FGF 458 | Not Very Fresh, Quite Humid and Slightly Flaccid Goods Friday

We have been wondering what might be the worst job to have in a heatwave. We’re torn between the reprographics room in an office, or grill chef in a kitchen. It’s certainly not us. While we have definitely been melting in the office as we send issue 126 of Singletrack Magazine to the printer, we have at least had the freedom to wear what we like.

Well, until this week we could wear what we like. After this week, there might be some rules introduced. Perhaps we should undertake a round of staff consultation. Is underwear mandatory? Is there a minimum length for shorts? How many ice creams are allowed in a day? Is a G&T isotonic? Should we start a wild swimming channel? Where in the world has snow right now?

Sitting very still, trying only to wiggle the tips of our fingers lest any body parts stick to our faux leather office chairs, we bring you Not Very Fresh, Quite Humid and Slightly Flaccid Goods Friday.

Stooge MK 4

• Price: £550 frame and fork
• From: Stooge

Not strictly speaking a new office arrival, more of a ‘just passing through’ beast, but it’s too nice to ignore. Designer Andy says ‘This is a progression of my previous steel frames and in an age of ever shrinking fork offsets this one has a whopping 80mm. The result is a slack bike without the dreaded wheel flop and incredibly quick but stable handling. The geometry has been lifted from the Dirtbomb Klunker. Rigid bikes and their riders have very different requirements compared to bikes with long travel forks – you need to switch lines in a heartbeat and get your weight back behind the front axle, and this bike sets out to address those needs.  The frameset is produced in Taiwan and retails for £550 for the frame and biplane fork.  The bike also features my new handlebar, the Junker bar. Its built from 4130 and has a 20 degree sweep with 820mm width and is designed to compliment the frameset, but is also just a badass modern klunker bar’. Hannah wants one. Check out our First Look for more pictures.

Topeak Joe Blow™ Mountain X

• Price: £52.99
• From: Extra UK

With plenty of air per pump you’ll soon get to the right pressure – and you’ll be able to see when you do thanks to the large print analogue gauge. Works with Presta, Schrader and Dunlop valves.

Topeak Ninja Universal Bracket

• Price: £9.99
• From: Extra UK

The new Topeak Ninja Master series seeks to improve on the previous iteration with a more user friendly and modular approach. There’s a QuickClick™ mounting system that allows accessories to quickly and easily twist into place, using a mount system similar to a Garmin. This allows you to either share accessories across multiple bikes, or swap the accessory on your bike to best suit your requirements.

Topeak Ninja Cage Z

• Price: £12.99
• From: Extra UK

The modular design of the Ninja Master series allows you to use the most suitable bottle cage for each bike. The Ninja Cage SK’s reversible design allows you to easily grab your bottle from either side, ideal for modern full suspension mountain bikes or smaller frames where bottle access can be challenging. Alternatively, this Ninja Cage Z allows traditional ‘top’ access and promises good bottle retention.

Topeak Ninja Free Strappack

• Price: £9.99
• From: Extra UK

A strap allowing you to pack most inner tubes with a mini tool or CO2 cartridges for your ride. Not compatible with fat bike inner tubes.

Topeak Mountain Box

• Price: £22.99
• From: Extra UK

This EVA foam box will hold a spare MTB tube up to 29×2.35in or other essentials for use when you need them.

Topeak Ratchet Rocket Lite NTX+

• Price: £64.99 (with TorqBit and chaintool)
• From: Extra UK

(Almost?) everything you need to fix and make precise adjustments to your bike while on the road. Featuring a fine tooth ratchet mechanism with adjustable torque TorqBit for accurately setting component torque values. With a variable 2 – 6 Nm torque range, 2, 2.5, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8mm Allend bits, T10, T15, T25 Torx bits, #2 Phillips screw driver, CrMo steel chain tool, 2 polymer tire levers and ratchet tool. Mad of chrome vanadium steel construction

Topeak Shuttle™ Gauge Digital

• Price: £54.99
• From: Extra UK

For quick tyre pressure checks, or attach it to you pump (even a mini pump) on the trail. Accurate up to 300psi. BOOM!

Giro Women’s Chrono Expert Halter Bib Shorts

• Price: £124.99
• From: ZyroFisher

Designed for easy girly wee access, Amanda has discovered that with the right underwear the mesh vest top makes for an acceptable hot weather ride outfit. Under more normal weather conditions the halterneck hooks over your head and under your jersey, so you don’t need to remove all your clothes for a toilet break. A padded chamois keeps you comfy, and Amanda is pleased to discover that the legs stay in place.

