FGF 578 – The nothing happened that shouldn’t have happened edition

by and 39

We have been repeatedly assured that no cheeky trails have been ridden and that no rules were broken. That is what we have been repeatedly assured. All trails were sanctioned and permissive and within the rules. No dead cats were sighted while riding, only muddy waters. Please ride round the puddles to avoid muddying them further. Mudguards are advised to avoid the shower of shit that may be encountered when riding within all appropriate rules, guidance, guidelines and advisories. Be nice to your fellow riders, help them out when they are in need, donate to World Bicycle Relief, or the RNLI, forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those that ride our sweet jumps without rebuilding the lips. And lead us not into temptation or bogs, and please deliver us from evil.

Giant Trance Advanced Pro 29 1

  • Price: £5,999
  • From: Giant

Launched last week, this is the latest version of Giants do-everything trail bike. With 130mm travel up front, and 120mm out back, both controlled by Fox’s electronic Live Valve system, paired with trail friendly geometry, the Trance Advanced Pro 29 1 is designed to be fast and efficient both up and down.

Our test bike comes with a Shimano XT 2 speed drivetrain mated to a set of Praxis Girder carbon cranks, powerful XT four pot brakes , own brand carbon wheels wrapped in chunky Maxxis treads and smattering of other on brand products. All this adds up to a very respectable weight of 30.2lbs. look out for a full in-depth review in an upcoming of Singletrack Magazine

FGF 695 - Enduro Beckoning
Latest Singletrack Videos

Pearson Field Day Insulated Jacket

This insulated jacket from Pearson is designed to be cosy yet breathable, and at a first look it seems to have some great features. The left side poacher pocket is an easy access elasticated pouch, the right side has a more secure zip pocket (it fits an iPhone 12), and the front pockets are open for quick hand warming off the bike.

Singletrack Pom Pom Hat

Back in stock, just in time for Christmas, the Singletrack Pom Pom hat is not only damned warm, it also has a furry lining around the headband. We have only 15 left, so get in swiftly.

BEER52 Free Beer

Charlie says… Beer52 is a beer club, and they are offering Singletrackers their first case free (you can cancel at any time, just pay £5.95 postage). What’s more they are also giving Singletrack a small commission. So you not only get free beer, but you also help Singletrack out a little too.

What is a beer club? It’s a club with beer. Follow the link, choose mixed beers or light beers, and you will get a box of beer delivered to you each month. The beers are constantly changing so you won’t ever get the same beer twice. You can then review the beer and earn points and rewards. I suppose in many ways it’s the Strava of beer. I fancy my chances for a beer KOM.

Mark (Singletrack Overlord) is a loyal customer, and his fridge always has interesting beers in it. I have received my first case, and I found not only a variety pack of awesome beer, but also some curious snacks: wild cassava chips, and sesame grissini breadsticks. Drink beer, be happy, help Singletrack, click here.

Alpkit Filoment Hoody

This jacket is made with recycled nylon and reclaimed down – so no birds were killed specifically to make this jacket, possibly making you feel better about things. It’s available in a men’s and women’s cut, and packs down into a 1 litre stuff sack (not included). It’s nice and light, and thick enough to be a warm layer but thin enough to fit a waterproof over the top if the weather threatens to overwhelm the PWC-free DWR coating.

Singletrack World Issue 140 + 2022 Calendar!

  • Price: £7.50 (less if you’re a Member)
  • From: Singletrack

It’s here! And if it’s not on its way to your door then you can buy one now, or buy one as part of a Sub-In-A-Box gift for someone else. Do it, make good choices!

Prime Threaded Bottom Bracket

Available with steel bearings for £16.99, or ceramic bearings for £59.99. This one has ceramic for reduced friction, which in theory means less power needed to turn the cranks. Ceramic bearings are more durable and don’t rust.

Nukeproof Bottom Bracket

If ceramic bearings aren’t for you, how about titanium coated ones? The Nukeproof Horizon BB is available in 6 different colours. This one is grey to match the UK weather.

Hope AM Stem 35mm & Carbon Handlebar

  • Price: £105.00 Stem, £160.00 Bar
  • From: Hope Tech

35mm x 35mm, this stiff light stem is available in 6 colours. Annoyingly, if you buy it to go with a Hope carbon handlebar, the Hope logo doesn’t fit perfectly in the gap. It still looks great though! The bars are 800mm wide with a 20mm rise, 5deg upsweep, 7deg backsweep.

Hope Head Doctor

Available in black, silver, red, blue, purple and orange. Even loading in the steerer thanks to the full diameter expander wedge.

Books For Cyclists!

