Yep, it looks like today is summer! With sucky weather for the last month up here in Singletrack Land, today is the day when the mercury is set to top 27C (and 80F). Proper hot! And then we’re back to clouds and sub-room temperature temps for the rest of the year. Oh well. If there’s no answer here later this afternoon, we’ve gone out to try to burn in our tan lines to last us another few months. Although given that Calderdale, home of Singletrack Towers and some great trails, is now in full local lockdown again, it appears that any celebrations of the weather are going to be limited to solo barbecues and hilltop cans of beer at a distance.
We hope that wherever you are, that the weather gods are smiling and that the mountain bike trails will flow beneath your tyres this weekend. But first – IT’S FRESH GOODS FRIDAY! Bring on the goods!
Canyon Strive CF 7.0
- Price: £2799
- From: Canyon
It might look like the more expensive CFR, but this is actually the most affordable Strive in the Canyon range. Surprisingly for the price, Canyon has managed to cram in some neat features not to mention a very pretty full carbon frame. The Strive’s party trick is the Shapshifter 2.0, a bar-mounted lever that controls a piston connected to the rear shock so at the flick of a switch you can adjust the geometry to suit your terrain. This latest version of the Strive rolls on 29in wheels and has an enduro friendly 160mm of front travel (150mm on the rear). This 7.0 build boasts a Lyrik, SRAM GX Eagle 12-speed and DT Swiss wheels.
Nukeproof All Season Ride Wear
- Prices: Nirvana rainproof jacket £150.00, Nirvana LS jersey £65.00, Nirvana shorts £80.00, Blackline pants £80.00 Blackline SS jersey £40.00, Blackline gloves £20.00
- From: Nukeproof, Chain Reaction Cycles
Our Lakes based photographer has been playing dress-up with a bunch of new kit from Nukeproof. He’s gone for a mix of Nirvana and Blackline range, meaning he’s got all seasons covered and we can spot him a mile off in these great colours.
The Nirvana long sleeved jersey has reenforced elbow/forearm material for added protection, the Nirvana shorts are super tough yet lightweight and have a neat fleecy goggle pouch and clip. The Blackline trousers are going to stop James collecting too many ticks in the overgrown trails, and he’s got Amanda’s favourite Nirvana jacket to keep him dry. For a photographer carrying a lot of kit, the packable jacket is a great option.
Lastly, the Blackline gloves protecting James’ precious money makers.
Designed and developed in Belfast along with the rest of the range, these should be durable enough to cope with the UK’s constantly changing weather.
Shimano Deore 12speed Groupset
- Price: Listed below
- From: Freewheel
Having launched back in May, it seems that samples were caught up in Covid Customs, so we’ve only just got our sample group in to evaluate. In the flesh, this new 12 speed groupset looks as good in the flesh as it did in photos. Pleasingly, it also comes in 11 and even 10 speed versions too, so there’s a lot of upgrade room for people with older bikes looking for an affordable upgrade path.
Here are the individual prices:
- Brakes – BRM6100 (2-pot brakes) – £79.99 each
- Four pot brakes – BRM6120 (4-pot) – £99.99 each
- Chainset FC-M6100/6120/6130 – £89.99
- 12 speed chain – CN-M6100 – £24.99
- Rear mech – RDM6100SGS – £59.99
- 10-51 Microspline cassette – CS-M6100 – £89.99
Milkit Tubeless Rim Tape
- Price: £14.99
- From: Freewheel
Milkit is a maker of all sorts of tubeless gear, including clever tubeless valves, tubeless booster pumps and sealant, so it makes sense that it has just released this tubeless tape, wide enough for modern rims and flexible enough to fit into those bendy bits on the rim bed.
Hunt E Enduro Wide E-MTB Wheelset
- Price: £429
- From: Hunt
EMTB specific wheels that are designed to take as much abuse as you can dish out while on your eeb. This E Enduro wheelset is built with eMTB specific hubs that feature a large body and built-in cooling fins to help dissipate heat from the discs on long descents. The spokes are triple butted and Hunt has engineered the rims to be 25% thicker at the sidewall tapers and offer as much as 41% more material in the rim bed. At an internal width of 37mm these hoops are designed for chunky rubber.
Hunt offers the E Enduro wheelset in 29in, 27.5in and even as a mullet combo, and all freehub options are available too.
Riese and Muller Load 75
- Price: Approx £6,000
- From: Manchester Bike Hire
How is this for bang-on trend? It features ‘true-mullet’ wheels (short at the front, long at the back), full suspension and continuously variable gears with belt driver and idler pulley? Oh, and it has the latest Bosch e-bike motor and twin batteries! Don’t worry, we’re not launching ‘CargoBikeWorld’ just yet, it’s just that this has come in for our local cargo bike delivery service and it seemed logical to get a photo of it while it was passing.
Is it time for a photo of Mark, being an ‘influencer’? Always…
And seeing James Vincent up there dressed in purple called to mind the Purple One himself – Prince. And what better showcase of Prince is this example of him stealing the show in the George Harrison memorial concert in front of Tom Petty, Jeff Wayne and Harrison’s son himself.
Have a great weekend, y’all!
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I regularly go back and watch that Prince performance. He outshines everyone else on the stage by a mile.
Slightly ironic that SRAM gave people with a standard Shimano freehub an easy upgrade path when they introduced NX Eagle, but Shimano have swerved that and still want you to pay an extra £50+ for a micro spline…
Wasn’t it a few years after Eagle was launched that SRAM released a 12 speed cassette that fitted an HG freehub?
I’d like to see an 11-51 11 speed XT cassette.
Trouble is, I don’t think the 11-speed XT RD would handle a 51 tooth dinner plate. I just did a 1×11 upgrade for a customer with XT 2×11, and even with the B screw wound right in the 11-46t was a pretty snug fit.
The Sunrace 11-50 is a good cassette and works perfectly well with a normal XT mech.
@Jakester. Completely agree. He makes some incredible artists look average.
They’ve delivered a great performance yet somehow I’m a bit embarrassed for the rest of them!
I’m not a Prince fan but that performance left me with goosebumps; one of my favourite guitar pieces ever.
holy cow, I might have just become a Prince fan – he is on a different level!!