Endura Durajak

• Price: £79.99
• From: Endura

No bigger than a can of Irn Bru, the Endura SingleTrack Durajak is an ultra packable, durable windproof jacket made from Cordura® fabric with a DWR finish. Belying its delicate appearance, this fabric is claimed to be incredibly strong and durable and won’t tear easily when put through its paces, encountering the odd thorn or twig. The jacket comes in a relaxed fit to accommodate for layering and full freedom of movement. It features a full VISLON® front zip and a grown-on hood. The two front pockets are easy to access, and the zipped rear pocket doubles as a stuff sack. With its tiny pack size, is this the perfect MTB emergency jacket?

Endura Durapak

• Price: £44.99
• From: Endura

There’s also a teeny, roll-top, folding backpack too, the Durapak. An internal pocket doubles as stuff sack that can’t get lost. An adjustable chest strap keeps this backpack firmly in place, while the neat roll top closure keeps water out. Last but not least, the external, removable elastic storage provides even more room for your kit. There’s no padding, so it’s probably best left for grabbing those (mostly squishy…) groceries on the way back from the ride.

Tannus Armour

• Price: £29.99
• From: Moore Large

This is not another tubeless insert or rim protector, this is an alternative to a tubeless set up. Promising puncture, rim and sidewall protection, you use this instead of the usual tape and sealant – but you still use a tube. Sitting between your tyre and inner tube, the Tannus Armour provides 15mm of puncture protection on the top, as well as 2mm of sidewall protection from sharp objects and rocks. There are different sizes to suit different wheel sizes and riding styles. We’ve gone for rad-gnar-MTB, rather than about-town-hipster.

Mavic XA Elite Carbon

• Price: £1270/pair
• From: Mavic.com

Mavic launched its carbon wheels a few years ago and this is its 24/24 spoke light but strong trail wheels. Coming in at 1715g for a 29er pair, they should save a bit of weight off even stock race wheels. And if you’re thinking of going Microspline with Shimano’s now-available XT and SLX components, you’ll be pleased to hear that Mavic has had Microspline compatibility (one of the few) since last year. It also comes in ‘old’ Shimano and SRAM XD drive too.
With a 30mm internal hookless, carbon rim width, the rims will work well with tyres from 2.35in to 3.0. Comes in boost and non-boost too.

If it’s not too melty in the office this weekend, these should have tyres and rotors on by Monday…

100% Trajecta Helmet

• Price: £229
• From: Silverfish

The Trajecta helmet includes the Smartshock system – captive nubbins that can move within the helmet’s shell with your scalp, to give some protection against off-axis hits and glancing blows. 24 vents keep things cool, with the chin-bar also designed to let in as much oxygen as possible when you’re grunting through an enduro stage. A medium helmet weighs around 860g.

CeramicSpeed OSPW X System Cage and Jockey Wheels

• Price: From €479 or so
• From: ceramicspeed.com

Not happy with the, already pretty good, performance of your SRAM Eagle system? Well, Danish bearing boffins, CeramicSpeed have a suggestion for you. With its OSPW system for Eagle, you can replace your Eagle derailleur cage (on XX1, X01, GX, NX Mechanical and SRAM Eagle AXS) with CeramicSpeed’s oversized pulley wheel system. A bigger wheel has less drag, especially if you’re not making your chain go round tight turns as much and the 14/18 tooth wheels have CeramicSpeeds Standard or Coated bearing options. The jockeys are comically free-running, but only you can decide if you’re worth that kind of upgrade, right?

Friday Tunes

OK then. Time for some tunes. There’s a very obvious choice of very good tune first up.

Next up, staff picks. Slightly less good in some instances? You’ll have to figure out if there’s a theme or if they’re random picks.

All of the Singletrack staff have their own playlists that list all their choices for each FGF. So if you want to see who is responsible for which song you can find out by checking out their personal choices.

Staff playlist | Hannah

Hannah’s boyfriend is racing in the US Nationals this weekend, so here’s her playlist, because she’s a sentimental old thing and many of her picks have some kind of meaning/message to them. Awww/Puke. Singletrack Singles, new channel, coming soon?

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