Struggling to think of a Christmas gift for the cyclist in your life? How about a motivational, inspirational and/or informational book? These all seem quite serious, but they’re for someone planning on doing the Strathpuffer, so hopefully they hold the secrets to success.

#TOTW Singletrack Forum Thread Of The week

This week’s winner of Thread Of The Week is “jimmy” who asks a question that is on everyone’s lips. The Singletrack Forum folk let rip with many incredibly helpful responses, such as “Better an empty house than an unruly tenant.” We will be sending “Jimmy” some cool Singletrack merch. And “Jacobyte” can have something too, because I will be using the tenant excuse, in the office, probably in the next 5 minutes. Click here to contribute to this informative forum guff.

Finish Line Pro Brush Set

Look after your toys, children. A regular clean and brush of your bike will stop it grinding itself to death in accumulated mud and grit. This five piece brush set will get you into all the nooks and crannies, and allow you to use a different brush for your drive train so you don’t go spreading greasy black marks all over your frame.

Mr Benjamin Haworth

  • Price: unimpeachable
  • From: The past and the future

Shall we let him in? Yes! We’re delighted to welcome Benji Haworth back to Singletrack Towers. He’s joining us with the official title of Content Manager (Tech), which means he’ll be taking control of all things product related. For those of you who have been here long enough to remember, he was here long ago as a staff writer. He’s been out in the big wide world of mountain biking gathering all sorts of useful experience that will enable us to take over the world.

Happy weekend everyone.

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

Viewing 39 posts - 1 through 39 (of 39 total)
  • FGF 578 – The nothing happened that shouldn’t have happened edition
  • pmurden
    Full Member

    Taking the mick out of the bent government and free beer. What a week!

    footflaps
    Full Member

    That Field Day jacket looks very snug!

    honourablegeorge
    Full Member

    That Nukeproof BB is not really suited for outdoor use, IME. I would avoid like the plague.

    brakestoomuch
    Full Member

    If you’re trying to look furtive, bright pinky/purple is not the colour for you.

    jd13m
    Free Member

    hope head doctor in FGF ? has anything changed with it as I’m sure I had one of these on my 26″ bike 10 years ago…… since balloons were not involved it may not have been a head doctor though and my definition of head doctor evidently isn’t the same as everyone elses 🙂

    rOcKeTdOg
    Full Member

    Issue 82 was Benji’s peak when he rode around with some bearded youngster, I remember the angst while waiting for him to arrive that my local trails wouldn’t be good enough for him to ride!

    sillyoldman
    Full Member

    Delighted to hear Benji is returning. Really great news.

    timbog160
    Full Member

    Phew got a hat! Christmas sorted..

    jimmy
    Full Member

    #TOTW for farts.

    I’m tearing up.

    IdleJon
    Full Member

    #TOTW for farts.

    I’m tearing up.

    Well you should have kept it in until you were in a well ventilated place then.

    v7fmp
    Full Member

    Already had a free case from Beer52 previously, so it wont let me have another! Drats.

    Sorry STW, i did try!

    matt_outandabout
    Full Member

    #TOTW for farts.

    I’m tearing up.

    It wasn’t me. *whistles*

    Pyro
    Full Member

    Had a Beer52 subscription once. Hated it – far too many ‘on-trend’ over-hopped pale ales and not much actual variety, plus the shyster technique of ‘we’ll make it as easy as possible for you to sign up but as complicated as possible for you to cancel’ did not enamour me any further…

    Clink
    Full Member

    Trance looks nice. All these new bike launches are great, but you can’t actually buy them! I fancy a new Anthem – it’s been launched but not even on Giant UK website (although it appears on other countries).

    Merlinman
    Full Member

    Great to see Benji back – can we now look forward to an exhaustive diatribe on grips?

    rOcKeTdOg
    Full Member

    pom pom hats? surely that’s a bobble?
    #dontfearthebobble

    TomB
    Full Member

    Our test bike comes with a Shimano XT 2 speed drivetrain

    Seems a bit of a backward step, I thought my 10 speed was retro 😀

    gazzab1955
    Full Member

    Beer52 – trendy, but expensive. £3 for a small can is too much. I can buy a 750ml bottle of good French/Belgian beer or two 500ml bottles of various English ales from Lidl/Aldi for that price. Unlike @pyro I had no trouble when asking a nice lady at Beer52 to cancel my subscription.

    nickc
    Full Member

    Had a Beer52 subscription once

    Your description of it could’ve been written by me

    That Nukeproof BB is not really suited for outdoor use, IME

    good news, I’ve just installed one! Mind you it was the only one I could get, everything else out of stock

    IdleJon
    Full Member

    Beer52 – trendy, but expensive. £3 for a small can is too much. I can buy a 750ml bottle of good French/Belgian beer or two 500ml bottles of various English ales from Lidl/Aldi for that price

    Even in Aldi you can pay £3 for a small can of beer if you look further along the shelf. You can get cheap beer in any supermarket if you really want to drink it – and the cheap French beer in Aldi tastes exactly like that, cheap French beer. (Every so often, normally during a hot spell in the summer, I make the mistake of thinking that I’ll get some, and then wonder why I bothered.)

