Fresh Goods Friday 588: Sheltering from the storm edition

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There’s a fun thread on the Forum (though it’s not thread of the week, soz) about bikes you wish brands would make. After the recent flurry of giant wheeled trail geometry drop bar bikes – aka the the Forum Frankenbikes of a few years back, we suspect that bike designers of the world will be flocking to the thread in order to design their next big things. Be careful what you wish for. And trademark your concepts now. Maybe also trademark some ideas you don’t want to see marketed? Is it too late to prevent the invention of Drop Bar DH? And what catchy title will be used to market this to all those new lockdown puppy owners?

Let’s start with an obvious soundtrack for this week’s FGF:

Canyon Spectral 125 CF 8

Everything you need to know about this bike is in Benji’s first ride review. Too many clicks, your fingers are tired? ‘The new Spectral 125 has pretty much the exact same geometry as the regular Spectral – it’s actually a few mm longer reach – but it’s had some travel hacked off it….the Canyon Spectral comes with a 140mm fork. It’s not Downcountry….As a 40-odd (very odd) year old, greying ATBer from the 90s, I am squarely in Canyon’s crosshairs with the Spectral 125….The Canyon Spectral 125 doesn’t have short travel, it has enough travel’.

Benji liked it. Give your fingers the exercise and go and read all about it.

Torq Energy Drink – Cola Caffeine

Torq Fitness has an introductory offer for its new Cola Caffeine flavour energy drink. Per 500ml you will get 120kcal, 30g carbohydrates, and 100mg of caffeine (amongst other things like sodium etc). That’s a pretty high caffeine dosage, so remember to always read the back of your energy drink packets so you don’t get wired.

Torq

Another new flavour from the Torq kitchen, Black Forest flapjack. This joins the existing great flavours in the range and is available in a ‘Build your own selection pack’ for £1.85 per flapjack. You can mix it up with gels, chews and energy drinks too.

Tribe Nutrition

A selection of bars and porridge mixes for on the go. Or, writing Fresh Goods Friday on a Thursday evening. The peanut salted caramel triple decker plant powered protein bar is quite delicious. It’s also vegan and gluten free and contains 10 vitamins and minerals, and 8g of protein. It doesn’t say how many calories on the packet, so maybe it’s zero…? Many products are vegan and gluten free, and you can pick and choose whether you get a selection of flavours and products or a whole box of one thing you really like. You can also sign up for them on subscription, so they’ll land or your doormat every so often. Yum.

Thule Rail 4L Hip Pack

Are you thinking what we’re thinking?
How many would you get in there though?

Anyother FGF, another hip-pack for future group test-ing. Patented ReTrakt magnetic hose retention. 1.5L bladder. One-handed, behind the back access, soft, structured phone pocket. Interior pockets. Side pockets. Additional small items in front flap.

Another secret thing

Not a bike

Another FGF, another thing under embargo. As usual, guesses in the comments below!

TOTW: Can you draw a bike?

This week’s Thread of The Week goes to @thols2 for the ‘Can you draw a bike’ thread.

Which reminds us that we have previously established that the STW staff are pretty rubbish at drawing bikes too.

Renpho R3 Mini Massage Gun

Some of you might remember that Amanda got one of these for Christmas, but Hannah has now been sent this one to test. She’s already had a go, and can report that it made her teeth shake a bit. Will it make her less uptight? We’ll soon find out. There are various attachments for different sorts of pain/massage, and definitely none of them are suitable for either your head or your genitals. The instructions say so. If you used it on your head, your fillings would probably fall out. Presumably using it down below would…well…let’s not think about that. It’s terrible when you have to push your piles back in.

This week’s #STWFGF winner

Tag us on the ‘Gram – and now Twitter – and win stuff!

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

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

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

Congratulations go to this.guysphotography for this winning shot. Email editorial@singletrackworld.com we’ll sort you out with your prize.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Guy (@this.guysphotography)

In (slightly suspicious we remain to see what flies are in the ointment) celebration of the removal of the 2026 deadline on historic trail registration, have yourself some music from a Brazilian band. The sign language isn’t helping us understand the lyrics.

Hope you all survive the storm!

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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.

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Home Forums Fresh Goods Friday 588: Sheltering from the storm edition

Viewing 13 posts - 1 through 13 (of 13 total)
  • Fresh Goods Friday 588: Sheltering from the storm edition
  • AngusWells
    Full Member

    I think the John Shuttleworth tracks need rescuing from that bum bag: Dandelion and Burdock?

    ElShalimo
    Full Member

    1730g of Haribo ?

    nickc
    Full Member

    I often wonder about whether the designers of hip packs have ever had a full 750ml bottle strapped to it, let alone 2…

    dangeourbrain
    Free Member

    See as a Crank Brothers pedal aficionado I’ve never experienced that.
    The pedal comes away on the bottom of your shoe long before the cleat plate fails.

    For guess the thing of the weight, I’m going with a new 29×2.6 XC treaded tyre, with down hill carcass and possibly even ebike specific compound.

    letmetalktomark
    Full Member

    igm
    Full Member

    Surely it’s…

    dangeourbrain
    Free Member

    @letmetalktomark top marks for bodgery

    bigblackshed
    Full Member

    The Thule hip pack is out of stock in all sizes except very small coin purse.

    It’s no good tempting us with shiny new things if you can’t buy shiny new things.

    stingmered
    Full Member

    Shuuurley…

    Currently sheltering in the vocation bar in HB… not a bad place to be holed up on a stormy Friday PM.

    andyspaceman
    Full Member

    1730g = the ‘new normal’ acceptable weight for a trail tyre?

    Stevelol
    Free Member

    Some sort of FORK?

    mashr
    Full Member

    Big fan of those Torq flapjack (Bakewell tart one probably being the best). Definitely the best pre-packed ones I’ve had, just the right level of gooey

    robertajobb
    Full Member

    I had the same shimano pedal failed the same way. I couldnt get the half a pedal off the shoe when out on a trail I slid my shoe back over the stub of the axle to carry in pedalling… Home!

Viewing 13 posts - 1 through 13 (of 13 total)

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