Fresh Goods Friday 582 – do you wish for Swedish squish?

This week’s Fresh Goods Friday is brought to you by Dr Seuss. Not really. It’s brought to you by several Singletrackworld staffers who are ensconced in different levels of fleece and/or insulated clothing.

Despite fears it may be slim pickings for the opening week of 2022, in the end a combination of last minute courier heroics and fell down the back of the sofa rummagings, we have a pretty full FGF for you today.

Öhlins RXF 38 M.2 fork

• Price: £1,375
• From: ohlins.com

Coming in strong straight away on the “how much??” tip are these Öh sö cöstly förks. It clearly costs a lot of money to share a shaft with Super Bruni.

The RXF 38 is the single crown sibling to Öhlins’ dual-crown DH38 fork. And they share more than just a leg size in common apparently. DH damping in a single crown package.

Öhlins: “TTX18 damping system. Independent cartridge air spring and damper systems. Air spring adjustable to 160/170/180 mm of travel. Easy to tune three-chamber air spring system. 38 mm stanchion diameter with both 44mm and 51mm crown offsets. Floating axle design to minimize friction. Approved for eMTB use and available with eMTB compatible crowns. Compatible with maximum tire sizes up to 29”x2.6. Compatible with maximum rotor sizes up to 220mm, optimised for 200mm. Axle to crown measurement: 583mm @ 170mm stroke. Weight: from 2320 grams.”

This Swedish squish is destined for the front of Ross’ Raaw. Lucky get.

Singletrack Road Trip 426er Mug

• Price: £13.99 (members get free UK delivery and a discount)
• From: The Singletrack Mugatorium

Charlie says… People often ask me just what is it that you want to do? Well, we wanna be free, we wanna be free to do what we wanna do. And we wanna get our van loaded and we wanna have a good time. And that’s what we’re gonna do. Come on 2022… adventures ahoy. Please.

The Singletrack 426er mug offers the user enhanced bigness with a whopping 426ml capacity. If you are still using mugs with a capacity starting with a 2 or 3, then you need to get with it. Your Betamax mug cuts it like a 26er with 140mm stem and toe clips. It’s time to feel the future upon your lips. Away baby, let’s go.

Effetto Mariposa Flowerpower Wax

• Price: £12 (100ml)
• From: upgradebikes.co.uk

Even though this item is about one hundred times cheaper than the forks above it, it’s still twelve quid for a rather modest amount of chain lube. Why is that then? Because it’s made from sunflower seeds, obviously.

Flowerpower Wax is an emulsion of water and waxy stuff, that’s designed to be thin enough to penetrate properly into chain links. Once in where it needs to be, the water evaporates off, leaving only slippy waxy goodness. The chain shouldn’t be sticky or greasy at all, so shouldn’t attract dirt and grime. That’s the theory anyway.

I shall be pitting this stuff against the Pennine winter. Possibly on an ebike. Just to give it a proper going over.

Effetto Mariposa Cleaning Stuff

• Price: Allpine Light Recharge cleaner, £11.00 (1,000ml)
• Price: Allpine Extra degreaser, £16.00 (500ml)
• Price: Mangiacatena chain cleaning tool, £30.00
• Price: Cog Brush £9.00
• From: upgradebikes.co.uk

Before commencing with the wax on, you need to get the mucks off. Which is where this pile of stuff from Effetto Mariposa comes in.

As well as having one of the most pleasing to say brand names in all of cycling, Effetto Mariposa make decent stuff. And while it’s never what you’d call it cheap, you rarely feel short-changed after using it.

As with the sunflower seedy chain wax, this cleaning stuff is a bit more eco than the usual fare. And the liquids all smell of pine. Bonus!

Ion Scrub Bike Pants

• Price: £119.99
• From: ion-products.com

These are not blue trousers. They are cobalt reef pants. And after giving them a go a couple of days ago I can confirm that they are not winter trousers. Oops. These are your typical 3-season (UK that is) riding trousers. Light weight. Very comfy. Not bunchy or nuffink. But also not in any way suitable for rolling around in total filth in single digit °C.

Nicely tapered in the leg for maximum looking-like-Loris vibes. The 4-way stretchy material did a good job of not tugging itself off (as it were) during soggy pedalling. And internal Velcro waist adjusters are always a much better idea than external ones that get snagged on stuff and fill up with muck etc. I also particularly like the lack of zip fly; the simple press-stud and Velco gusseted design on these is much less bunchy and fiddly.

Ion K-Pact Zip Knee Pads

• Price: £94.99
• From: ion-products.com

A lot of folk keep their knee protection in place all throughout a ride. Most of these keeper-onnerers use the knee-sleeve desing of knee pad which, if we’re all being honest with ourselves, don’t really offer much in the way of actual impact protection at all.

Knee sleeves are better than nowt and are fine for avoiding scrapes – and they help keep you warm in cold temps – but for actual patella protection you need a proper knee pad. Which can be a pain to ride in for extended periods. And are faffy to remove/put on without removing your shoes. Not ideal.

Hence these zip-on/off pads from Ion. You can put them on and take them off without having to faff with your shoes. Unlike some other zipped pads, the K-Pact Zips have thought about protecting your skin against the harsh zip too via cunning use of zip garages and internal zip baffle.

Fabric 11 in 1 Multitool

• Price: £29.99
• From: Fabric

I (Amanda) bought myself this tool mid-ride over Christmas. I won’t lie, the colours were a huge selling point, but the three main reasons I chose it are:

• The tools are a decent length compared to many tools
• There’s an 8mm hex
• The Phillips tool is a small, more bike-suitable size to many other multitools

Annabis Dolorcann Bio Hemp Balm

• Price: €9,90
• From: The local weed shop in Torrox, Spain

I (Amanda again) went for a Recovery Camp in December following an intense year of endurance and XC racing. 25deg sunshine, plenty of swimming for hydrotherapy, and I bought this balm, along with some other bits that didn’t make it home. Since 10@Kirroughtree, my hands have been painful all the time. I wake up and feel arthritic, and drop-bar bikes are a no-go (though, I’m fine with that). Hopefully this will help!

Altura Vortex 2 Waterproof Luggage

• Price: Top Tube Pack £35.00, Front Roll £65.00, Frame Pack £70.00, Compact Seatpack £60.00
• From: altura.co.uk

Very soon (next week with any luck) we’re going to be giving away a £500 voucher that can be used on Altura’s range of luggage or clothing.

We’ll leave the major deets until then, then. Suffice to say, these bags are waterproof (IX6, rating fans). And, more importantly, they are a most excellent deep red colour.

#TOTW

We know that one of the most inspirational things you can do to encourage fellow riders to get out and ride their bikes is to show them amazing images of riding in big landscapes. This week, one of you has done exactly that. In fact it’s user: continuity that gets our TOTW award for this thread containing some jaw dropping images that have certainly made us all look towards the hills.

Ben Haworth

Orange Switch 6er. Stif Squatcher. Schwalbe Magic Mary Purple Addix front. Maxxis DHR II 3C MaxxTerra rear. Coil fan. Ebikes are not evil. I have been a writer for nigh on 20 years, a photographer for 25 years and a mountain biker for 30 years. I have written countless magazine and website features and route guides for the UK mountain bike press, most notably for the esteemed and highly regarded Singletrackworld. Although I am a Lancastrian, I freely admit that West Yorkshire is my favourite place to ride. Rarely a week goes by without me riding and exploring the South Pennines.

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