What a week! Hannah and Amanda have only just dried off from the bike test shoot last week, so please help make it worthwhile and consider subscribing. Chipps has been doing lots of homework for his Night Leader training, and the rest of the team have been enjoying navigating to work as the Calder River level fills up to brimming.
A valuable lesson was learnt on the above photoshoot – When wearing a new waterproof for the first time, take a back up option in case it’s not as waterproof as you’d hoped! Amanda now has a cold. Now let’s take a look at what goodies we’ve got in to improve our winter riding.
Stooge Mk4
- Price: £550 frameset, £84.99 Junker bar
- From: Stooge Cycles
Hannah is trying her hand (and knees) at singlespeeding, with this Stooge Mk4. It could of course be perfectly easily set up with gears, but Hannah is curious. Designed in the UK and built in Taiwan, the steel frameset is specifically designed around the handling of a rigid fork. Hannah first laid eyes on designer Andy’s personal Mk4 in Moss Green during the summer, and this one here is ‘Duster Blue’. There’s a bright red for anyone wanting to be more attention grabbing than a twin top tubed rigid forked moto bar’d steely already is.
Dynaplug Megapill
- Price: £59.99
- From: Freewheel
Comes in a neat bag 
A CATERPILLAR! 
Fully loaded 
Hand for scale
The Dynaplug Mega Pill is for super heavy users of tubeless repair kits, mountain bike guides, or for people who don’t like to go out and buy spares often. It features two big plugs and five regular ones, plus a teeny tiny blade for trimming the plugs. It comes in an assortment of colours. This one is red, to match Amanda’s hair.
Cane Creek Hellbender (AKA 70-series)
- Price: £89.99
- From: Extra UK
A headset designed to bridge the gap between the 40-series and 110-series headsets. With all the design characteristics, sealing element, and Hellbender bearing found on a 110-series headset, at a price closer to a 40-series.
Extra UK Box of Joy
- Price: £Various
- From: Extra UK
This is Michael Braybrook’s resting face 
New chair 
Wow. ‘Media sample’ colour 
Refurbished Helms for a very grateful staff member
This box of goodies came addressed to Amanda, to help her get back on two wheels after recent events. Happy faced man not included, but responsible for the box. A set of Cane Creek Helms, and Ergon SM Sport Gel Women’s saddle and some Ergon grips in a very noticeable shade of yellow.
Showers Pass Elite 2.1 Jacket
- Price: £195
- From: Showers Pass
Designed for commuters, randonneurs and roadies, this jacket has six vents for letting out the heat, and a 3-layer waterproof fabric for keeping out the the wet. Reflective tabs on the arms and back help with visibility, and it’s available in four bright colours for men and women, plus black for men. Hannah is already happily wearing it for commutes to work, and has broken some kind of fashion rule by also wearing it in the latest bike test shoot for Issue 128 of Singletrack.
Showers Pass Refuge Pants
- Price: £185
- From: Showers Pass
Made of the same 3-layer waterproof fabric as the jacket above, these trousers promise to keep all the water out. With a reinforced bum to prevent your saddle grinding the waterproofing away, plus vents and pockets with waterproof zips, and a ton of reflective detailing, these are the pants you pull on when you want to laugh in the face of weather.
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The Sub-In-A-BoxFrom £59.00
Squirt Chain Lube
- Price: £11.99
- From: Extra UK
A wax based, long lasting dry lube that doesn’t contain harmful solvents, is 100% biodegradable and environmentally friendly. Due to Squirt’s composition, dirt build-up shouldn’t occur… ’tis the season to test that theory!
Ergon GE1 Evo Factory Grips
- Price: £34.99
- From: Extra UK
Grips good enough for a Singletrack Recommended – A highly engineered set of grips that are best suited to wide bars and an elbows-out riding position. The new EVO Factory version is grippier and better damped than the original, making these a fantastic option for a broader range of riders – from XC through to enduro. – Wil Barrett
RRP ProGuard Black
- Price: £26.99 front, £23.99 rear
- From: Extra UK
Designed for easy, versatile fitment on a huge range of bikes to protect our faces from shlop, and reduce bike cleaning.
Gore Tex Trail Hooded Jacket
- Price: £220
- From: Gorewear.com
This is the Gore-Tex Trail Hooded Jacket. It’s a fully waterproof, active cut cycling jacket with a very neat minimal style. There’s a hood, some extended cuffs and very little else, for maximum stowage and minimal fuss.
Gore Tex Shakedry Trail Hooded Jacket
- Price: £260
- From: Gorewear.com
This new Gore Tex Shakedry jacket has all sorts of clevereness lurking beneath its slick and shiny exterior. For a start, the face fabric is… GoreTex itself. Or rather, there is no face fabric (though there is a liner fabric, to give it some durability and shape) The jacket exterior is pure GoreTex fabric, which makes it constantly bead water, never wet out and, as the name suggests, you can just shake the water off it. Although a lack of outer fabric makes it more fragile, it now comes approved for use with hydration packs.
Gore Tex Infinium Trail Hooded Jacket
- Price: £220
- From: Gorewear.com
‘Infinium’ is a new name in the Gore Tex range and it describes any garment that features a combination of Gore laminated fabric – previously something that didn’t exist. So here we have a jacket that features lightweight Gore Tex fabric for the bits (like the shoulders and sleeves) that’ll get wettest, with Gore Windstopper on bits that need more breathability. Chipps is also modelling the £50 Infinium stretch Mid Gloves, which are made with a single seam on a hand-shaped last and then baked to for sealing and flexibility. Looks like we have the weather for it.
We also have a pair of £69 Trail Liner bib shorts that feature a couple of clever touches, like the gel wrapper pockets on the thighs, and a Windstopper ‘cup’ which offers a windproof, but breathable and roomy pre-formed space for your gentleman bits.
Follow Hollow Alpaca Socks
- Price: US$25
- From: Followhollow.com
Did you know that alapaca ‘wool’ fibres are actually hairs? No? Did you know that they’re hollow tubes too? That means they can trap warm air. It’s apparently almost impossible to saturate the woven fabric too. Anyway, that kind of natural tech, along with made-in-the-USA-out-of-Peruvian-alpaca manufacture what makes Followhollow socks so good, reckons Brian Davis (inventor of the awesome Fixit Sticks). And Followhollow has already passed its Kickstarter threshold, so you can definitely get hold of these to keep your tootsies warm.
ICYMI: Podcast – Making Up The Numbers
Last weekend the Trek Factory Racing Downhill team were in town and Reece Wilson and Kade Edwards dropped into the Manchester studio to record a podcast with George Thompson and Binners.
That’s all for this week, and hopefully the rain has cleared up ready for weekend rides. Let us know where you’re headed in the comments section below!
Musak
Bad taste, good taste, personal significance and morning motivation. We’ve got it all for you here.
Comments (8)
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showers pass stuff is ace. gonna get some of those pants.
chipps, the friendly office pimp should be called friday smiles day, I did chuckle
The reclining Chipps photo is magnificent, and must be in the all time top 10 embarrassing photos of cycling superstars. Surely it must be a cover photo for a future print edition?
Are you going to sell signed copies?
Got the right coloured stooge there. You’ll love it.
but how big is the hand??
@obidog My palm is 8.2cm across, which is exactly the same as the length of my middle finger! Thank you for helping me learn something new (if a bit useless) about myself.
I like the look of the RRP Rear Guard. I had the Mudhugger one which worked great but looked terrible.
Love that pink and red jacket
chipps suits you sir