Hope Pro 4 hubs

Fresh Goods Friday 503 | Shed, solar, sunflower, Suntour, Stash, saddle and spokes!

by and 13

Fresh Goods Friday 503 is filled to the brim with new forks, cool Troy Lee Designs clothing, Hope bling, saddles, and even shed accessories.

For a break with tradition, we did consider publishing Fresh Goods Friday on a Saturday, but instead we’re going to start with a video instead of the traditional waffle.

Old Trails, New Tools - Singletrack...
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We look forward to welcoming the new wave of squawkers of ‘How Much!’ and very puzzled looks as we reference picolax. Singletrack once had the slogan ‘the world’s biggest clique’, and for anyone diving into these pages for the first time, it must be a strange world. Obscure references to Bombers, weeing in shoes, and baby robins. Memberships measured not in years but ‘before the great hack’ or ‘after Jamie’. Whether you have any idea what we’re talking about, or you’re still to learn, we welcome you all to step forth with us into Fresh Goods Friday, and beyond, down the rabbit hole, and into Singletrackworld.

Suntour Durolux EQ 36 R2C2 PCS

  • Price: R2C2 PCS €759, RC2 PCS €739, RC PCS €639 (solid crown steel axle)
  • From: SR Suntour

This is the 2020 version of the Durlux fork by SR Suntour, a fork that over the years has received many internal upgrades and is constantly pulling in good reviews. For 2020 the Durolux line has been updated to Durolux EQ, meaning that they now all have an negative air spring, or EQUALIZER, rather than the coil model that was used in the past.

The R2C2 which has been sent to us has both high and low-speed rebound and compression settings, an air spring and it uses volume adjusters for easy tuning. This 29in model is running a full 170mm travel but with the use of plastic clips can be reduced by 10mm increments all the way down to 150mm. An alloy steerer, hollow crown, Ti axle, external grease ports and fender mounts make up the rest of the features.

Granite Designs Talon

The Talon is a handy set of fibre reinforced nylon tyre levers that can be joined together and used as a quick link tool. Granite Designs claims the tyre levers are almost indestructible and can be used on tough downhill tyres, while steel tips ensure they work correctly for quick link splitting. The Talon also has space to stow a spare link on too.

Granite Designs Stash Tool

  • Price: £56.50
  • From: Windwave / Amazon

We’ve already reviewed the STASH from Granite Designs but it’s such a neat little tool that we have another in. The STASH isn’t just a handy tool, but also a great alternative to the star fangled nut usually used for preloading the bearings in your headset, especially good when you have a number of forks on test and keep having to swap from one to the other.

Sapim Race Spokes

sapim race spokes
Custom cut Sapim spokes.

Andi is finally getting around to building up a set of rims have been collecting dust in the office. These Sapim Race spokes were ordered from Custom Cut Spokes, a small UK business that will cut spokes to the correct length for your wheel build. The black J bend spokes will be laced up with brass nipples on a pair of Hope hubs and CrankBrothers Synthesis carbon rims.

Specialized Phenom Comp Women’s Saddle

To replace her Power Comp MIMIC saddle that unfortunately got stolen, Amanda has carefully studied Hannah’s advice and sourced a new saddle. This is for swapping between her steel hardtail and whatever trail/enduro bike she has on test, so she has gone for a reasonably priced option that is designed for comfort and strength over lightweight racier models. Medium density foam, low friction outer fabric, and a women’s specific shape.

New Shop Merch and Issue 131

It’s all here, come and get it! We love this cover so much, and we hope you do too.

Lost Lanes – Glorious Bike Rides (in four different UK regions)

The Lost Lanes series of cycling guidebooks cover the West Country, North, South and Wales. The routes are backroads rather than offroad, so gravel bike rather than mountain bike. I checked the routes near to my old home in Dorset, and new home in Hebden Bridge, Yorkshire, and they are indeed really rather charming old lane routes. The sort of routes that would suit a 1960’s Cycle Touring Club bimble with a jolly good tea and cake stop. One great feature is they highlight the best routes for: overnights, gourmets, ups n downs, history, arts and culture, wild swimming, families, pubs and natural wonders! All the routes in the books are supported with downloadable GPX files. There are 30 routes, plus write ups on several local events in each edition (do you remember when we had “events”). Being new to the North, I now have 30 rides ahead of me, and basically everything I need to discover the best bits of this beautiful region. Now, all I need is my Carradice saddle bag and lashing of Bovril in a tartan flask.

