Fresh Goods Friday 531 – The Homeschool Breakdown Edition

What have you learnt this week? And what have your kids learnt? Have you thrown yourself into creative home schooling and your offspring are now adept at cooking, sewing, and can recite pi to 100 places? Or can they list all the episode titles of Peppa Pig, in order?

Have you found your inner self? Gazed at your navel? And decided that actually, on reflection, now is not the time for Dryanuary because your local craft brewer needs you more than you need fixed waistbands and a liver?

Has it really only been a week? Are we actually stuck in a time loop where it is perpetually still 2020? In fact, is it still March? Practically the only thing marking the passage of time (beyond the growth of waistlines) is Fresh Goods Friday and the arrival of new bikes. Which, confusingly, are probably soon to become 2022 bikes. Which will mean we’ve all missed 2021 altogether, won’t it? The way things are going, that might not be a bad thing. Who dares make any predictions about what will happen next? Could alien lifeforms that have been incubating in the centre of the earth finally reach maturity, burst forth, and cover the globe in slime? What tyres for alien slime? What cleaner for slime removal? Will a Timber! Bell keep aliens off the trail or attract them to you?

Have we had too much coffee and not enough sleep? Watched too much Rick and Morty? Or are the scales falling from our eyes (did the aliens already get us?) and we’re seeing the world for real for the first time? Let us cling to the last vestiges of certainty and reality, with Fresh Goods Friday 531.

Scott Ransom e-Ride 920

• Price: £4950
• From: Scott Sports

It’s a bit of a monster. This eMTB comes armed with 180mm of travel thanks to the Zeb fork up front and bags of power in the 625WH battery embedded in the downtube. On board this model we have an alloy frame with Fox Float X2 shock. Bosch CX motor and a mix of SRAM and Shimano groupset parts.

This is a medium and as such has 440mm reach. Head angle is 64 degrees but can be adjusted to 64.7 with the on board flip chip. Seat angle is 77 degrees but on an eMTB, who’s counting?

Mark is the rider on this test machine and you will hear more from him over the coming weeks. The last time he tested a Scott eMTB was when he set out with Sanny and Nick Craig to take on the big four passes of the Lake District – like all the best adventure stories, it didn’t go well.

Jr3ds 3D Printed Fork Mount V2

• Price: £25.00 for the body + £10 for end caps
• From: jr3ds.co.uk

With a little extra lockdown time on our hands, it gives us that opportunity to work on a few projects, for example, working out bike storage for your bike collection, or perhaps building that dream bike van/camper you’ve always promised yourself. If either of those projects sounds like something you have in mind then go and check out Jake Ramsdale 3D Solutions for a couple of these 3D printed fork mounts. Jake has sent over a couple of the V2 fork mounts which can be mounted to a wall, in the shed, garage or the back of a van for safe bike storage.

The body itself is of 3D print construction, but this isn’t that cheap 3D stuff you can find on eBay, instead, it’s really high-quality material that has a reassuring weight and bulk to it. Each mount comes with replaceable alloy end caps to suit most axle combinations on the market too, so once you have the mount you just need to swap end caps to suit your bike, not the whole unit. Jake also makes a 3D printed wheel cradle and is working on more bike carrying and storage solutions.

Orange Phase

• Price: From £7300
• From: Orange Bikes

Orange was quick to jump on the eMTB train and were also one of the first brands to really embrace the mullet, so it was hardly surprising when the Phase was introduced. The Phase is an all-alloy eMTB made by Orange in the UK that has been designed with geometry specifically for a mullet build i.e 27.5in wheel on the rear and 29er upfront. The Phase’s alloy frame uses the traditional Orange single-pivot suspension platform providing 160mm of rear-wheel travel. The downtube houses a Shimano BT8035 504Wh battery has been slimmed down with a lower profile.

