Fresh Goods Friday 456 | The Lonely Edition

We battle through the lonely desert that is Singletrack Towers to bring you this week’s Fresh Goods Friday. Stepping carefully over the body of Jess the dog – still alive, but lying deathly still to conserve precious energy. Past the desiccated remains of Chipps’ coffee cups, around the tech graveyard of Andi’s desk. Amanda stares blankly at the screen in front of her – it’s possible she has been here all night – browsing potential cover shots before binning them. Flick, click. Flick, click. Does she ever blink? Will any shot make it to the hallowed ground that is actual paper, pinned on the ‘potentials’ wall?

Not today. No.

Wind whistles through the office, the slight whiff of Jess and the office fridge carried on its waves.

The office fridge is doing its best to make up for the lack of human lifeforms this week. Forgotten meats eye up maturing cheeses over a boulder field of gently softening tomatoes. The remaining occupants of Singletrack Towers are either too scared or too busy to take them on.

In the still quiet the sound of typing is like the rattling of bones picked over by vultures. At any moment a hyena could surely appear. But, for the sake of Fresh Goods Friday, we’ll continue. Jess, you’re our first line of defence. Please, keep us safe from the scavengers while we get this done.

Nukeproof Mega 275c

• Price: £2199.99 Frame only
• From: Hotlines UK

Not all wheels are big, and we have a 27.5in FS beast here. It’s been a while since we had a 27.5in-not-plus bike in, and here we have one. And it’s dripping – in a selection of exciting test parts, including the Hayes components you saw in FGF last week, plus some Manitou items you’ll see below.

We’re going to practice our hot seat sitting. This is the Enduro World Series winning frame, made from carbon, and coated in the crushed hair of ancient wizards, for added magic and that perfect grey finish.

Manitou Mezzer Pro Fork

• Price: £899.99
• From: Hotlines UK

The Mezzer Pro has been designed for Enduro riders. It features external LS/HS adjusters offering a wide range and allowing the rider to fine tune exactly how they want the fork to behave. The hydraulic bottom out means the Mezzer requires significant force to bottom out the fork. and it’s claimed it’s not unusual to take a full downhill run and not use final 10mm of travel. This is a designed in progression and safety-net to allow for unexpected big impact without losing control. Also of great importance: it has really nice silver stickers.

Manitou Jack Dropper Post

• Price: £299.99
• From: Hotlines UK

Internally routed, cabled actuated hydraulic dropper post available in 125mm and 150mm, at 30.8mm and 31.6mm diameter. It’s already off for testing, so we can’t check whether it’s a thunker, a jzjzjooper, or a thwacker. This picture is making us feel quite tense in anticipation, we really want to press the lever and find out.

2020 RockShox Reverb Stealth 175mm

• Price: £395.00 with 1X Remote
• From: ZyroFisher

We gave you a first look of this dropper a few weeks ago and finally got our hands on one. This 175mm Reverb takes up roughly the same amount of seat tube as the previous 150mm did. It’s easier to push down, comes up quicker and even has a little valve to release any squish you might get over time.

Nukeproof Horizon Enduro Flexi Flask

• Price: £9.99
• From: Chain Reaction Cycles

This handy little ‘flexi flask’ can hold 500ml of fluids and reduces size as you drink. Once empty, it can be stashed in a pocket with no fear of any last dribbles coming out as there’s a bite valve.

Showers Pass Apex Merino

• Price: £55
• From: Showers Pass

The main body of this t-shirt is 50% merino, while the side panels are 87% merino, to help stop your stinky bits stinking. There are reflective tabs on the shoulders, front and back, on the seams between the grey and blue fabrics. It’s all very nice and soft and drapey, unlike Hannah’s hair, which clearly needs some serious attention.

Showers Pass Trailhead Bamboo-Merino Hoodie

• Price: £95
• From: Showers Pass

Cosy soft bamboo on the inside and more cosy warm merino on the outside, that’s not Hannah’s cute and snuggly face, that’s her ‘I’ll rip your legs off if you try and take this away from me’ face. With a zipped kangaroo pocket on the front, slim fit, and another little zippered credit card pocket on the rear, this is the kind of snug clothing you can wear after a ride, or just to nip out to the shops on your fixie.

Showers Pass Rainslinger

• Price: £59
• From: Showers Pass

A highly waterproof bumbag with optional Beacon light, reflective stitching, and 3 litre capacity. We’ve been told it is likely to be handy for carrying a camera in wet weather, but really, we’d quite like to not put that to the test just yet please. Middle of October maybe, for the wet weather testing? Please?

MET Parachute MCR Helmet

• Price: £300.00
• From: MET helmets

With a magnetic detachable chinbar that claims to be super easy to fit without removing the helmet, the Parachute MCR seems like a good choice for anyone looking to push their riding to the next level. It features a flexible peak and a handy FIDLOCK closure.

Light & Motion Vya Pro Combo

• Price: $99.99
• From: Light & Motion

These lights will sense motion and light and alter their settings accordingly – it’ll flash if there’s ambient light, but stay on if it’s actually dark. The front light offers a maximum of 250 lumens, while the rear is 100. If you want to check out the beam pattern and brightness of this, or any number of lights from other manufacturers, you can check out Light & Motion’s ‘We Test Lights‘ website.

Squirt Seal Tyre Sealant

• Price: £9
• From: Squirt Cycling Products

There was nearly a terrible mishap here. We googled ‘squirt’ to get the pricing…don’t do it. Really. Don’t do it. The whole page of results was not safe for work. Here’s what you need to know: Squirt SEAL Tyre Sealant with BeadBlock is a tyre sealant for both tubed and tubeless wheels. It promises superior puncture sealing properties while boasting a long lifespan and environmentally non-hazardous formulation.

Light & Motion Vis 360 Pro

• Price: $129.99
• From: Light & Motion

This dinky little helmet light is designed to give 360° of visibility, with 600 lumens up front. Since Light & Motion started out making lights for diving, they reckon they know a thing or to about waterproofing. We ‘look forward’ to some winter testing of these then.

Fidlock Bottle 600

• Price: $39.99
• From: Fidlock

The Fidlock 600 comes with the magnetic mount for the bike, giving a super secure attachment for even the bumpiest of surfaces. The twist/side removal action can make it a particularly good solution for where space in the frame is too tight to be sliding into a standard cage.

Friday Tunes

Here’s our regular playlist of the week to go along with our Fresh Goods. Each track is picked by a staff member here in the office and added to their individual playlist over on our Spotify page. Head over there to identify exactly who is responsible for each choice.

The Singletrack MTB Chain

Remember to use the hashtag #themtbchain to suggest your additions. If we like your suggested tune and your reason for adding it then it will be included in the playlist.

#themtbchain on Spotify

#themtbchain on Apple Music

Check out our MTB Chain page here to keep up on the additions and to try out more of our Singletrack playlists.

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 | Tom

We’re highlighting Tom’s playlist this week. He is the baby of the Singletrack crew, and none of us have heard of any of his music. We suspect it only exists on the internet. One of these days, someone is going to have to show him a minidisc player and melt his mind.

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