘Sometimes’ by Sound of Guns taken from Martyn Ashton’s film ‘Road Bike Party’. It was suggested by Instagram user roblockhartuk. A Singletrack t-shirt will soon be heading his way.

If you want to win a t-shirt next week then all you have to do is suggest a song for our ongoing playlist of MTB related tunes. use the hashtag #themtbchain and tell us what the link is to MTB.