Roll up! Roll up! Come get yer Fresh goods ‘ere! Despite it being Good Friday – which means the Annual Chocolate Celebration is almost upon us – we have zero items of brown confectionary here.
What do we have to show you this week? Yet another midpower e-mountain bike (sorry not sorry), new multi-tool and repairs ‘n’ spares solutions, a revamped range of premium tyres, a super-sealed bottom bracket, some lady gloves and a battery powered boombox.
But yes, we have no brown eggs.
Focus Vam 2 SL 9.9
- Price: £7,599
- From: Focus Bikes
Listen. We are still asking the bike industry for normal mountain bikes to test. But the only test bikes that seem to be arriving of late are midpower e-mountain bikes. We’ve currently got the Specialized Levo SL Alloy (50Nm motor with 320w peak power) and the Whyte E-Lyte 150 Works (55Nm, 600w peak) on test. Honestly, they’re like buses these e-bikes. Except they’re not. They’re a whole load lighter than they full-fat e-bikes. This Focus Vam 2 SL 9.9 (in Large) here weighs in at 17.5kg. Sporting the Fazua Ride60 motor (60Nm, 430w peak)) with a not-easily-removable 430Wh battery, it offers a modest 125mm rear travel and 130mm travel Fox 34 fork up front. Carbon frame with a flex-stay design. And yes, it comes with thru-headset routing and a one-piece bar-and-stem.
Crankbrothers BC18 SOS Bottle Cage Tool Kit
- Price: £99.99
- From: Extra UK
- SQUIRREL_TEXT_13024317
This is the first of four new ‘SOS’ items from Crankbrothers. We thought we’d feature them individually because lumping htem altogether would just end up being confusing and hard to identify which pic was what etc. SOS stands for Save Our Shred by the way. This BC18 SOS Bottle cage is a left or right entry cage that holds a pale grey tyre lever which in turn holds a tyre plugging tool and a bunch tubeless plugs. There are two clips on the side of the cage. One is empty (intended for CO2 or a minipump). The other holds a metal cylinder with a screw top lid. Open the lid and out pops (it’s spring loaded slightly) the SOS multi-tool. This multi-tool has a lot going on with it:
- 2, 2.5, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8mm Allen
- T10, T25 torx
- Flat screwdriver
- Tyre lever
- Chain tool
- 0, 1, 2 spoke wrenches
- Valve core tool
- CO2 head
Crankbrothers TS18 SOS Tube Stash Tool Kit
- Price: £89.99
- From: Extra UK
- SQUIRREL_TEXT_13024318
Okay. So imagine the BC18 kit above but replace the bottle cage with a broad Velcro strap arrangement for attaching an inner tubes to. That’s what this TS18 SOS kit is.
Crankbrothers TT17 SOS Twin Tube Tool Kit
- Price: £119.99
- From: Extra UK
I [Benji] will freely admit that it took me a shamefully long time to work out how to crack this sucker open. I could have just read the the instructions but who does that eh? Anyway, eventually I did realise that all you need to do to is press the grey buttons located at the top of each tube and then the tubes simply open out like wings. One tube is contains the same super-comprehensive SOS multi-tool as described in the BC18 above. The other tube is essentially empty (there is a removable just-so container in there) and it’s up to you what you store in there. CO2? Tubeless repair stuff? A Cadbury’s Fudge? A mini Peperami? Whatevz. The whole thing mounts on bottle bosses. Oh yeah, there’s a tyre lever with a tyre plug tool and tubeless repair strips provided also.
Crankbrothers TS2 SOS Tube Stash+
- Price: £29.99
- From: Extra UK
- SQUIRREL_TEXT_13024320
Coming after the three MacGuyver-tastic SOS kits listed above, this modest TS2 jobber may feel rather underwhelming. Yet, it may well also be the SOS item that is most relevant to most riders; most of us already have a multi-tool ‘solution’. What we could do with it a basic strap-on puncture repair kit. Which is what this is. Tyre lever, tubeless strips, tubeless stabber and a strap for holding onto an inner tube and/or CO2 cartridges. Sorted.
Michelin Wild Enduro Rear
- Price: £84.99
- From: Silverfish UK
- SQUIRREL_TEXT_13024321
The first of three rejigged rubbers that form Michelin’s new Wild Enduro tyre range. This is a rear-specific tyre designed with rolling resistance reduction very much in mind. In terms of terrain or conditions, it says ‘mixed’ but we think it’s more at the dry end of the spectrum.
