The Giant Stance 29 1 is a refreshingly affordable mountain bike. Yer classic entry level full-sus…
This is the tintro… eerily reminiscent of the pewtero but a bit more silvery. What? No idea. We’re just riffing here. What does it means when a Lancastrian says “tintintin”? Answers below.
Ride Concepts Tallac BOA
- Price: £179.95
- From: Silverfish UK
We’ve had a fair few BOA shoes in of late. Most of the time they’ve been for clipless pedals. BOA shoes for flat pedals do exist but there ain’t many of them. This is Ride Concepts flat shoe offering with the BOA dial-up system. MAX GRIP rubber outsole with the usual Hexagon pattern. D3O High Impact Zone Technology insole. Hook-and-loop strap for additional forefoot adjustment (tip: don’t overdo it!) TPU mud guard to protect against dirt, debris and rubbing. TPU toe and heel protection with reinforced anti-abrasion film. Fully gusseted tongue prohibits intake of dirt and debris. Heel pull tabs.
Unparallel Tube-X Cool 9 Multi Gaiter
- Price: £TBC
- From: Dark Ventures
This came with a couple of very exciting shoes (more about those later). It’s essentially a Buff. This particular ‘neck tunnel’ garment tickled us (not literally) because we were pretty much freezing to death whilst taking this week’s Fresh Good photos above Portsmouth (no, not that one), and the product description of this Multi Gaiter is very much concerned about protecting you from the perils of extreme heat and harmful rays of evil sunshine. We would have LOLed if we could have moved our face muscles.
Praxis Works DMR Axe 30 BB
- Price: £40.00
- From: Upgrade Bikes
Much like the not-a-BUff above, this BB is here to act as a piece of canny foreshadowing of an item further down this page. Having said that, we think the fact that is has the words “Axe 30” in its product name has pretty much killed the surprise. Sorry about that. Interestingly, this bottom bracket is in boring black. Hmm…
RWD R025 Disc Brake Pads
- Price: £17.00 sintered, £15.00 organic
- From: Upgrade Bikes
Yes to brake pads. Always useful. Particularly if you want to not-die, but also if you want have your brakes working as well as they can. Tempting as it is, try not to just buy the cheapest AF pads from eBay/Amazon. Good brakes + bad pads = bad brakes. Not only that, currently mediocre brakes + good pads = good brakes. Here we have some in sintered red flavour and organic blue flavour. Sintered in the back, organic in the front. Well, that’s what we do anyway.
DMR Blade Chainring 32T
- Price: £42.00
- From: Upgrade Bikes
Ooh… what’s this? A DMR chainring? Possibly related to the DMX Praxis Bottom Bracket above? Maybe baby. Well, yes obviously really but we’ll try and wring what pointless mini drama we can here if that’s okay with you. 7075 T6 aluminium wide/narrow chainring. Will also fit any SRAM 3-bolt Direct Mount crankset.
Dexshell Ultra Dri Socks
- Price: £34.00
- From: Upgrade Bikes
Can you have too many pairs of waterproof socks? Benji is on a noble-hearted mission to find out. Having said that, these are technically in Medium size so he may have to pass them on to somebody svelter of foot. What do these particular socks have to offer then? Drirelease wool blend inner promises quick moisture wicking and warmth, plus there’;s an in-cuff seal to keep the water out.
Black Mamba Nitrile Gloves x 100
- Price: £30.00
- From: Upgrade Bikes
This week’s winning product in terms of innuendo and lewdness potentiality. Industrial strength exam gloves. If you’ve never tried nitrile gloves when working on a bike, you probably should give them a go. Perhaps not straight in at the rubbery deep end with a 100 pack (you can if you want to though). Tight-fitting, grippy, tactile… a good nitrile glove can actually make workshops jobs easier. And your skin will thank you for it too. These Black Mamba gloves are noticeably tougher and hopefully less tear-prone than cheapy (usually clear) affairs.
Shimano CN-M8100 XT/Ultegra Chain
- Price: £49.99
- From: Freewheel
We’ve got this in to replace the KMC chain that came on the Saracen Ariel 60 Pro test bike that we’ve been thrashing about the place. Now then. Normally we’d just put up with a rough-feeling chain and just bleat about it a bit in the ensuing review. But there’s something about the Ariel 60 that we are really, really digging at the moment. It just has a couple of spec niggles (the crackle-and-pop KMC chain being one of them) that we want to sort out, so we can further unleash the joy of Ariel-ing.
Singletrack Merch Things
- Price: Amazing
- From: Singletrack Merch Store
Charlie says… Let me give you a quick update on Singletrack merch things.
The Rider Resilience Issue 147 Art Prints are arriving this afternoon and I will get all the pre orders out this arvo.
Get your Valentines Bum Butter and Bobble order in soon. All of these will go out in first class post as the 14th is getting very close.
