gary fisher book

FGF 569 – The Week That Social Media Broke

by 16

It seems a long time ago now that some poor employee at Facebook HQ had to stand on a colleague’s shoulder, shimmy in through an open bathroom window, crawl through some ventilation ducting and make their way to the server room in order to turn it off and on again. At least that’s how we like to imagine The Great Outage was resolved.

For a blissful few hours, we remained uninfluenced by influencers, we didn’t know what anyone was having for their tea, and people who do their own research weren’t able to tell us their findings. Some of us got to tell our teenage kids that back in our day it was even worse than this, and perhaps shares in Filofax got a boost as people considered that maybe a paper record of your partner’s phone number might be a good idea?

Anyway, after that brief hiatus we’re now back to the future with a batch of new products in this week’s Fresh Goods Friday…

Orange RX9 Pro

The 2021 Orange RX9 Pro offers revised sizing to better fit smaller riders, great news for anyone confused by the current ‘longer and slacker’ gravel bike trend. A double-butted alloy frame with clearance for 700×42 or 650×47 tyres, this build comes with WTB wheels and WTB Raddler 40c TCS / Riddler 37c TCS 700 tyres, SRAM Apex groupset, F-Bomb bars and a ‘Sandy Playa’ paintjob.

Specialized Hillbilly 29 x 2.3in

It’s slop season, so Rhys is upgrading his tyres to battle up and down the steep Calderfornia hills. At approximately 900g each, these are much lighter and spikier than his usual winter tyre choice (Magic Mary Super Gravity), so hopefully they’ll prove to be durable and easy to fit.

Elliot Brown Bloxworth Watch

Charlie says… Today is the last day to get your Singletrack Elliot Brown watch – let’s get that out of the way, so we can move on. And what do we have here? The good people at EB have lent me a stand in substitute watch while the Singletrack watches are being made.

The Bloxworth is a beautiful piece of expertly considered engineering. For example the date is at a jaunty angle so that it is easier to read when on your wrist. It also features an array of knobs and dials that I shall endeavour to understand. But we soon discovered you can make the red stopwatch second hand quickly whiz around in the most delightful way. The metal bracelet strap also has a rather clever telescopic clasp. This allows you to not only fine-tune the fit, but also extend it for when you want to wear it over a wetsuit. Handy for my audition to be the next Bond?

Being Gary Fisher Book

Brace yourself, for this book will slap you straight in the eyes. It is rammed full of great quotes, amazing stories, and really trippy illustrations. The history is in here too, and a stunning selection of old photographs and catalogues.

It has 250+ full colour (very very full colour) pages, wrapped in a hardback cover. Grab a copy, fire up some Grateful Dead on your high fidelity music centre, and cautiously come on a trip into the origins of our sport.

Balmy Fox

This solid balm lotion bar is made from natural ingredients to moisturise, protect and repair, dry, chapped or sore skin. It comes in a handy tin, and is a decent sized bar so should last plenty of time.

Forclaz Trekking Mummy Sleeping Bag

Whether you’re a hardened bike packer, a family camper or just sleeping in the car the night before a race, as a mountain biker you probably need a sleeping bag. This one is designed for temperatures between 5 and 15 degrees C – so, most of the year in the UK. It’s made with PES wadding made from 70% recycled fibres. 100% of the grey fabric is biton, which is fabric made with only 50% of the threads dyed – reducing water usage. You can join it on to other bags in the range if you can find someone who wants to get that close.

And you can’t influence, no you can’t influence…

Author Profile Picture
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.

More posts from Amanda

Home Forums FGF 569 – The Week That Social Media Broke

Viewing 16 posts - 1 through 16 (of 16 total)
  • FGF 569 – The Week That Social Media Broke
  • nickc
    Full Member

    I know he’s the “founding father”, and a “larger than life” character, and all that goes along with that…But the endless deification and journo fluffing of Mr. Fisher that goes on is getting a bit wearisome now.

    Jerm
    Full Member

    Why is is the RX9 pro so expensive? For an alloy Apex equipped bike that is a lot of money. What am I missing?

    footflaps
    Full Member

    Yep, nearly 2x the price of a Sonder equivalent…

    mashr
    Full Member

    Jerm
    Full Member

    Why is is the RX9 pro so expensive? For an alloy Apex equipped bike that is a lot of money. What am I missing?

    The badge. Best not to compare it against the likes of the £1,300 Vitus Substance Apex with a near identical spec

    brakestoomuch
    Full Member

    Charlie for Bond!

    edhornby
    Full Member

    It’s not Gary tho, it’s Chipps with a tache 😉

    charliedontsurf
    Full Member

    @brakestoomuch … bail bond?
    Bloody hell, can you imagine it…
    Lights a rolly off lazer beam heading for his balls.
    Don’t you bloody dare shake my home brew.
    Yeah, Q gave me this car, and it has all these special features, but I cant be arsed to read the manual, so its just a car. But I did notice that cars following me burst in to flames when I tune in to radio 4.

    Northwind
    Full Member

    Ooh, timely one, I was considering a superglue purchase but I just can’t decide whether to go with the Soudal or the classic Loctite.

    jimmy
    Full Member

    the date is at a jaunty angle so that it is easier to read when on your wrist.

    Is that for right-handed watch wearers? Looks even more jaunty for lefties. Or a meringue?

    (and… Tune)

    dessie72
    Full Member

    Great tune, busted many a move to that in the 90s club scene 🕺🕺🕺🤣🤣🤣

    darlobiker
    Full Member

    I don’t know what it says about me that I only found out about the social media outage when I heard about it on the 10 o’clock news. I think I might be turning into my dad.

    chrismac
    Full Member

    Is there any reason why the launch of the new trek top fuel has been ignored on this website? On paper it looks as it it would make a great short travel trail bike

    rOcKeTdOg
    Full Member

    Orange launch a gravel bike update and the stand out feature is it’ll fit 42mm tyres? Is it 2019 again?

    Northwind
    Full Member

    chrismac
    Full Member

    Is there any reason why the launch of the new trek top fuel has been ignored on this website? On paper it looks as it it would make a great short travel trail bike

    It got a whole story of its own, look in the top right.

    chrismac
    Full Member

    Indeed it has now. I was apprised hire far behind all the other mtb outlets stw was with the news

    danposs86
    Full Member

    Link is wrong for the sleeping bag.

Viewing 16 posts - 1 through 16 (of 16 total)

The topic ‘FGF 569 – The Week That Social Media Broke’ is closed to new replies.