MIchelin Wild Enduro MH
- Price: £89.99
- From: Silverfish UK
- SQUIRREL_TEXT_13024322
An interesting looking tyre. It reminds us a bit of a WTB Verdict. And a bit of a Maxxis Minion DHF. And possibly a Specialized Butcher, if you squint. The overall layout of the knobbles sort of says ‘loose mud’ kinda tyre. But the specific design of the knobs – especially the full-length in-line-of-direction siping – sort of says cornering/steering. Maybe. It’s a brave move to predict a tyre’s behaviour by looks alone but who doesn’t love a bit of pontificating about tyres? Anyway. This is an interesting looking tyre.
Michelin Wild Enduro MS
- Price: £84.99
- From: Silverfish UK
- SQUIRREL_TEXT_13024323
The third and final tyre in the rejigged Wild Enduro line is the MS. Apologies to Michelin in advance but the, like it or not, the lingua franca of MTB tyres is Maxxis-Schwalbe. The new Michelin Wild Enduro MS reminds us of a gappier Maxxis Assegai in parts, and a Schwalbe Magic Mary in parts. Which is to say, very promising! As ever, it’ll be the nature of the rubber compopunds and the feel/performance of the casings that will also have a big say in how these new Wild Enduro tyres work on the trail. With Continental and certain Specialized tyres having recently edged their way into people’s tyre choices, it’ll be interesting see if Michelin can also get toe in.
Enduro Bearings Maxhit BSA Bottom Bracket
- Price: £179.99
- From: Extra UK
For folk who really don’t want to touch their bottom bracket for as long as possible once installed, here is the MAXhit BB from Enduro Bearings. Basiucally, the cups are also the cartridge bearing holding… things. “MAXhit is Enduro’s latest patent-pending innovation; where the bearing is actually the component. MAXhit bottom bracket bearings are designed to thread directly into your bicycles bottom bracket shell, eliminating the need for the aluminium cups that are traditionally used to carry the bearings. This unique design frees-up space for much larger balls that more than double the load capacity compared to standard BB bearings. Machined entirely from 440C stainless steel and guaranteed for life, Maxhit BB bearings include proprietary double-lip labyrinth seals and Enduro’s extra high pressure grease to ensure a lifetime of trouble-free, heavy duty performance.”
Pearl Izumi Women’s Cyclone Gel Glove
- Price: £40.50
- From: Pearl Izumi
- SQUIRREL_TEXT_13024266
According to Pearl Izumi, these gloves’ “style touches and fit make this piece uniquely for women.” Three-layer softshell back-of-hand fabric. Ax Suede Uno synthetic leather palm with 4-way stretch. Shaped gel pads reduce bulk and claim to improve grip comfort. Hook and loop closure. BioViz reflective bits.
Formula Belva
- Price: £1,590
- From: Elro Distribution
Okay, so we don’t actually have one of these but I thought I’d stick it in FGF purely because a triple-clamp enduro fork is an interesting concept. The air-sprung Belva uses the same lower architecture as the Formula Selva series of single crown forks. So, 35mm stanchions, 15mm thru-axle, 43mm fork offset. And travel is either 170 or 180mm. This is not a downhill fork. But yeah, interesting. What do you think? Anyone interested in trying something like this?
Tribit Stormbox Flow Speaker
A 25w portable bluetooth speaker that doesn’t seem to cost the earth. Has a mahoosive battery inside (4.8Ah) that will keep your ABBA collection sounding amazing for around 30 hours. Has a bass button that turns it up to 11 too. Why have we got it? Well, some people (Wrong people) like to ride with music coming out of their bags. However, there are others who like to go places with no power and listen to audio books in a tent (There’s an audio book mode – no really!). Incidentally, research has shown* that people who listen to the Singletrack podcast when out and about are perceived by others to be on average more attractive than the general population.
*No it hasn’t.
Members Discount Of The Week
Mountain Warehouse have now come on board to join the 1000’s of discounts available to all our full members. Click the image above to go explore the offers.
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Thread Of The Week
The winning forum posting this week was perpetrated by tall_martin for this fruity thread:
The winning TOTW in FGF gets a prize. So @tall_martin 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!
The MTB race run that broke Lachlan Blair’s Leg
“Short story – having a delightful time in Cyprus, weird incident, broke my leg, compartment syndrome, 6 operations, 27 days in hospital, MVP my girlfriend Imy for spending the last month in Cyprus smuggling snacks into the hospital for me 🙏”
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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