Traditionally this would be ‘Mad Friday’ when everyone would be out on the town being inappropriately over familiar with their office mates while wearing a poor choice of jumper and perhaps headgear too. It might have taken until mid December to find a positive in 2020, but the avoidance of the office party, drunken last train/bus commute home, and ‘Sad Saturday’ regret is not to be dismissed lightly.

If you’d like to have a slightly mad Friday, might we suggest tuning in to Mr Wilson’s Second Liners tonight for some ‘New Orleans meet club classics’ action. They’re a local band, one of them rides mountain bikes, and they’re usually a lot of fun.

Onwards then to see what manner of madness has come through the door this week, it’s Fresh Goods Friday 529.

Orange Stage Evo

• Price: £5900
• From: Orange Bikes

Ooh, what do we have here? It’s a bike from those Orange folks, just down the ‘other’ end of the Valley to Singletrack. And what a bike! The Stage EVO is a 130/120mm travel 29er that’s been beefed and burlied up for the kind of rough and tough riding that Orange expects it to get. Despite the ‘short’ travel, the Stage EVO features a Fox 36 fork and a piggyback DPX2 shock, along with some toothy Maxxis rubber and big, four pot XT brakes. It’s not your regular Sunday trail machine…

Kitten Paw Chair Socks

• Price: unknown
• From: late-night internet shopping

Charlie says: So, in the Singletrack morning online meetings, towards the end of the week, someone will point out it’s already Thursday, which is a surprise to many of us. This is swiftly followed by Hannah’s familiar project management cry of “feck, what have we got for FGF?”. I chirped up with “I have these kitten paw chair sock things” and held them up to my laptop’s camera. Zoe asked “how high were you went you bought them?”. “No idea, but I got five chairs worth”.

If pushed to justify my late-night online purchase, I would suggest that when the brexit rats invade your home (a direct side effect of the government diverting bin collection funds to fox jousting opera tournaments) these clever cat paw chair socks will fool the rats into thinking that your home is protected by broadly gaited cats. This will cause the rats to re-evaluate their house take over plans, and invade a home without colossal defender cats. I have five chairs worth of these, how many have you got? The brexit rats are heading straight to your house, you cat-paw-chair-sock’less sucker.

LAST TARVO

• Price: from €6,129
• From: LAST Bike

The TARVO is a full carbon,160mm travel, hard hitting enduro bike from German brand LAST. Claimed to be the lightest enduro frame currently on the market, our size 185 (LAST have sized the bike to typical heights of the rider they are aimed at) test bike weighs in at 13.3kg., achieved partly by the use of a flex stay rather than any pivots on the seatstays or chainstays

The immaculately finished raw carbon frame is dripping in top end components from brands such as RockShox, SRAM, Ergon, Vecnum and carbon Newmen wheel. Look out for a full review in an upcoming issue of the mag.

Northwave X-Trail MTB Shoes

• Price: £99.99
• From: Wiggle

A stiff yet grippy Michelin rubber sole, 3D mesh upper, impact resistant toe boxes, handy Velcro fastenings and a simple design were many of the reasons Amanda chose them as ‘My First Clip-In Shoes’.

Torq Hydration Drink

• Price: £9.99 (10 x 33g)
• From: Wiggle

To pair nicely with her new indoor cycling hobby, Amanda has got some energy sachets that don’t provide a crippling amount of sugar to those with insulin sensitivity. They taste nice, too!

RockShox Zeb Fender

• Price: €23
• From: SRAM

The new RockShox Zeb fender is designed to integrate seamlessly with the brands big hitter fork. It uses three bolts to mount to the back of the fork, negating the need for zip ties and keeping things looking clean, as well as stoppig any rub from them.

RockShox Magnum by Boker Knives

• Price: Priceless!
• From: RockShox

Magnum offer a wide range of knives from pocket knives to hunting knives and are hand made by prestigious German brand Böker in their factory in Solingen, where they have been making knives since 1869. The handle on this particular knife has been made from recycled skateboards by Ralf Kulowski, better known as Rebate Upcycling. You can check out his other work on Instagram @rebate_upcycling

Crankbrothers Stamp 3 Pedal

• Price: £109.99
• From: Extra UK

These are Crankbrothers’ ‘elite level’ flat pedal, with magnesium bodies for weight reduction. As with all their flats, there are two sizes – these are the small. This is the new model which we previously checked out here, and features improvements such as a better concave shape for grip, and shaped edges for mud shedding. We’ve got these in because they were paired up for testing with the new shoes, below.

Crankbrothers Stamp BOA Shoes

• Price: £164.99
• From: Extra UK

These are the top of the range flats in the new Crankbrothers’ shoe line up which we reviewed here. While these size 41 shoes are designed to pair perfectly with a small Crankbrothers’ flat pedal, you can use them with other pedals too without your feet catching fire or anything. With pleasing water resistant outer, and a stiff but not too stiff sole, you can choose these with the BOA fastener or opt for the speedlace or old school lace option too.

Right, have yourself a right northern Mad Friday. Classic. Banging. Madfrit. But with pyjamas, slippers, and a floor that isn’t sticky.

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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