Fresh Goods Friday 604: The Great Power & Responsibility Edition

We trust you’ve had a most splendid week. If you haven’t, we’re sorry about that. There’s always next week. This too shall pass. Anyway. Here’s this week’s Fresh Goods for everyone to enjoy…

Cane Creek Helm MKII

• Price: £1,099
• From: Extra UK

We’ve got this black beauty in for our 130-140mm fork test. Yep, Helms come factory set to 160mm but they are also intended to be shortened easily. This one is now set to 140mm travel.

The MKII version gets things designed to reduce friction and thus improve fork sensitivity. Reduced air spring, SKF seals, lighter compression tune, lighter damper oil, new seal head and so forth.

Showers Pass Timberline Waterproof Jacket and Pants

• Price: £tbc
• From: Showers Pass

Not yet available to the world, these are test items that have just landed in the UK, so we’re yet to hear what pricing will be. We first saw these out at Sea Otter, and what caught our eye is that the fibres they’re made of are plant based, rather than oil based, which should make them a more environmentally friendly prospect variety of waterproof. The cut is designed to be a little more casual than their specialist cycling gear, so you can wear it for walking or just heading to the shops too.

Showers Pass Elite Waterproof Cap

• Price: £35
• From: Showers Pass

A waterproof cycling cap designed to keep the rain out but still let your sweaty head breathe as you dance on the pedals up the next climb, conquering stuff and finding your inner soul. Maybe.

Bamboo Cutlery and Food Flask Bundle

• Price: £39.99
• From: Singletrack World ‘O’ Merch

Charlie says… Have you ever tried mountain biking without food? Yeah sure, it’s OK for a while, but within a couple of hours you get tired, hangry, grumpy, and start taking bad lines. You spent more on your bike than your grandmother spent on her first home, but you won’t invest a few quid in fuelling your sweet ride? Let’s prevent this tragedy in your riding life with the amazing Klean Kanteen food flask that keeps food hot or cold for many hours, and some rather cool bamboo cutlery. All bundled together at an extra special price.

These multiuse bamboo utensils are very nice, but there is one major design issue. If you are a panda bear – they are single use. Pandas will eat their noodles off the chopsticks, and then carry on and eat to chopsticks. Please consider this before purchasing if you are a panda bear.

Defender Shock Contact Alarm

• Price: £14.95
• From: Defender Security Products

Has both a contact sensor and a vibration sensor to protect against theft. The 130dBs siren is triggered by the vibration sensor if the door is being forced, and by the contact sensor if the door is opened by someone who does not possess the entry code. 30-second exit delay and a 5-second entry delay to enable the user to arm or disarm the unit via its keypad. The vibration sensor can be deactivated if only the contact sensor is required.

Gore Wear Fernflow Shorts

• Price: £129.99
• From: Gore Wear

Lightish weight shorts with some splashy protection. Cordura fabric with DWR treatment and taped seams. Adjustable waistband with silicone grips and velcro tabs. Quick-drying. Four-way stretch. Slightly longer front hem. Inseam length: 34cm.

Selle Italia Model X Leaf Saddle

• Price: £54.99
• From: ZyroFisher

Sustainable, recyclable saddle with mechanical assembly and free from pollutants. The entire saddle production process, patented by the Italian company, involves companies that are all within a 15-kilometre radius of its headquarters, thus helping to further reduce CO2 emissions. Size: 145mm x 245mm.

Sweet Protection Arbitrator MIPS Helmet

• Price: £299.99
• From: Jungle Products

A fully downhill certified full-face, yet with a removable chin bar, this helmet is convertible into a regular trail riding hat. It offers two kinds of retention systems; trail mode and full-face mode for downhill (the redundant trail strapping is stash-able when in DH mode). Fully ventilated with large intake and exit ports.

SKS Track Pumps

• Price: SKS Air-X-Plorer 10 £51.99, SKS Airmotion 12.0 £42.99
• From: SKS Germany

Despite some decent competition these days, we still probably put SKS at the top of our inflation brands. Particularly when it comes to big ‘uns.

The SKS Airmotion 12.0 has a pressure gauge at the top. The SKS Air-X-Plorer Digi 10.0 has a low-mounted digital pressure gauge that measures to two decimal points. Both pumps are equipped with the improved “MV Easy” Multi Valve head.

Zine Trail Mounts

• Price: €19,95
• From: Zine Sports

Stick on mounts for attaching a bike computer to your top tube. Different fittings are available for Polar, Garmin and Wahoo computers. Handy if you’d rather have your computer tucked away and off your bars, perhaps.

Specialized Women’s Long Trail Sleeve Jersey

• Price: £55
• From: Specialized

A technical jersey that feels soft not slinky, with UPF50 properties for when the sun comes out.

Specialized Trail Short Sleeve Jersey

• Price: £45
• From: Specialized

Uncomfortable hisnhers matchy matchy outfit selfie, anyone? The trail T-shirts are made with a new ‘MiniR fabric’ that should reflect the sun to help keep you cool and stop you burning. Panel details in the shoulders provide extra ventilation, and they’ve got a soft natural fabric feel to them.

Specialized Butter Range

• Price: Specialized Butter Gravity Pant £120.00, Specialized Butter Trail Jersey LS £55.00
• From: Specialized

Lurpak attack! Whether you’re a fan of the pale yellow colour, there’s little denying that these are some very well designed and put together pieces for modern ATBing.

Pants: Laser perforated venting, patches with high abrasion-resistance bonded to the knee area, waist adjustment tab, tapered legs.

Jersey: New MiniR fabric reflects sun to help keep you cool, “plenty tough for the rigors and abuse” of riding, Deflect UV 50+, crew neck collar, fit is “generous and comfortable”.

Specialized Prey Trail Pant

• Price: £110.00
• From: Specialized

In terms of fit, you’ll find that these pants are baggy for the most part (pad friendly etc) but very “form-fitting” at the calf and ankle end. Three zippered pockets. Laser-perforated venting. Buckle waist adjustments.

Specialized Soft Air Tall Socks

• Price: £15
• From: Specialized

Available in three colours, these are thin and summer friendly socks, designed to transfer moisture away from your feet, and with added ventilation in the toes (but not the sort of ventilation that has your big toe sticking out).

Thread Of The Week

Congratulations to the venerable and esteemed duncancallum for this classic piece of nostalgia-tastic naval gazery…

Singletrackstagram

Please give @singletrackmagazine a follow on Instagram.

We’ve started putting news stories straight purely on there now. Snippets of new things that don’t quite make the front page of the website proper but are still worth knowing about and/or gaping at. Such as the new Deviate Claymore (below).

Plus, y’know, all the usual pretty piccies, stories, reels and lol-quotes.

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Have a nice day!

Proceeds from this track go to Everytown For Gun Safety, which seems like as good a reason as any to endure/enjoy a bit of Jack Black.

Hannah Dobson

Managing Editor

I came to Singletrack having decided there must be more to life than meetings. I like all bikes, but especially unusual ones. More than bikes, I like what bikes do. I think that they link people and places; that cycling creates a connection between us and our environment; bikes create communities; deliver freedom; bring joy; and improve fitness. They're environmentally friendly and create friendly environments. I try to write about all these things in the hope that others might discover the joy of bikes too.

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