Hope Pro 4 Hubs

  • Price:
  • From: Hope Technology
Hope Pro 4 hubs
Hope Pro 4 stealth hubs.

Here’s another piece of the Andi wheel build puzzle, a set of Hope Pro 4 hubs. What can we say about Hope hubs that hasn”t already been posted online? They’re reasonably priced, extremely well made and are designed to shrug off the worst the UK can throw at them.

Troy Lee Designs Air Gloves 20

In need of some gloves more suited to warmer conditions, Andi has opted for a pair of TLD Air Gloves. Featuring an all over Micro-mesh material for full ventilation, the Air keeps your hands cool and protected. There’s extra protection on the fingers and silicon print on the tips means you won’t slip off the brake levers on long rocky downhills.

Troy Lee Designs Sprint Shorts

Durable and lightweight, the opposite of Andi.

The Sprint short is designed to be a durable pair of shorts for more aggressive riding or in Andi’s case falling. These shorts have been updated for improved manoeuvrability and use lightweight and durable materials. 2 pockets are just big enough to carry a few bits and bobs on the trail and the design has an adjustable waistband and with mesh panelling, these should be cool enough for the sunny weather when it returns.

Off-Grid Solar Kit

off grid solar panel
Time to move to the shed.

Some of you may already know this, but during lockdown, Andi has been building pretty large shed/office in his back garden. It’s not 100% complete yet, but it does have a roof and walls, enough to begin using it as an office. Instead of running a mains power cable from the house to his mini chalet, Andi has chosen to go off-grid with this simple kit.

The 25W solar power kit comes with a solar panel, battery, charger, and 4 LED light bulbs which should provide enough light for working in the evening or on cloudy days like today. The kit includes everything you need to install EXCEPT brackets for the solar panel, so this might not get fitted until next week.

Jump this way, put your arms in the air and party. It’s the weekend.

Andi is a gadget guru and mountain biker who has lived and ridden bikes in China and Spain before settling down in the Peak District to become Singletrack's social media expert. He is definitely more big travel fun than XC sufferer but his bike collection does include some rare hardtails - He's a collector and curator as well as a rider. Theory and practice in perfect balance with his inner chi, or something. As well as living life based on what he last read in a fortune cookie Andi likes nothing better than riding big travel bikes.

More posts from Andi

Comments (13)

    Can anyone see themselves paying £739 for a suntour fork?

    Oh all right, i’ll do it……. How Much!! sigh……

    I can’t see myself paying £739 for ANY fork.

    Awesome video message!

    I’m not sure why the negativity for Suntour. This feels to me like a comment from someone who hasn’t seen or used any ‘higher spec’ Suntour kit and are just thinking it’ll be like the budget stuff you see on a low end bike.

    I’ve had a couple of mid range Suntour Forks recently and have been blown away by them. The quality is excellent and the performance is on a par with the similar range forks from the other manufacturers.

    Just because most bikes come stock with Fox or Rockshox, there really are a lot of options out there as a customer now. I bought the Suntour cheap to fill a gap until I could afford to buy a ‘better fork’ and genuinely having used it no longer see the point. It works really well, the service kits and manuals are excellent and I really have no need to swap it for anything else.

    Don’t quite understand the titanium axle? Or steel axle for that matter.

    Vaguely sceptical about the “reasonably priced” claim for the Hope hubs that have no price listed next to them 😉
    That said, my hope hubs have been running smoothly for six years now, with not a hint of trouble. Reasonably priced? Hhmm. Value for money? Absof***nlutely!!

    Likewise I was thinking the same about the ‘reasonably priced’ saddle for 84 quid. I’ve never paid anywhere near that price for very comfortable (to me) saddles.

    Seems a little hypocritical after the message in the intro.

    How is that little solar panel going to run a compressor, deep fat fryer for the Putoline, kettle, angle grinder, etc, etc? Next Andi will be telling us he hasn’t run an Ethernet cable to the shed

    I thought the video was so good I invited members of my local mountain bike gang to come and look. Now, they ride a couple of times a week but don’t read the magazines or look at the websites. Having had a look they have asked if they can use Google translate to work out what you are on about.

    @Rubber_Buccaneer I’ve not, I have WIFI 😉 This little solar system is for lights and a security camera only. If I do start welding my own frames then I’ll need some serious power. Next purchase will probably be a log burner 😀

    How will a log burner help you weld ? Braze… maybe. But not weld.

    The Lost Lanes books look nice. I have a picture from the cover artist Andrew Pavitt, in case you like the art work.

    https://www.art-angels.co.uk/categories/andrew-pavitt

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