Hannah is back from the USA in body but not mind. She keeps waking up in the night convinced she’s still camping out in some California woodland, or jerking awake as dry ground skids underneath her tyres. Perhaps she needs a new mattress.
Charlie is here in spirit but not body, as he’s been rather poorly. He’s now working hard at regaining his lost body weight.
As if all that wasn’t discombobulating enough for team STW, there’s the calendar shenanigans of local elections and bank holiday, with added school training days just for the fun of it next week – does anyone know when our children are supposed to be at school? We have lost track.
Bike Fit Book
- Price: £20.00
- From: bloomsbury.com
Including information on why most cyclists would benefit from shorter cranks, a detailed look at saddle health with special attention to female cyclists, watt-saving advice (what? Watt?) and how to make indoor cycling more tolerable. This book has gone straight to Rhys, our local time-trialing enduro-racing watt-chasing cross-country-endurance chain-ganger. Who better to summarise it for us?
Specialized Power Pro Mirror Saddle
- Price: £290.00
- From: specialized.com
We featured this new 3D printed saddle earlier this week.
Garbaruk drivetrain bits
- Price: £289.99 cassette, £67.99 jockey wheels
- From: cyclorise.com
The lightest MTB cassette for Micro-Spline freehub on the market? At 335 grams, Garbaruk Micro-Spline-compatible cassette is not heavy. The jockeys – sorry, pulleys – are CNC-machined out of a single 7075-series aluminum bar and anodised.
Rapha Trailwear
- Price: £110 Fast+Light Pants, £60 Lightweight Technical T-shirt
- From: rapha.cc
New collection of lighter weigh mountain bike apparel from Rapha Performance Trailwear. “Crafted for riders seeking to go faster, farther, and cooler as they savor the haze of summer dust. Built for hot laps, all-day singletrack sessions, and everything in between, the Fast + Light collection will enhance your riding season as the mercury rises.” Over to you Ross.
Bussani Garlic Crusher Press
- Price: £19.50
- From: Amazon
Charlie says… When I recently lost my garlic press I went searching for something a bit kickass. You know, just like those roadies buying $100 titanium bottle cages that weight 3g (and then adding a bottle and 700g of heavily marketed power water to it).
It has a very large capacity, more than double a normal garlic press, which will save me much fiddling about when cooking. The hinged plunger gives a nice vertical pressing action, and its spikes drive the garlic through effectively.
The ergonomics are great… if Ergon made garlic presses. It comes with two de-cloggers. It’s almost as if they know you are going to lose at least one of them. The handle has a wee slot where the de-clogger can reside until its lost.
All presented in a “Cute Jute Bag”… that has more authentic rustic charm than a phony Italian restaurant, serving microwave pasta, at Euro Disney Land, served by Luigi, whose real name is Keith and he is from Bognor not Bologna… just, only just more authentic than that.
Ride Wrap Covered Protection Steel MTB Frame Kit
- Price: £55.00
- From: ridewrap.ca
Protecting high risk areas of the bike. The Covered Protection kit offers a generic fit per frame category (Dual-Sus, eMTB, etc) to cover high wear areas. This is for steel frame bikes.
Ride Wrap: “Paint protection provides great benefits starting from the aesthetics side, right over to the functionality/ durability. Our paint protection vinyl is clear high gloss or satin finish polyurethane films that are applied to bikes to protect them from scratches, rock chips, small dents, or swirls caused by trail debris, rocks, cable rash, heal or ankle rub, chain slap and other environmental elements that are thrown into the mix when out on the trails or roads.”
Included in the box: squeegee, cleaning wipes, Install Solution Concentrate, microfiber, install key.
Hayes Dominion A4
- Price: £199.99
- From: hotlines-uk.com
Mo’ brakes for our forthcoming 4-pot disc brake group test. Ttuned for the shortest dead stroke possible and a crisp bite point (who doesn’t love biting crisps?) Cold-forged caliper. KingPin structural pad retention bolt that increases stiffness. Two-Stroke dual port bleed system. DOT 5.1 fluid. Kevlar hose. D-Series rotor. Crosshair Caliper Alignment.
Shimano Bottom Bracket
- Price: £59.99
- From: freewheel.co.uk
Far and away the most exciting delivery for Benji this week (there were actual squeals as he opened this package of highly sought after rare goods). Hopefully it means he can say goodbye to his bike’s grumbly rumbly drivetrain (for a while).
Untamed 3/4 Jersey
- Price: $65.00
- From: untamedmtb.com
Polyester 3/4 sleeve jobber. Design is called ‘Meadows’ (presumably after Shane Meadows, director of This Is England and Dead Man’s Shoes?) Zip pocket on left hip.
No UK distributor at the mo. Watch this space though…
Tommy Breeze California Poppy Special Edition Hat
- Price: $48
- From: tommybreeze
This is the flat brim trucker California poppy special edition of this hat, which means it has some extra hand sewn embroidery on it by Kelsey Ruggaard. The company – and the design on the front – is by very nice guy indeed Tommy Breeze, son of MTB legend Joe Breeze. You can choose from a vast array of his designs on an even more vast array of cap styles, or just have one of his patches to put on something you already own. Hannah dropped in on Tommy’s workshop while she was in California, and wore this hat pretty much every day afterwards. And now she’s back in the UK she’s a little scared her kids will laugh at her.
Women’s Diesel Jorts
- Price: $79
- From: Ripton and Co
Super stretchy denim shorts designed for riding bikes in. The concept works surprisingly well in sunny climes, and Hannah is yet to try them out going through puddles. These are the hemmed variety, though there are frayed cut off versions too. They’re cut with a high waist, so there’s no gap for your bum to hang out of when riding.
Merida 50th Birthday Coffee Gift
- Price: nfs
- From: Merida
Merida is 50 years old this year, and to mark the occasion they’ve sent out some ickle mini enamel mugs and a teeny weeny coffee pot, along with the suggestion that they’ll bring some luxury to your next bike packing trip. Hannah is not sure she has the energy for this, and thinks perhaps along with this luxury should also come a bike packing butler to carry said items, and deliver freshly brewed coffee to one’s bivvy in the morning. And maybe re-inflate her airbed through the night too.
MET Veleno MIPS Helmet
- Price: £120ish
- From: MET Helmets
In a modest claim, MET says that the Veleno MIPS helmet is “made for any bike and none in particular.” By that, it means that it’s a MIPS-equipped, peaked helmet for mountain biking, but it’s also got a short enough peak that you can still see when you’re in the drops of your gravel bike, or you can remove it altogether and take to the tarmac.
It comes in S/M/L sizes and six different colour options. Peak on or peak off – it’s up to you, right? But leave it on, OK?
Thread of the Week
No contest this week. Congrats to @jonnyrobertson
#STWFGF winner!
Every week we run a competition over on that there Instagram to win a Singletrack Forum Bottle Opener. Whit-woo etc.
Simply tag your riding pics with #STWFGF on Instagram and… that’s it.
Congratulations to @howardbynysh for this nutty pic.
Until next time…
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