The middle. It’s not the place to be is it? You either want to be at the top with the winners. Or at the bottom bitching away with the other losers, ideally with a suitably dramatic and/or sympathetic bunch of reasons as to why you’re down there.
Middle is meh. Middle is not memorable. That’s the theory anyway. But as we mountain bikers know, the middle is where it’s at. Mid-pack. Mid-fitness. Mid-travel. Mid-air. Middle-aged. And to that we can now add mid-motor and mid-power to the mix. Purist Pedal Pushers look away now.
This week’s Fresh Goods Friday features not one but two mid-power e-mountain bikes. And mid-power mountain bikes are – in a lot of folks’ opinion – pretty much the best experience you can have on something still called a mountain bike. Which is just as well, seeing as the entry point to these machines appears to be around five thousand and a bit pounds, they’d better be pretty freaking good.
Whyte ELyte 150 Works
- Price: £9,999
- From: Whyte Bikes
An ebike that’s simultaneously middling and massive. Massive in the sense of sizing and price tag. Having said that, five figure bikes are not all that rare in the meeja these days.
Anyhoo, what’s this ELyte 150 machine all about then? It’s one of the new breed of mid-power (hence ‘middling’) pedal assist mountain bikes that are coming in around the 20kg mark. The system used on this bike is the Bosch SX which gives out 55Nm of torque and up to a peak power of 600 watts. That wattage is pretty much the same as a full-power ebike but… you’ll have to spinning those cranks like roadrunner to achieve that level of assistance. This ain’t a sit-and-lazy-crank-it-out affair. The internal battery is 400Wh capacity and the bike comes with a 250Wh piggyback battery also.
In terms of Other Stuff: 150mm travel fork, 142mm rear travel and 29in wheels front and rear. There are also flipchips involved for chippings the flippings. Even the High setting is actually pretty flipping low TBH. This XL sise sports a 506mm reach and 450mm chain stays, 64° head angle and 76.9° seat angle.
Fresh Goods Friday 696 – The Motion Picture
Someone asked us if these were scripted. Er, no.
Lazer Lupo KinetiCore helmet
- Price: £49.99
- From: Freewheel
Another pleasingly priced crash hat from Lazer. This doesn’t look obviously like a sub-£50 helmet. Integrated visor, brow vents, deep coverage on the side, Lazer TurnSys retention system, ‘Effortless’ antibacterial and recycled stitched straps, featuring something called Polygiene Biostatic. Rated 5/5 by the premium hatsmashers over at Virginia Tech.
TRIBIT StormBox Flow
- Price: €74.95
- From: TRIBIT
The random things we get sent. Obviously one the best things that we all enjoy is having music being blared out on the trails. What’s not to love about that? Ahem. We guess this is possibly been sent to us as we do feature a bit of outdoors-campingy-vanlifey type stuff. Some vital stats for y’all: 40m wireless distance, 25W output power 25W, 4800mAh battery, IP67 waterproofing grade, up to 30hrs of playback.
Crankbrothers Stamp Trail Lace shoe
- Price: £149.99
- From: Extra UK
These pushbike pumps are designed to “help reduce foot fatigue for big days on the bike with deep lugs on the toe and heel ready for hike a bike adventures.” The rubber sole is made from “High-friction MC2 flat rubber compound optimised for grip, durability and rebound.” A flexible toe area. Rubber wraps the front for added toe protection. Extended heel back. Slow-rebound EVA midsole. Integrated lace pocket. Padded tongue. Relaxed fit. Initial walking-around-the-office tryouts suggest that these are impressively comfortable. They don’t feel like your typical tight cycling shoes. We’ll let you know how they perform on the peggles shortly.
Madison Roam Isoler Thermal Crew Sock
- Price: £7.99
- From: Freewheel
Constructed with a mix of cotton and Isoler thermal mtaerials and terry cushioning in the footbed. A deep welt at the top A flat toe seam helps at the bottom. Targeted compression in the ankle and arch zones. Made in Portugal. And most importantly, available in Rust Orange (and boring Black and Midnight Green).
Specialized Levo SL Alloy
- Price: £5,250
- From: Specialized
I [Benji] have been waiting for this bike for a long time. Well, not long in an intergalactic sense but definitely since about April last year. Which was when I first had a go on the carbon version (read my Specialized Levo SL review from last May if you feel like it). I’m not overly fussed about carbon at the best of times and on e-bikes it seems even more SFW.
This is the aluminium framed version of that excellent-yet-offensively-expensive £13k carbon Levo SL that launched last year. Well, actually almost everything hanging off and inserted into the alloy frame is different to the carbon ‘halo model’. Which, again, it much more interesting to a whole lot more people. What is the Levo SL? It’s another mid-power e-MTB. This time with 50Nm of torque from a Specialized x Mahle motor, and coming with a 320Wh battery.
Fox 36 fork, Fox Float X rear shock, SRAM NX drivetrain, SRAM Code brakes, X-Fusion Manic 170mm dropper, plenty of Specialized’s perfectly fine OEM finishing kit and tyres.
There’s plenty of geometry adjusting on offer too: +/-1.0° headset cup, chainstay flipchips (intended for switching between 27.5 and 29in rear wheel but I’ll mess with it for other reasons too/instead) and an offset bushing in the shock yoke thing for raising/lowering the BB height.
Marr’s Guitars
- Price: £45
- From: Johnny Marr
Johnny Marr, the Mancunian guitar legend is celebrated in this hefty coffee table book. It features many of the guitars used in the Smiths, and his later collaborations like Modest Mouse. Apart from the beautiful photography of (mostly) vintage guitars, it also sheds light on the vintage/priceless guitars that Marr enthusiastically lent out to other Manchester bands. Here you can see the guitars originally used by The Smiths and then later used by Oasis, Suede and others. A great gift for guitar lovers and Madchester fans alike.
Thread Of The Week
A hearty congratulations this week go all the way to the one and presumably only Poopscoop for this winning woody thread…
The winning TOTW in FGF gets a prize. So @Poopscoop please email editorial@singletrackworld.com for your random prize (it will probably be a Singletrack Forum Bottle Opener). Don’t forget to include your postal address, as it really speeds up delivery logistics like. K thx bye!
Semenuk viddings
‘Cos…
Have a lovely weekend gang!
It’s Singletrack’s long running, weekly roundup of all of the new products that have been sent in to the magazine.
They’re sent in by bike companies and marketing agencies
They’re featured and then some are reviewed down the line in either Singletrack Magazine or in online reviews and photoshoots.
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.
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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