Our Phase is one of the bikes that Shimano used during the launch of their new motor system so comes fitted with a Shimano EP8 motor, it also explains why this build uses a Fox 36 rather than the 38 that should come on it.

We’ve only ridden the Phase once so far, but a few things that we’ve taken away from that ride are: 1) it’s lighter than it looks 2) It’s every bit as fun and sure-footed as every other Orange full-sus 3) It looks much better in the flesh. Watch out for a full review in the coming weeks.

Nukeproof Blackline Winter Glove

• Price: £27.00
• From: Nukeproof

Just in time for more snow! The Nukeproof Blackline Winter Glove is available in either black or blue and comes with all those features you would expect from a high-quality winter glove. The material is both windproof and breathable to keep the chill off while preventing sweat build-up, and the softshell outer is waterproof. A velcro strap keeps them secure, while texture on the index finger and thumb aids control grip and plays nicely with smartphone touchscreens.

Nukeproof EST Hoodie

• Price: £50.00
• From: Nukeproof

The Nukeproof peeps are obviously concerned about us getting too cold and have set over a couple of their EST hoodies to wrap up in. These ultra-soft hoodies have a fleecy inner, a toasty warm hood and fleece-lined pockets. The EST range is available in blue, green, grey, and black.

Singletrack/Club Ride Collaboration Riding Shirt

• Price: £99.99 (before rather generous member discounts)
• From: Singletrack Merch Store

Charlie says: We have had a very small delivery of the new Singletrack/Club Ride collaboration long sleeve riding shirts. Mark and I thought it would be a ripper idea to give members a killer discount. Before you “how much” your pants, make sure you are logged in, and then click through for the member price.

They are the perfect shirt for riding, or just hanging around. Equally suited to zooming downhill, and zoom meetings. These shirts are also great for travelling in. For example, I found this shirt perfect for being kept on hold whilst unsuccessfully trying to get a refund for a cancelled flight.

They have a shed load of practical tech features such as pit vents, poppers, sunglass cleaner, and even a sunglass holster. Yes, a “holster”. You see, I discovered these whilst single speed racing in Arizona, cowboy country. They are great on the trail, and in the bar, and the next bar, and also when politely declining ladies of the desert night (AKA running away). Surviving weekends of bikes, cowboys, dive bars, cops pointing guns at us, greasy bikers, snakes, thrash bands, stabby trees, and Mandy’s transactional offer… this all proves the awesome social range of these riding shirts. “Singletrack/Club Ride Shirt: you probably won’t die“.

Stanton Switchback

1. Price: from £649 frame only
2. From: Stanton Bikes

This is one of the first of the new UK made Stanton Switchbacks, and look, it even has our name on it! You can get the made in Taiwan version too, but for an extra £350 you get the made in the Peak District option (and at the moment it looks like a shorter wait time too). Whichever frame you go for, there’s a range of finishing options since they’re all painted in the Peak District – so you could have your name on your too. Designed for confidence on Enduro style terrain, with Stealth Dropper compatible seat tube and a 44mm head tube for tapered steerer compatibility and full internal top tube routing. You can get a monster 2.8in tyre on there too if you want to

Making these hardtails in the UK is part of a process Dan Stanton has been working towards for a while – check out our chat with Dan from back when he’d just bought the machine that’s making this possible.

Well, we’re off to plant our kids in front of the TV. All that educational BBC stuff. Maybe not the Danish TV stuff. Because this isn’t going to go wrong at all is it. You’ve never seen your kids re-enacting Peppa Pig, have you?

And relax…

Hannah Dobson

Managing Editor

I came to Singletrack having decided there must be more to life than meetings. I like all bikes, but especially unusual ones. More than bikes, I like what bikes do. I think that they link people and places; that cycling creates a connection between us and our environment; bikes create communities; deliver freedom; bring joy; and improve fitness. They're environmentally friendly and create friendly environments. I try to write about all these things in the hope that others might discover the joy of bikes too.

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