You can be forgiven for feeling a bit flat this Friday. Between floods, virus fears and the politicising of tea and crisps, it’s been a tough week. Here are some positive things that happened this week to try and brighten your horizons:
Amanda – I’ve ticked something off my bucket list that has been on it since I was a college student – Circuit de Reims-Gueux
Andi – I went to see Back To The Future The Musical and it was amazing.
Andy P – Manchester City beat Real Madrid
Chipps – It was sunny and snowy in the Lake District when I went out to shoot a feature for the next issue of Singletrack.
Hannah – my daughter’s science teacher called me to tell me she is doing really well, trying hard and ‘nailing science’, and my partner showed he’s a loving and supportive type by helping me stick with my alcohol free weight losing efforts by going alcohol free too.
Mark – I went to a publishing conference where I had my faith in print renewed. And I ate three different burgers on three consecutive days.
Ross – I was joyously reunited with my dog after 10 days away on holiday.
Zoe – My car passed its MOT! I went to see Back To The Future The Musical and it was amazing so I told Andi to go and he did.
Duly fortified with happiness over the small things in life, let us move on to the Fresh and the Good.
Moots Routt YBB
- Price: £5,700 (frame and fork)
- From: Saddleback
OK, we know it has curly bars, but Moots has great mountain biking heritage and the Routt YBB is too lovely not to show you. We’ve seen it before out in Idaho, however with Saddleback now offering Moots gravel frames in the UK to a select few dealers, this titanium beauty is now much easier to get hold of in the UK. If you want your bike to look just like the one you see here, you can add the Enve Seat Post, Stem, SS Bars, Bar Tape, Chris King Headset & BB for £1,170, or go the whole hog and add the Enve Wheelset an extra £3,100.
This drop bar soft tail will be being tested out by our southern correspondent Dean. Check him out here if you want to follow his testing progress.
Great Britain Mountain Biking
- Price: £24.99 (less with member discounts!)
- From: Singletrack
At 356 pages this guidebook is a bit of a whopper, covering England Wales, and Scotland. You get 56 detailed routes with introductions, route directions, useful info and OS mapping, and around 150 more route suggestions.
Charlie at Singletrack says: This is all the inspiration you need for a weekend away from your usual loops. It’s great to mix it up and explore new areas, and books like this mean you are going straight to the good stuff without getting bogged down in brambles, busy roads, dead ends or actual bogs.
Apidura 6L Dropper Saddle Pack
- Price: £122
- From: Apidura
The 6 litre Dropper Saddle Pack stops you having to choose between carrying more kit on the bike and riding more technical trails, Based on the Apidura Backcountry Series and adapted for bikes with dropper posts and limited rear tyre clearance, there’s a reinforced HDPE skid plate on the pack base to protect against the increased possibility of tire strike on bikes with rear suspension and dropper posts. The collar with rubber shims fits around the upper part of your dropper to keep the bag in place.
Fox Speedframe Pro
- Price: £139.00
- From: Fox Racing at Bike Connection Agency
Featuring MIPS protection, a 360 fit system for the perfect fit, Fidlock SNAP helmet buckle, removable and washable liner, plenty of ventilation including under the peak, and it’s goggle compatible.
Nukeproof Horizon Pro Sam Hill Enduro Pedals
- Price: £84.99
- From: Nukeproof
These lighter weight Horizon flat pedals offer more clearance than the previous ones with the pin pattern remaining the same. They’re polished on top with 6 colours available – And there’s an uber-polished 30th Anniversary set too.
Nukeproof Reactor Trail Blend Coffee
- Price: N/A
- From: Nukeproof
Imagine being in a van for two days, risking the touchscreen coffee machines at service stations and being disappointed everytime, only to discover there’s bags of tasty coffee in the back?
Nukeproof Horizon Enduro Strap
- Price: £11.99
- From: Chain Reaction Cycles
There’s a short strap at 38cm for attaching to your saddle (but can be used on frames with skinny tubing, steel fans) and a long strap at 60cm for all tubing including seatpost. Available in 6 colours, enduro riding is a go-go.
Nukeproof Garmin Top Cap Mount
- Price: £13.99
- From: Chain Reaction Cycles
It does exactly what you would expect, and fits all Garmin computers that use a ¼ turn mounting and Wahoo ELEMNT computers.
Nukeproof Tubeless Valves
- Price: £14.99
- From: Chain Reaction Cycles
We’ve seen these before in Fresh Goods but we can all just appreciate that weld in the Eurotunnel.
Nukeproof Horizon Cap
- Price: TBC
- From: Nukeproof
If the chock is there, what’s securing the van..? Amanda attempted to model this but she’s not cool enough to suit a cap. She is cool enough to know thast you should leave the label on though!
SR Suntour Digital Shock Pump
- Price: N/A
- From: Bike Connection Agency
As far as promotional items go, this is a pretty great one. We all need a shock pump, and the precision of a digital one is a bonus.
Italian Washing-Up Liquid
- Price: Can you put one on cleanliness?
- From: Tuscany
When you drive from Tuscany to Calais you pass through many tolls. Lots of people press those buttons, so some forward planning from Mr Nukeproof with limited options left Amanda washing her hands with a bike cleaning rag and some washing up liquid.
Righty-ho. Off we go, into the weekend. Hello storm Jorge, we will laugh in your face as you whip us with wind and lash us with rain, for we are UK mountain bikers and we have seen your sort before. We will see it as an opportunity to justify our expensive waterproofs, hone our mud skills, and have an extra pie when we get home. Let’s find the positives…
Comments (7)
Comments Closed
£5,700.00 for just a frame and fork; bloody norah!
The dynamic duo strike again! Nice work, gang, especially under such difficult circumstances, i.e., one of you being in an office and the other being in a van in a tunnel.
I’m not sure what I’m more amazed by – £5700 for the frame or £1170 for the bars, tape, stem, seatpost, BB and headset. I think on balance it’s the latter as that works out as £195 per item (one of which is bar tape!)
I suspect I may not be their target audience.
Pumping a car tire with a shock pump?!?! What kind of shenanigans will you be up to on two week home quarantine?
@fahzure I’m going to pump my suspension up with a hydragas pump :)
Print has a future? So I have to get out bed and pull long shifts at the typeface again?
Darn.
Moots have always been at the spendy end. I was going to buy one of the YBB mtbs some time back, but value or not it was just too much money. They are thoroughly beautiful in person though.