It’s the five-hundredth Fresh Goods Friday! Wow! That means that it’s getting on for ten years of a weekly check of the things that have appeared in the office. Started way back when by the Mark and the great Jon Woodhouse, Fresh Goods Friday has provided weekly distraction for millions of procrastinating workers as attention drifts on a Friday and they start focussing on ‘#drinkbeeratyourdeskfriday’ – another one of our fine traditions.
Fresh Goods Friday has featured everything over the years, from the latest carbon bikes, to the weirdest widgets, members of staff, new children, cars and guitars… Written by many people over the years, the focus is always the same – what is it? Where can you get it and how much? And in many cases, ‘HOW MUCH????”
So, please join us on our five hundredth Fresh Goods Friday and then we can all start the slide towards the weekend in style. Thanks for joining us on this ongoing and every-changing journey!
Merida E-OneSixty 8000
- Price: £5850
- From: Merida
We tested the E-OneForty recently, now we’ve the bigger, badder and more glittery E-OneSixty in for a review. This is the longer travel bike with 160mm of travel and features a carbon front triangle with internal Shimano BT8035 battery powering a STEPS E8000 motor.
Air channels in the headtube are designed to keep the battery cool in warmer climates and also give cables and hoses a place to be internally routed. Merida has gone for a mullet set up for this eeb and a Marzocchi Z1 fork up front.
Coros Safe Sound Helmet
- Price: £129.99
- From: Coros
Coros makes a bunch of cycling-specific wearable kit ranging from smartwatches to smart helmets for road, urban and mountain. This is the Coros SafeSound Mountain, a mountain bike specific helmet with high-tech features built right in.
The helmet features a set of Coros EOSS audio speakers which can be used to stream music or make phone calls on the move, but the company claims that audio won’t ever affect your ability to notice sounds around you while on the road or on the mountain. Audio streams directly from your smartphone over Bluetooth and you can either use the Coros App or the included wireless remote to control things.
On the rear of the helmet, there is an integrated rear light and a small rechargeable battery that powers accelerometers that can detect an impact in the event of an accident, the connected app will then send an emergency message with GPS coordinates to contacts that are set up on the APP. All very smart stuff, but we’ll see how it works over the coming weeks.
Ninefold Premium Scottish Rum
- Price: £35.00
- From: Ninefold Distillery
This white rum is pot distilled from molasses in Scotland, and claims to have notes of vanilla, caramel, butterscotch and citrus, with a long and spicy finish. It’s gluten free & vegan friendly, and comes in eco-friendly packaging, making it the ideal gift for our in-house rumguzzler, Amanda. For every bottle sold, £1 is donated to Refuge, to aid the victims of domestic abuse AND you can get 10% off using the code STWRUM
Bell Super DH Helmet
- Price: £249
- From: ZyroFisher
We’ve seen the Bell SuperDH helmet before, but Bell figured that as we’d made such a fuss about the MIPS Spherical Giro Manifest it would remind us that Bell helmets have had that technology for a good couple of years. This is the downhill certified SuperDH helmet, with a removable chinbar for trail use, a clip in camera mount and that MIPS Spherical construction where an inner helmet floats inside, like a ball and socket joint. Now we just need the bike parks to reopen!
Fox 34 Float Factory Grip 2 2021
- Price: £1079
- From: Silverfish
All the clever words we’d written for these visually arresting forks seem to have disappeared. But basically, the 34 gains an option for the Grip2 damper for more plushness thanks to the EVOL air damper. Still comes in 27.5 or 29in. And it covers the 120-140mm range. If you want smaller, there’s the 34StepCast or the 32. And if you want bigger, then why not try the 36 or the new 38!
Fox Transfer Factory 2021
- Price: £369 (post) £69 (lever)
- From: Silverfish
With a lower height and shorter overall length for each drop, the new 2021 Transfer dropper post is now 25g lighter too, thanks to a complete redesign – which includes moving the seat clamp bolts more outboard where you can actually get to them. The dropper lever has been redesigned too and comes with a bar clamp, SRAM Matchmaker or Shimano i-Spec II adaptors for seamless handlebar integration. Comes in 100, 125, 150, and 175mm drops – and you can save £50 if you don’t want the Kashima coating.
100% Glendale Viperdae glasses
- Price: £179.99
- From: Freewheel
Huge glasses are very in right now, didn’t you hear? And these Glendale glasses from 100% Eyewear are pretty big. They come with a multilayer bronze mirror lens for looking cool and keeping your eyes shielded from those sun rays – and a clear lens for the 98% of the time that the sun isn’t quite out in the UK. Big and bold.