    Sandwich
    Full Member

    @Pyro that was my experience too, it didn’t help that we were in first lock down. All too samey (to me) after around 3 months.

    Pyro
    Full Member

    @gazzab1955 – I think I was quite an early subscriber, things may well have changed now but at the time they weren’t very forthright with how you could cancel, and made it as difficult as possible.

    You could sign up really simply on the website, but not cancel that way, which irked me a little. I emailed them to try and cancel and heard nothing back. I private messaged them on social media and heard nothing back. Eventually I posted publicly on their social media and got a ‘you have to phone us’ – which irked me further. I phoned, and spent a good 15-20mins with a guy trying to convince me that I shouldn’t cancel.

    I appreciate that people are capricious and that a business has to retain subscribers somehow, but that way of doing things annoyed me. That said, even ‘you have to phone us’ does that.

    jameso
    Full Member

    Beer52 is a beer club, and they are offering Singletrackers their first case free (you can cancel at any time, just pay £5.95 postage).

    I fell for their cheap beer offer elsewhere a few weeks back -who wouldn’t- and tbh the beer was cheap and enjoyed but the cancellation process left me wishing I’d not bothered. You can only do it by phone and they don’t make it easy. Long waits, get cut off when you get through etc. Felt a bit scammy. VFM at regular price is probably ok if you live 40 miles away from any shop selling decent beer.
    (sorry).

    thepodge
    Free Member

    Can’t you just cancel your direct debit?

    prettygreenparrot
    Full Member

    What @Pyro said and what @James said. Beer52 – generally not as good as what my local bar has. But then I am not that far away from the Côte du Burnage’s premier hostelry https://www.reasonsbeercafe.co.uk

    prettygreenparrot
    Full Member

    On bike matters, really liking that Giant.

    Darn. If only I hadn’t just received a package in the post based on a Beer52 and SingleTrack inspired buying session at ION for gloves, shoes, and a hoodie. ION so far are the ONLY cycling apparel company whose ‘medium’ is even close to normal (maybe vanity) medium clothes. Even their medium gloves fit my hands! Snugly admittedly. But the fingers are the right length.

    Nobeerinthefridge
    Free Member

    Field day jacket looks good!

    Bike made me realise I haven’t actually seen anyone riding a giant in years.

    Alpkit have managed to match the higher end brands for prices, while maintaining the look of a cheaper product. 😬

    Northwind
    Full Member

    Benji! Welcome back

    amandawishart
    Full Member

    26 comments and not one about how the Hope bars line up perfectly with the canal lock in the background. I honestly don’t know why I bother.

    brakestoomuch
    Full Member

    Good composition never draws attention.

    Or no-one noticed. I didn’t. Sorry.

    roger_mellie
    Full Member

    @thepodge No, they don’t do direct debits, its by continuous payment authority (another red flag) on the customer’s card.

    Sorry Amanda, I did notice but I was too busy getting angry about a beer subscription service… 🤦‍♂️

    Welcome back Benji.

    Big-Bud
    Free Member

    I declined to pass comment Amanda as the bars didn’t have white grips fitted 😉

    hardtailonly
    Full Member

    @Amandawishart

    26 comments and not one about how the Hope bars line up perfectly with the canal lock in the background. I honestly don’t know why I bother

    I came down to the comments to remark exactly on that. Well played! 👌

    malv173
    Free Member

    Isn’t the right hand side of the bars a little lower than the lock? 😉 Still a lovely shot.

    stuartsimpson
    Full Member

    @Amandawishart
    if only you’d got your horizon horizontal first and then aligned the bars to the gates, it would have been perfect but still a great shot ;o)
    you redeemed yourself with khruangbin finally getting onto FGF though – thanks!

    stwhannah
    Full Member

    @simmo khruangbin was me. Consider Amanda unredeemed 🙂

    (I’d never heard of them before, it was the title that led me to it!)

    yetitony
    Free Member

    Welcome back Benji.
    Still use the knowledge I learnt from your ‘Stop taking crap pictures’ weekend years later.

    Blackflag
    Free Member

    My main takeaway from the hope bars piece was more irritation that 35mm bars exist.

    nidderdalenath
    Full Member

    Nice to see Benji back with the team!

Viewing 39 posts - 1 through 39 (of 39 total)

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