Fresh Goods Friday 665 – The foreign food edition

Iiiiiit’s FRIDAY! And no matter how often it rolls around and how predictable it is, you’re never quite sure that it’ll actually arrive until it does, all casual Friday-style and all. And here, in a cycling-filled frenzy, is Fresh Goods Friday!

This has been a great week for cycling fans in the UK, with the UCI World Championships breaking out all over Scotland and allowing many, many cycling fans and unwitting members of the public to discover that pro cyclists are really, really fast. Really fast. Like, faster than you ever think you can go on your fastest day, is them having a bit of a fun knock-about on the bike.

Another thing that some cycling fans have discovered is that many/most/all cycling pro riders are, for want of a better word, really professional. As well as being talented on the bikes, they’re also very aware that they’re bike-riding billboards for their sponsors. And, regardless of whatever journalist they’re chatting to, they will happily break off, mid-sentence to sign a ten-year-old’s T-shirt, or pose for a selfie. The journo will understand, and that inspired ten-year-old might go on to be the next world champion – something we’re seeing more and more in recent years.

1985 Powell Peralta Steve Steadham Skateboard.

• Price: Around £200
• From: Conflictskates is a good indy retro retailer.

Charlie says… “I always wanted one of these back in 80’s, and now I have one. Set up with reissued Rat Bones wheels in a soft 85a hardness, some Indy trucks, and ripped grip tape to complete the 80’s vibe. I now have a cool little routine where I use free car parking on one side of town, skate through the park, quick rip around the bowl, throw a bert down on the banks, drop a step, grind a curb and on to the supermarket (which also has free parking, so?). Do the grown-up shopping sh1t while proclaiming “since ****ing when have baked beans become a luxury… £1.70… p1ss off”. And then… curb, step, pothole slalom, bank, bowl, park, carpark, and back to un-rad stuff.

Maybe up your supermarket game? Take a trip to the 80’s.”

Vitus E-Mythique LT VRS

• Price: £3899
• From: Vitus Bikes

Filling Benji’s requirement that ‘full fat (ie big battery) e-bikes need to be big travel’ we have this Vitus e-Mythique LT (Long Travel) in VRS spec. 170/160mm travel front/rear, all the battery for getting you into (fun) trouble and all of the travel to get you back out. What more could you want. This is on test, under Benji somewhere in the woods right now.

Feedback Sports Tools

• Price: Rotor tool – £18, Valve tool – £12, Cassette Pliers £54
• From: Saddleback

Colorado-based company, Feedback Sports is probably best-known for its signature red-anodised workstands, but it also makes a range of workshop tools and bits and pieces to help the pro and the dedicated home mechanic. Here we have the rotor truing tool, with slots for chunky and skinny discs, all based around a plastic-coated, steel tool for durability. Then there’s the valve core tool – anyone who’s wrestled with that little D-shaped plastic thing you get with your wheels to try to budge a sealant-gummed Presta core will appreciate the grippy, spinny tool. And finally, get those self-adjusting cassette pliers… Chain whips are fine, until they ping off while you’re trying to loosen that ‘I’m sure I greased it’ cassette… 

SQ Lab 60X Infinergy Active 2.1 Saddle

• Price: €199
• From: SQ Lab

This deconstructed-looking thing is the 611 saddle from German ergonomic experts, SQ Lab. The base features ‘Swiss carbon’ rails and a pair of suspension elastomers, but what’s clever is this one piece top that uses BASF Infinenergy – a foam that you’re more likely to see in a top-end running shoe. It’s ‘almost indestructible’ and offers great padding for low weight. Those black patches are additional add-ons that firm up the padding in the right places. That’s a lot of tech for one saddle, eh?

Singletrack World Magazine Issue 150

• Price: £10.00
• From: Singletrackworld Shop

One hundred and fifty issues! Singletrack is now 22 years old and has reached the grand milestone of 150 issues. We’re not stopping yet, either! We have plenty of fun, inspirational and intriguing topics in the works to keep you amusing until – well, until you stop reading it…

Opinel Cutlery Set

• Price: €23
• From: Decathlon in the Alps

‘Holiday Amanda’ has just sent this in as it was too good not to share. It’s part of the massive range of cutlery that French company Opinel offers. It features a regular, carbon steel blade and a pair of locking utensils, so that you don’t have to try to eat your granola with chopsticks, eh Amanda?

Yeah, we know there aren’t many actual bike components this week – partly because everyone’s on holiday, so no one’s in the office to open the latest boxes of fun stuff, but also because there’s all sorts of new stuff just about to appear any moment… was that the doorbell?

Thread Of The Week

Slimy! Slugs!

The winning TOTW in FGF gets a prize. And it’s the fabulous majestic Singletrack Forum Bottle Opener! So, hello hello to @Branes for starting this thread that, in the opinion of our bribable judges, has the correct balance of curiosity, education and terrible dad jokes. Please email editorial@singletrackworld.com. Please include your postal address, as it really speeds up delivery logistics like. Ta!

Now… what tune to send you into the weekend with? How about this US garage dad-band’s cover of ZZ Top’s ‘Just Got Paid’ – with a bit of a Whitesnake interlude. Can you tell that Benji’s not around much this week? 😉

And that’s all we have for you this week. Enjoy the weekend and don’t forget to watch the XCO racing going on on Saturday. Oh, and don’t forget to ride your bike too. Tune in next week when we’ll have a longer travel, US brand bike, some great cheese, some more workshop tools and perhaps a few other special treats.
In the meantime, just be thankful that the regular FGF crew will be back and you won’t have to put up with Chipps driving the train…

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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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