Fresh Goods Friday: FGF 511 – The Can-we, can’t we? edition

Crazy times on crazier times. We find ourselves here at Singletrack Towers in the midst of local lockdown where we can’t go to someone’s house or garden, but we can go for a bike ride with them. So that’s good. But at the end of the ride, we can go to the pub, but not with the people we were riding with. And holiday plans that had been planned are now unplanned as we’re not allowed to travel – unless, of course it’s for work, in which case we can. And Scotland doesn’t want to see us, regardless (but who could blame them, eh?)

Shimano M7100 Brake Lever

• Price: £39.99
• From: Madison

Someone had an oopsy daisy (100% user error), so a new lever was in order. There’s not much to say about a lever, despite it being quite essential. It was the right hand lever, so perhaps not as important as the left one? Now, there’s something to argue about…

Smith Mainline MIPS Helmet

• Price: £275
• From: Ultrasport

With Koroyd and MIPs protection, this full face helmet is downhill certified and promises maximum ventilation. This is the ‘Matte Sage Red Rock’ colour scheme – it’s also available in black and a dark green. It has a claimed weight of 770g in a size medium, and has 21 vents designed to draw cool air in and vent the sweaty air out the back. Different sized pads are included with the helmet so you can tweak the fit to the shape of your head. We’ve already taken it to Dyfi Bike Park, plus to the Redhill Extreme Dirt Park on what must be one of the hottest days ever. No bumps have so far been sustained, but so far as we can tell our tester Fahzure’s brain hasn’t overheated in the sun. It is quite hard to tell with him though.

Dyfi Bike Park Stem Cap

• Price: £6
• From: Dyfi Bike Park

Having conquered the red or black trails, you can buy yourself a stem cap in red or black to mark the occasion. Or, you can do as we did and ride the red trails but opt for a black stem cap because it matches your bike. Dyfi Bike Park’s new red trails mean that it’s now a little more accessible to mortal riders – stay tuned for our look at the trails, coming soon.

Goose Sticker

• Price: A gift
• From: A friend

This goose sticker was gifted to Amanda who lives next to the canal and has no end of trouble with the local flock. If they aren’t keeping her up with their honking at 4am, they’re hissing at her whilst she tries to take photos of brake levers.

Interflon Fin Super Dropper Bottle

• Price: £9
• From: Interflon

Interflon is one of those massive lubrication companies that normally supplies heavy industry, but in the way of things, the bike riders in the company are always wandering off with samples and trying them on their own bikes and finding that all their mates want to try it too. Fin Super uses ‘MicPol’ which is very finely powdered Teflon in solution. It goes on wet and then dries into a thin, Teflon film that stays on the chain. Previously only available in a big, reasonably pricey spray can, this is the more consumer friendly version.

Renthal Fatbar

• Price: £71.95
• From: Renthal

This (older) Fatbar came in for Chipps and his crazy Cannondale tandem. Apparently it doesn’t matter how much rise you have at the front of it, you’re still going to be weighting the front wheel with two of you on the bike… Dual slalom at the Malverns next year then?

Organic Fresh Goods

In very much a ‘it seemed like a good idea yesterday’ kind of way, we have a collection of truly fresh goods from our staffers gardens and shelves this week. For some reason we all seem to have been messing about with plants during our local restricted lockdown. So for no other reason that it’s been a topic of conversation here, this is our organic fresh goods collection.

Amanda’s Monstera Adasonii

Was a gift from her friend Grace, who likes to queue up outside plant shops before they’re open.

Andy’s Doris

This is Doris. Doris lives in Andy’s bathroom. Doris watches Andy when he has a bath. Don’t be like Doris.

Mark’s Sunflower

This sunflower has a had a hard paper-round. The cats have probably pissed on it and we think the snails and slugs have devised some kind of dining rota. It’s clinging on to life by its leaf tips.

Hannah’s purple plant babies

All my other plants are dying, this one is reproducing at an alarming rate

Chipps’ Windowsil

There’s a half dead bamboo, a flourishing cactus and an orchid that looks dead, but isn’t

Tom’s Hair

The expression on this plant’s face and the nearby bottle of gin is some kind of metaphor for its owner.

And now it’s time to sign off with a video. And this time it’s Todmorden’s actual local music legends, Working Men’s Club. The new tune from these rising indie-dance stars is called ‘Valleys’ and it was shot in the hills around here, so it’s double-local!

Amanda Wishart

Art Director

Amanda is our resident pedaller, who loves the climbs as much as the descents. No genre of biking is turned down, though she is happiest when at the top of a mountain with a wild descent ahead of her. If you ever want a chat about concussion recovery, dealing with a Womb of Doom or how best to fuel an endurance XC race, she's the one to email.

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