Fresh Goods Friday 648 – Sort It Out Edition

Enough with the chocolate, it’s time for everyone’s favourite end-of-the-week shiny bits showcase: Fresh Goods Friday!

And with that, I’m off to get more hardtails covered in liquid loam. It’s not exactly buff out there, is it?

Apidura Backcountry Hydration Backpack

• Price: £153.00
• From: Apidura

We’ve reviewed this backpack here, you should take a look because it’s a really good bag! For riders that want organisation and quick access to food and water, this is ideal. I (Amanda) plan to use it for events like 10@Kirroughtree and the Dunkeld Enduro. In the meantime, I’m using this backpack for short out the door rides because it fits a jacket for the ever changing weather, and my phone is in the chest pocket for a quickdraw photo opportunity.

Cannondale Habit Carbon LT 1

• Price: £4,750
• From: Cannondale

Yep, another Cannondale Habit. This is the carbon framed, longer travel Habit, in size Large (the previous fabulously blurple [sic] coloured one is alloy, shorter travel and X-Large). How much more travel does this LT Habit have? 10mm more at either end. So, nothing major but nice to have.

Without wishing to overly pre-judge the bike, we reckon Cannondale have really nailed the remit of the Habit range this time. The suspension always worked really nicely, it was just the geom that needed teaking. And when we say “geoimetry” we actually just mean “seat angle”. That angle has been tweaked now. Looking good. And, from our time on the blurple Habit, riding really well too.

Specialized S-Wallet Bi-Fold

• Price: TBC
• From: Specialized

This wallet is actually a shoe. Well, it’s made from ‘S-Works shoe textile’ at least. It’s one of those low-fat wallets that holds not-very-much/just-enough. Personally speaking I still have too many loyalty cards (Tesco, AA, Library, Pets At Home etc) for this wallet to work for me It has been helpfully designed “to fit any type of currency”, including Monopoly money and property cards. Dimensions: 90 x 100mm. I’ve neglected to get a good pic of the neon lime lining colour, which is quite nice as it happens. Sorry about that.

Garage shelving

• Price: £0.00
• From: High School clearout

A local high school is moving into a new building and, to cut a long story short, I [Benji] ended up with a load of storage stuff that was otherwise going to the dump. I’m sure this teetering quasi-sorted bunch of bike stuff will make a lot of neater-minded folks sadfaced but… you should have seen what it was like beforehand. It has not fallen over. Yet.

Singletrack X Elliot Brown Watch

• Price: £475
• From: Elliot Brown Watches

Charlie says: “The good forward-thinking people of Elliot Brown Watches made an extra 10 watches back in 2021. These were made to allow for issues such as getting lost in the post etc. These were then forgotten about before resurfacing last week.

“So, if you missed out last time, you now have one last chance get your hands on one of these ten excellent watches. You can have your name, username, motivational message, or time related Pink Floyd lyric extract engraved on the back. Plus, there is also a charitable donation.

“And finally, I feel I must remind you of my own input into the design. The 15 second bezel marker has been replaced with a beer bottle. You now have precise chronological control over exactly when it is ‘beer o’clock’.”

Burton Throwback Snurf Board

• Price: £119
• From: LD Mountain Centre

Charlie says: “This is a repro of the first generation snowboards, with no bindings, no edge, just good old fashioned have-a-go bravery. In the mid 80’s we would make snowboards from ‘liberated’ plywood, get a bit of bend in the nose, and finish with some skateboard grip tape leftovers. They were fairly shite, but really cool shite.

“I know the snow has now gone, but I am now ready for next winter. My Pennine hilltop neighbourhood has lots of contours and attracts deep snow a handful of times a year. I have eyed up some local chutes and bowls with this piece of board riding history in mind.

“It’s 130cm long, made from wood, with a tough extruded base. You get two grip patches and a rope with a handle, for handling. Burton describes it as ‘all mountain’, but that might be a typing error for ‘wall mounting’?”

GoreWear Distance Bib Shorts+ 2.0 and Jersey

• Price: Shorts £199, Jersey £119, Socks £17.99
• From: GoreWear

Some more grit.cx goodies for you gravelleurs. Ignore the gurning model and feast on the sea of green! It seems that the colour of gravel this year is some sort of olive green or woody earth tone. We’ve seen shoes, bikes, helmets and glasses, all in this gravel-specific tone. This didn’t quite prepare us for this full Kermit outfit from GoreWear. The Distance Bibshorts+ 2.0 have been engineered to have as few chafing seams as possible, a minimal gripper system, breathable, wide bibs and a long distance comfort chamois with a Windstopper panel to prevent windchill on chilly rides. (They come in black too – thankfully!)

Get in with your ‘How much’ comments below. I [Chipps] would say, though, that my previous pair of GoreWear shorts were similar money and after eight years of weekly wear have only just started to stress at the seams and chamois. Reckon I got my money’s worth. (Incidentally, I’m 5ft9in, 42in chest, 34in waist and I’m wearing an XL in both shorts and jersey)

Obviously there’s a matching Distance Jersey. This, too, is designed to have as few seams as possible, with ‘raw cut’ sleeves and a low neck. There are three rear pockets and an additional zipped one. And it’s made of 86% recycled polyamide too. Socks are Gorewear’s Essential Daily socks. Keep an eye on grit.cx in a thousand kilometres or so for a review…

Oladance Wearable Stereo

• Price: $149.99 (With code STW30)
• From: oladanceshop.com

The idea with these buds is that they aren’t actually buds. They don’t go IN your ear. They kind of hang over your ear, but securely. They have a driver that is 3x larger than typical buds and bone conducting headphones so the bass is pretty good. The main feature is that you can still hear stuff going on around you, like traffic and stuff and the battery last 16 hours.

Emergency Airport Flip Flops

• Price: £4.50
• From: Accessorize

Hannah: “I realised I had only packed bike shoes, and I thought italy might be warm. As it turns out, I might be wearing these while I’m waiting for my bike shoes to dry. Current situation: full body cover and heavy rain.”

Thread Of The Week

We all over a really good hard facting don’t we? Congrats this week to NewRetroTom for giving us fact all in this thread…

The winning TOTW in FGF gets a prize. And it’s the fabulous majestic Singletrack Forum Bottle Opener! So, BIGGUPZ! to NewRetroTom! Please email editorial@singletrackworld.com. Please include your postal address, as it really speeds up delivery logistics init.

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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