Fresh Goods Friday 585: keep off the roading edition

After a strangely traffic-heavy tarmac week on singletrackworld.com it’s nice to head into the weekend planning our big weekend off-road rides.

Most of us here are lucky enough to be able to not have to drive to the trails. Having said that, pretty much any UK mountain bike ride (outside of a trail centre) involves a fair proportion of road sections. There isn’t a mountain biker is Britain who hasn’t experienced how ropey it can be to be a pushbike pilot on our road network.

Anyway, here’s hoping the ‘new’ Highway Code helps, alongside Mr Boardman and his active travel plans. Our filthy fingers are crossed.

Now on to what stuff has arrived at STW HQ W/C 24/01/22…

Canyon Torque 29 CF 9

• Price: £5,649
• From: canyon.com

The Torque can be tricky bike to classify. It’s had previous lives as a freeride bike and a park bike. To us, it looks more like a modern super enduro bike. Carbonium. 29in wheels. Loads of travel (170mm). That is also very pedalable and doesn’t weigh a ton. Enduro race bike is certainly the area where Canyon are hyping this beast.

But we can’t help but look at this bike and think it deserves some stoopid sik hucks, drops ‘n’ chutes.

Hannah is the intended pilot for this machine. She’s currently thinking of things to try out with this Canyon Torque. Trail area, bike park – and race – suggestions welcome. Comment below.

Cotic Kupilka Danglemug

• Price: £20.00
• From: cotic.co.uk

For the eco bikepacking hipster in your life (is there any other kind?) here is the Cotic Kupilka. It’s a more-ecological-than-thou 370ml cup/mug/bowl.

They’re made in Finland from Kareline, a super eco product using wood pulp. Cotic met the Kupilka crew at ISPO 2020 and – after also having a Finnish mechanic work for them – Cotic got a soft spot for all things scandi.

Thread of the Week

A bikey thread for this week, thanks to @DaveyBoyWonder who might like to have a read of this article which includes some singlespeeding hacks to make any frame work on minimal gears.

There are some nice pics of bikes, some reminisces, some ‘ooh, I should do that agains’ and so on. Go join in. And before you head over there to say ‘because it’s horrible’, maybe read this too.

Oxford Venture jacket

• Price: £99.99
• From: oxfordproducts.com

Dry2Dry 2.5 layer fabric. 10,000 mm waterproof, 10,000 g/m2 24hrs breathability. Snug fit. Stretch panels. Soft, fleece lined collar.

Detachable hood for those who (erroneously) think that hoods are redundant on a mountain bike jacket. Have these people never punctured on hillsides desolate?

Vittoria Syerra Downcountry tyre

• Price: £54.99
• From: freewheel.co.uk

Is this the first bike product to officially identify as Downcountry? Look, it’s written right there on the packaging. DOWN-COUNTRY. What a time to be alive.

If we take Downcountry as meaning ‘XC that is fun and not out to kill you’ then these tyres look like they might fit the bill. Not too skinny (29 x 2.4in). Not too worryingly light (850g claimed). The very chevronny tread pattern is rather retro but who knows? If they behave like a slightly more grr-able Maxxis Forekaster, they’ll find plenty of fans out there.

Osprey Rolling Transporter 90

• Price: £220
• From: Osprey Europe

Now that some cautious travel is possible, for some of us it’s time to dust off the luggage that’s been sat in the loft for the last few years. Thanks to the arrival of this rolling 90 litre pack Mark doesn’t have to rummage too deep in the damp recesses of his house before his holiday to Canada next week.

Waterproof outer with oversized wheels (there may be some off-road dragging) this needs to be big enough for all his smalls, helmet and even his ‘Big Coat’ (It’s currently maxing out at -7 where he’s heading).

The impossible equation with air travel is that you need a sturdy bag but it also needs to be lightweight to not eat in to the allowance. This bag tips the scales at a rather meagre 3.4kg, which means there should be capacity spare for a giant Toblerone on the way back. Sturdiness will be assessed for the full review when he gets back.

Top secret bike

• Price: more than £1.00
• From: The Future

Can you tell what it is yet?

Hopefully not.

Rubber Hardness Tester

• Price: £36.39
• From: amazon.co.uk

I [Benji] have had this for a couple of years now. To be level with you, it doesn’t really work terrifically well. The readings are somewhat inconsistent. On tyres anyway. There’s something about the multi-layer nature of modern modern tyres that fools the needle, as it were. Not to mention the difficulty of finding a knobble that’s large/flat enough to use the testing needle against it with any sort of accuracy or consistency.

Where I have found it more useful is when investigating flat pedal shoes. Yes, investigating. Do you not spend a lot of your time investigating shoes? Anyhow. I do. And the AMAZING results will be part of our upcoming flat pedal shoe group test.

Honestly, how can we leave you with such a witholdy clickbaity cliffhanger? We are awful. Soz.

Issue 141 Pete Scullion A3 Art Print

• Price: £29.99 (members get a discount)
• From: The Singletrack Art’ery

Issue 141 is just around the corner and Pete Scullion does it again! Another great cover shot from the man who’s not shy about putting in the effort to get the right shot. Here’s the tale behind it:

There might not be a steeper way to bag two Munros. Stob Binnein and Ben More from Inverlochlaraig is a fierce day out with a real emphasis on the vertical. 8500ft in seven and a half miles really tested the legs, but for brief moments where the contour lines spread out, the ridgeline singletrack was some of the best I’ve ridden. Scott makes moves back towards the car and the promise of a fish supper.

Issue 141 of the magazine is available on pre order here.

This week’s #STWFGF winner

Every week we’re now running a competition over on Instagram to win a free subscription to Singletrackworld (or some other item of merchandise if you’re already a subscriber/member).

Simply tag your Instagram riding pics with #STWFGF and… that’s it.

Ideally we want riding-a-bike pics but… we ride alone as much as anyone, so we’ll also consider non-riding pics in #STWFGF from here on in.

We sift through the tagged candidates at the end of each week and pick a winner. The winning Insta pic gets proudly displayed in Fresh Goods Friday.

Congratulations and respec’ to the Suffolk Senders for this week’s winning shot. Send us a DM on Insta and we’ll sort you out with your prize.

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Have a super weekend y’all!

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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