Outcast Zine. You may remember I stressed that lack of quality and warned you about things such as “willy stuff”. One Singletrack member missed that and quite rightly had his sensibilities assaulted, and money refunded. So don’t just take my word on this, let’s see what a Singletrack member thought of it:
“Hi Charlie, I ordered what I thought would be a fun celebration of singlespeeding but got a pamphlet that obsesses more about w***ing rather than cranking and I’d like my money back please. All the best, Stu”
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Singletrack Issue 147 Art Print – Rider ResilienceFrom: £19.99 -
Outcast Mini Issue 25£3.00
DMR Vault Mag Pedals
- Price: £120.00
- From: Upgrade Bikes
The Vault needs no introduction. This is the magnesium version. DMR aren’t (just) promoting the mag version in terms of being lighter, they’re also bigging up the eco creds of the materials; “Most of the magnesium used is extracted from seawater. Magnesium uses less energy to process the material than aluminium (bauxite). Casting magnesium uses less energy to make the finished product (than CNC aluminium). The casting process wastes very little material. Any waste material is recycled on site (zero waste). Magnesium is non-toxic and is very safe for manufacture and use.” So there you go.
DMR Axe Cranks Polished 165mm
- Price: £180.00
- From: Upgrade Bikes
Here it is! The show your telly made for! The thing you’ve all been waiting to see! Oh. Just me [Benji] then? Fair dos. Silver-grey cranks in 165mm length. For a silver-grey bike build that has a rather looooooooow bottom bracket height. The Stif Squatch in other words. Is silver the new oil slick? Mabes. Still lovin’ it. 30mm axle spindle. SRAM-style bobbly direct mount interface thing. External bearing-ed bottom bracket (that Praxis Works one up there ☝️
Unparallel Dust Up Shoes
- Price: £TBC ($149.99)
- From: Dark Ventures
After around 20 years of making sticky AF climbing shoes, in 2018 Unparallel introduced their mountain biking shoes to the world. Based in California, Unparallel do everything in house. “From design and testing, cut and sew of materials, hand gluing and assembly, finishing and quality control, to the final packaging of each pair of shoes. Using only premium materials and industry leading high friction rubber compounds, Unparallel creates climbing and bike shoes that are designed and engineered for improved performance. UP Mountain Biking shoes are built for strength, grip, comfort, style and function. Equipped with a high-friction, sticky UP Rubber outsole, all UP Mountain Biking shoes can endure anything the bike trail will throw at you. Our Mountain Biking shoes are designed by experienced MTB riders guaranteeing you an unparalleled biking experience.”
Unparallel West Ridge Shoes
- Price: £TBC ($139.99)
- From: Dark Ventures
Ooh! High tops. The Westridge mid-cut is a flat pedal shoe designed for “all-terrain use”. It’s constructed with a dual compound outsole, using higher durometer rubber for the outer perimeter and softer, vibration-absorbing rubber compound for the centre tread.
Thread Of The Week
It’s not every week you hear of somebody adopting a little old lady…
The winning TOTW in FGF gets a prize. And it’s the fabulous majestic Singletrack x Granite Designs RockBand Strap! Thus, BIGGUPS! to davespike1981. Please email editorial@singletrackworld.com. Please include your postal address, as it really speeds up delivery logistics init.
Er, what is Fresh Goods Friday?
It’s Singletrack’s long running, weekly roundup of all of the new products that have been sent in to us.
I’m a company making the next big thing. How much does it cost to feature in FGF?
Nothing. Nil. Zero. Diddlysquat. Naff all. Just send all ‘next big things’ to us at – Fresh Goods Friday, Singletrack Magazine, Lockside Mill, Dale Street, Todmorden. OL14 5PX.
Ciao!
“tintintin” = it is not in the tin
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More Reviews
What is Fresh Goods Friday?
It’s Singletrack’s long running, weekly roundup of all of the new products that have been sent in to the magazine.
Where do all of the goods come from?
They’re sent in by bike companies and marketing agencies
What happens to all of the products?
They’re featured and then some are reviewed down the line in either Singletrack Magazine or in online reviews and photoshoots.
What happens to them when you’ve finished with them?
They’re usually sent back after review, or kept on long-term test bikes. But no one ever asks for shorts and shoes back. Trust us on that. Once we were asked to return some brake pads.
I’m a company making the next big thing. How much does it cost to feature in FGF?
Nothing. Nil. Zero. Diddlysquat. Sod all. Just send all ‘next big things’ to us at – Fresh Goods Friday, Singletrack Magazine, Lockside Mill, Dale Street, Todmorden. OL14 5PX. Please note that if you require the products back after they have featured then you are responsible for arranging collection at your cost. While it is our policy to feature everything we receive in FGF if we decide your product is not suitable for publication we won’t do it. Publication is at our discretion. Whether a product goes on for publication as a review is at editorial discretion. Beer, coffee & spirits will ALWAYS be tested.
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