We’re all just clockwatching today – yes, even more than normal – because it’s Fort William Weekend once more! We just want it to be Sunday now please. Yes, even more than normal.
The Downhill World Cup returns after a ridonkulous six weeks since round 1 in Lourdes, and a whole two years since it last took place in Fort William.
While we wait for YouTube to get busy rendering all the World Cup team videos that must be imminent, here’s this week’s Freshest of Goodies…
Peaty’s Steel City DH 3rd Place (Vet F) Medal
- Price: £49 to race, free to watch, £5 to park
- From: Steel City
Yeah yeah yeah, we’re all bored of hearing about it. If you’re not, head over here to read Hannah’s write up. On hearing Hannah was third, her daughter’s immediate response was not ‘well done’ or even an emoji. It was: ‘out of how many?’. Kids keep you in your place. And the answer was ten.
Cotic RocketMAX Gen4
- Price: Frame from £2,099, Complete Bikes from £3,999
- From: Cotic
The fourth and latest incarnation of Cotic’s big wheeling bruiser, the 160mm travel RocketMAX. Pair it with a fat legged 170mm 29er fork up front. Go full bore 29er all round. Or throw a 27.5in wheel in the back and embrace the mullet (angle-adjust headset advised). You can read all about it here.
We’ve got one of these frames in to act as our new testbed for Big Bike Bits. You know the sort of thing. Big brakes. Big forks. Coil shocks. Sticky tyres.
Peaty’s Holeshot CO2 Tyre Inflator Kit
- Price: £29.99
- From: Silverfish UK
Peaty’s version of a CO2 solution. 2 x 25g cartridges, an inflator head, a closed base sleeve. The straight-line design of the head is intended “for maximum airflow”. Push down to operate. Release to stop. Available in twelve colours (designed to specifically match Chris King stuff).
Peaty’s Tubeless Puncture Plugger Kit
- Price: £21.99
- From: Silverfish UK
Designed to fix the punctures that sealant can’t. Single-sided stabber design, “Leaves the plug in place each time without pulling it back out of the tyre”. O-rings on the can keep the dampness out. Again, available in a dozen Chris Kingy kolours.
Better than half price deals
Tailfin Bikepacking luggage
- Price: Read our previous grit.cx news story
- From: Tailfin
Golly gosh, we got sent a whole load of Tailfin stuff the other day. This is just a sample of what they sent for test. What’s it all about? Well, there’s a rear rack, a modular thru-axle, a QR-thingy, a rack pack, some suspension fork mountings, and… er, just loads of different drybag-mounting cages and straps.
Basically, all kinds of ways of attaching Tailfin’s own dry-bags and seatpost/rack pack. We’re going to hand this over to our friendly neighbourhood bikepacker for a thorough testing. All we can say for now is that it appears to be extremely well made stuff.
DMR Vault
- Price: £160 for the new ‘liquid camo’ finish
- From: Upgrade Bikes
What more can be said about the DMR Vault? Nothing really. Well, apart from the fact that you can now get it in these liquid camo colourways (yes, colourways). The only other thing to say about the DMR Vault is that yes, it is still way up with the best flatties around. It ain’t new. It doesn’t need to change. Big platform. But not too big. Not too thin. Spot-on concavity. Trigger’s Broom rebuild-able.
These are still the flats that a lot of folk come back to after a dalliance with other (really good) flat pedals. There’s just something about the way they feel.
DMR V6
- Price: £27
- From: Upgrade Bikes
Plastic versions of the venerable old DMR V8 and V12 sorta flattie. Arguably they’ve been utterly usurped as a trail pedal by various other designs (see above) but there are still riders/disciplines out there who swear by the old skool shape. And nine year olds will like this camo colourway (yes, colourway).
This particular DMR V6 is in green camo. This pedal will be available from July. It’s DMR’s entry level pedal still but with the new cool camo finish costs is a little more (£27).
Tonic CBD
- Price: £59.99 8% Water Soluble, £18.00 2% Miracle Serum, £19.00 CBD Tea
- From: The Tonic Tribe
A couple of years ago, Amanda landed on her head in Torridon and subsequently suffered from a very long term concussion. She used the water soluble 8% CBD oil to aid recovery. The 2% CBD Miracle Serum is ideal for muscle and joint aches, perfect for us cyclists! And the CBD tea contains 5mg CBD per cup and tastes delicious. If you want more information on how CBD can help you, contact The Tonic.
Specialized Pathfinder Pro
- Price: £45.00
- From: Specialized
The Specialized Pathfinder Pro can’t find the correct paths for you, so when Amanda took hers down the Pennine Bridleway, she did the walk-of-shame home and promptly ordered a replacement. This tyre is ideal for tarmac, with off-road capability on tow paths and the like. It’s not fit for mountain biking, neither is a gravel bike.
Great British Gravel Rides
- Price: £25.00
- From: Singletrack Book Store
Charlie says… What did you do in the Covid ages? Well, Markus Stitz went to 26 corners of the country, with a local rider, threw in the miles and created the Great British Gravel Rides book.
The local guides include a lot of big “round the world” names such as Mark Beaumont and Jenny Graham. Sheep illustrator Jo Burt is also in there. Each route has a really interesting description that gets into the riders history, local history, and the character of the trail. It’s a guidebook that is also a good read. All the directions are in the maps and free GPX files.
The photography is excellent, indeed worthy of being hung on a wall, but it was not easily attained. You see, I rode with Markus for the Dorset route, and I climbed every hill at least three times. A 4 hour route took 11 hours. I rode up the hills for still photos. Then up again for video, and then finally for drone footage. What’s more we only stopped at one pub!
Etnies Camber CL Clip
- Price: £119.99
- From: Etnies
The new Etnies Camber CL clip-in shoe is a first for the Etnies brand, more often seen in the skateboard world. The new Camber CL features a clip-in specific tread made from ‘Formula G’ rubber, apparently. There’s a close-fitting neoprene scree guard, while the rest of the shoe features lots of mesh (treated to repel water apparently…) and there’s a lot of rubber-bumper action to keep your toes intact as you glance off the scenery.
DexShell Ultra Thin Crew Socks
- Price: £25
- From: Upgrade Bikes
Hannah really rated the shorter version of these waterproof socks as they fit nicely in normal shoes without having to size up to allow for thick socks like is the case with many waterproof ones. The only thing she hoped for was a longer version, and tah-daah, here it is. Summer showers here we come…
Sisters of Send Stuff
- Price: N/A
- From: Sisters of Send
The inaugural Sisters of Send festival was a huge hit, and until Amanda finds the SD card from her camera, this is all we can show you from it!
Thread of the Week
The prestigious TOTW crown this time goes to eddiebaby for this fictional scientific ice-breaker…
#STWFGF winner
Every week we run a competition over on that there Instagram to win a Singletrack Forum Bottle Opener.
Congratulations to @mtbtracker for this week’s chosen pic. Who doesn’t love New Bike Day? Please email editorial@singletrackworld.com to claim your prize, @mtbtracker
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Antio sas!
Until next time. Keep it rubber side down. If you want to.
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