This is the inntro… much like a usual intro except there’s no room for messiahs. What have the Four Wise Couriers brought for us this week? Certainly not any gold, Frankenstein nor Grrr.
Is this Mad Friday? Is next week Mad Friday? Or is the big drunken office party and missing the last train home a thing of the past? For office mate avoidance rants, head to the Forum. For a chance to win some bike packing bags that will mean you could head into the hills and avoid all of humanity, also head to the Forum (nowt to do with us, except that Rocketdog is a regular around these parts, and it’s in aid of Rider Resilience, with is A Positive Thing).
YT Decoy Core 3 MX
- Price: £5,999
- From: YT Industries
This is the mixed wheel mullet MX (I think that covers it) version of YTs e-bike, the Decoy. We liked – we mean, really liked – the full 29in YT Decoy we had earlier this year. If we did such things, it would have been our E-Bike Of The Year for sure. All the good parts of e-bikes but without the negatives (no range dread, or lack of trail ‘pop’).
It’ll be interesting to see how this MX version differs. Surely it can’t be even better, can it?
Swytch E-Bike Conversion Kit V2
- Price: £999 SRP (£449 with a 6 month wait, £549 with a 3 month wait)
- From: Swytch Bike
Another ‘thing’ that we’ve had in before and reviewed, that’s come back to us in an updated form. Here is the second generation of Swytch’s conversion kit that can turn a bicycle into a pedal-assist electric bicycle.
At the moment there’s not any bolt-thru axle flavoured kits available to test so this is a QR front wheel kit. The actual wheel itself looks similar to the previous version, as does the crank sensor gubbins, but the battery pack thing is much sleeker.
Deviate Claymore Frameset
- Price: £3,333.00
- From: Deviate Cycles
Ross finally bit the bullet and got himself a Claymore. A frame without a shock technically. If you read his review of the Deviate Claymore back in October this news will come as something of a non-surprise. What is the Claymore? It’s a carbon fibre enduro bike with a high pivot idler rear suspension design.
Despite not being known for his patience when it comes to bike builds, Ross did somehow find the will to get the frame wrapped by his friendly neighbourhood frame wrapper (Shack Wrap over near Bury).
Shock bushing
- Price: £18.00
- From: TF Tuned
A small but vital part for the Claymore mentioned above. Can you guess what rear shock Ross is going to put into his new bike? Comment below.
Hope RX4+ Calipers
- Price: £100.00 per end
- From: Hope Technology
Something for Amanda’s gravelling bike. The RX4+ calipers from Hope are designed to suit dropbar set ups and to run with 140, 160 or 180mm rotors. Dot fluid calipers have bore caps with a ‘D’. Mineral oil, ‘M’. Slimline 4 piston ‘monobloc’ design. Available in colours as well as black. CNC’d from 2014 T6 aluminium.
Hope Reindeer
- Price: N/A
- From: Hope Technology
Some companies send Christmas cards. Some send embroidered saddles. Some send baked goods. Not Hope Tech. Hope Tech send self-assemble flatpack reindeers. Happy Christmas Hopesters!
Fizik Terra Artica GTX boots
- Price: £249.99
- From: Extra UK
Yes, we’ve had these boots in Fresh Goods before (in a burgundy and purple colour combo). These are a boring black pair purchased by our Rhys after enduring one too many frosty tootsies on rides this month.
Topeak Mountain 2Stage Digital & Pocket Shock Digital
- Price: £94.99 2Stage, £79.99 Pocket Shock
- From: Extra UK
The Mountain 2Stage Digital shock pump features pressure selector that lets you choose high pressure for filling suspension units or high volume for tyres. We’ve never had great experiences with 2-in-1 pumps before but hopefully this one can buck the trend. We shall see…
The Pocket Shock Digital takes the classic and much-loved Pocket Shock DXG and adds digital PSI accuracy. Ideal for those of us who are permanently messing with new bikes/forks/shocks out on the hills.
Clif Bar Minis
- Price: £11.99 for box of 10
- From: Extra UK
Ideal emergency fuel for when someone forgets their pack lunch in the Singletrack Office. Everything you like about Clif bars but in snack size! Plant-based ingredients, 108-111 calories, 4g plant-based protein and “phosphorus contributes to normal energy-yielding metabolism”, as we all suspected it did.
Spada Winter MTB Clothing
- Price: £49.99 Topo Jersey, £89.99 Hydro Shorts
- From: Spada UK
Jersey… Quick dry thermo material. Quality soft feel rib cuff. Tailored fit with dip hem for increased coverage. Topographic design detailing.
Shorts… 10K waterproof and 10K breathable fabric. Taped seams. Curved waistband. Waterproof zip pockets. Waistband adjuster.
Digital Subscription to Singletrack – no post required!
- Price: £25.00
- From: The Singletrack Shop
Send the gift of Singletrack virtually. Buying an electronic gift subscription can’t be simpler; enter the lucky person’s email at checkout and they will receive a voucher via email for a year’s free digital membership of Singletrackworld. This is what the lucky recipient will get:
- Future digital editions of Singletrack Magazine for mobile and tablet via our apps
- Digital access to back-issues in our online Mag Archive
- Access to Premier-only online features and extra magazine articles.
- Access to downloads, like classic ride GPX files.
- We even have a collection of iBooks for Kindle and iBooks.
- Ad free website – no more annoying marketing around what they are trying to read.
- Automatic discounts off our exclusive Singletrack merchandise in our shop.
- Discounts on our print magazines.
Pixco 25mm F1.4 CCTV Lens C Mount w/ MFT Adapter
- Price: £18.29
- From: Amazon
I [Benji] can’t really afford a Petzval lens from Lomo (which are pretty cheap for what they are, to be fair) so this is the next best* thing. What’s it for? Taking swirly bokeh photos of course! Paired with a Micro Four Thirds camera body (Panasonic GM1) it’s a lot of hit-and-miss photographic fun/frustration!
*’best’ is a relative term
Archie the dog
- Price: Any free time you once had
- From: Bleakholt Animal Sanctuary
This pic was taken with the above CCTV lens. Anyway, meet Archie. Benji’s new old dog from the rescue centre up the road. If you keep watching the MegaSack GiveAway advent competition videos, you’ll see Archie pop up (literally) now and then.
Thread Of The Week
This week’s winning – and most excellently first-stone-casting – forum posting goes to nickc for this sticky peach…
Every week the winning TOTW in FGF gets a prize. And it’s now the fabulous majestic Singletrack x Granite Designs RockBand Strap that is to be awarded. So BONJOUR! to nickc. Please email editorial@singletrackworld.com. Please include your postal address, as it really speeds up delivery times.
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