Mudhugger Gravelhugger
- Price: £25
- From: Mudhugger
The Mudhugger Gravelhugger (left) is just what you think it might be. It’s a front ‘guard for all these newfangled gravel bikes. It’ll fit tyres up to 50mm wide and attaches easily with O-rings, so no more ziptie waste too. On the right we have the FRX QR front mountain bike guard that comes with reusable Velcro straps for that quick on and offness. Don’t think you don’t need mudguards? Don’t be cocky, we’ve not got to ‘summer’ yet.
Specialized Diverge Comp Carbon
- Price: £3399
- From: Specialized
Launched last week, the Diverge is a completely re-designed second generation of Specialized’s pioneering gravel bike, complete with 20mm FutureShock suspension in the headtube, that suspends the handlebars (and therefore the rider) rather than putting any potential wiggle into the forks. This is the GRX-equipped 2×11 version with carbon DT Swiss wheels. Chipps has been putting the miles in on this one, so expect a review any day now.
p.s. That doesn’t look like gravel to us…
And with that, it’s time to drift hard towards the weekend. If you’re working, then we hope it’s going well for you. You probably deserve a beer about now, right? And if you’ve stuck at home, then it must be time to get the sherry out by now? We hope you have a fine, safe and fun weekend. Don’t forget to check back often as this isn’t the last news we have for you this weekend.
Cheers all! And happy 500th to FGF!
Comments (15)
Comments Closed
In the time-honoured tradition, I’m proud to leave a “HOW MUCH??” reply on this momentous anniversary. £438 for a seatpost. I get it, it’s worth it (relatively, for those that appreciate its value), it’s industry-leading and cutting-edge. But, boy oh boy, this is a pricey old game to be in, isn’t it? There are pricier pastimes, but mountain bikes have got to be up there. Wonder what the ranking table would look like?
1. Motor racing (rally, track cars, track bikes)?
2. Mountain bikes?
3. Motocross?
4. Flying?
5. High-end photography?
@Jim Trailrider Yup a lot of pennies but so is everything that is top of the range. There are always more affordable options, for example, the new Brand X with 200mm drop!! £169.99 https://www.chainreactioncycles.com/brand-x-ascend-xl-dropper-seatpost-170-200mm-/rp-prod159172
MTB probably at the bottom of that list TBH.
Yachting. Beats just about everything.
And don’t forget horses. spendy!
My main three Canon lenses all cost over a grand or two each… And have you seen the price of acoustic guitars recently?
Wives?! – gets coat and leaves quickly seeking a beer in the sun
The old version wasn’t exactly cheap and whilst described as top end it certainly is but that doesn’t always equate to quality,the old lever was a joke and whilst my replacement hasn’t missed a beat then original wasn’t capable of holding 64kg .
As the sport has grown and increased in popularity so have the prices ,there charging the high price because people are paying it ,my local lbs has pre sold 8 PRS of fox 38 forks ,great for his business but when the retail market scrambles for the latest and the greatest it’s no wonder they can charge the high price .they’ve also a lot of ambassadors YouTubers call them what you wanters to pay for ,all to then in 12 months time just like the daz soap powder adverts of old , basically tell us last year’s stuff wasn’t any good but this new one is ……..a little tongue in cheek but hey
Off shore power-boating isn’t exactly a pocket money hobby either.
Fox have always been pricey after market. Nothing new here.
Super yachts 1million a meter for a half decent one
My scuba mask look very similar to those 100% glasses. Luckily underwater not many people see me looking like a berk.
pah! Still cheaper than world domination. You should see the bill i got for the last hide out in a volcano..
Uummm……the last minute adition of a sliding roof….well, the budget couldn’t stretch to a lock. Good luck and thanks for the prompt PayPal transfer. Good luck!
@Jim Trailrider. Definetly last on that list. I’ve been road racing motorcycles for almost 20 years now. I got into mountain bikes to help train for racing. I always giggle a little when people complain about how expensive MTBs are. My current build if bought new the way it’s setup cost more then the motorcycle it’s leaning against in the garage right now. I ride a smaller bike and it still costs $500 per weekend for tires. That’s just TIRES! I go through 2 sets or so of MTB tires per year. A set of high end brake pads for the push bike are what $25-30? Vs a racing motorcycle at $75 per caliper (and there’s 2 on the front). No when it comes to smiles per mile even top of line MTBs are cheap.
@Chipps. For FGF500 I was hoping for some retro goods. Maybe an item from each of the big numbers. 1, 100,200,etc… what was fresh for FGF a decade ago?