Fresh Goods Friday 733: The Bottled Flies Edition

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Yes, it’s everyone’s very favourite day of the whole calendar year: Black Friday. And yes, we have an offer on (see below). But that’ll do.

It’s undeniably a good day to purchase something that you genuinely need (or just want) so do that if you want to. It’s fine. Lord knows, not many folk are swimming in excess cash right now.

In terms of the more permanently interesting aspect of today, it’s time for Fresh Goods.

J Saul Kane RIP

Norco Optic C1

An idler bike. A bike with an idler. But unlike most idler equipped bikes, the Norco Optic doesn’t have that much travel (125mm) and its main pivot location isn’t all that high up the seat tube. The fork travel is 140mm by the way. We’ve decided to join in calling this bike a ‘mid pivot idler bike’. Mainly to make people tut and roll their eyes. Will that idler do enough of the claimed magic carpet doesn’t-tug-yer-tootsies stuff? Or is it all a bit OTT? Personally speaking, I [Benji] am in favour of this bike regardless because it is… interesting. It’s also rare that a Norco isn’t really, really good. Which is nice. The year of our Lord 2024 has not been a great one for Interesting MTBs has it? This is the 2024 model. 2025 model year is jkust about coming into stock about now. Whilst the MY25 is principally an exercise in BNG*, there are some striking spec changes from the 2024 range (such as SRAM Code brakes instead of Level). This is size C4: 497.5mm reach, 65° head angle, 77.5° effective seat angle, 430mm seat tube, 433mm chain stays. And of the best things about Norco bikes? Their online Ride Aligned bike set-up wizard. It really is very good; it’s never very far away from how I ultimately end up with my psi and my mm digits.

*Bold New Graphics

Fresh Goods Friday 733: D’Movie

“This is Reel Life, you’re telling me” – Magazine

SQ Lab 60X Ergowave Active 2.1 LTD Team Saddle

The ‘Ergowave’ shaped profile which steps-down from the rear to the front claims to offer a “perfect form-fit shape for most sit bones”. Regardless of whether your posterior is suitably perfect there’s no doubting that the saddle material is impressively robust. This may be a very expensive saddle but it does retain its looks for a very long time. This sort of saddle arguably makes more sense on bikes that don’t have steep seat angles; they support (literally) a rider who is semi-constantly moving fore-aft depending on the terrain gradient. Oh, and that little squidgy thing where the rails enter the saddle at the rear is essentially an elastomer. This can be swapped out for different firmness/damped inserts, all of which allow the saddle to rock during pedalling movement.

SQ Lab 70X Pro 2.0 Grips

Techno grips. Prescription grips. Whilst most of this grip is trad-looking diamond file knurling, there’s a lot of the grip that is highly specialised and specific. Tapered core means there’s less plastic pipe under the outside of your hand. ‘Ergobar’ finger pad zone. Raised outer end top. Slimmed down at the index finger area (underside near the collar basically). The whole intention being to reduce arm pump, and reducing excess pressure on the ulnar area of your palm, by spreading the load. Whilst they undeniably have that gawky sort of saddle-wearing touring bikist aesthetic so common with ergonomic grips, we think there’s a lot of sense in this design. We have some on test at the moment.

SQ Lab 30X Carbon Handlebar

These are handlebars these are. And what they may lack in rise they more than make up for in rearward sweep. Well, not literally. Back sweep doesn’t greatly affect rise does it? Sorry. Anyway. Mega swept back bars. SQ Lab sayeth: “The 12° backsweep with its short reach provides a natural transition from the lower arm to the hand when in a more upright riding position thus protecting the wrist from the extreme strain occurring in downhill riding.The 4° upsweep brings the elbows into a perfect position for a dynamic riding style.” As well as all that, it could be yet another method of tweaking the realtionship between your hands and yourfront tyre’s contact patch. Which is always interesting to mess with.

SQ Lab 50X Pedals

This pedal is available in three different axle lengths, the largest of which is intended for “a V-shaped foot position or larger sit bone distances, which usually require a higher Q-factor.” Which is nice. The mild concavity of the pedal body is slightly rotated outwardly. 115 x 105mm platform size. Fibre reinforced plastic body. Japanese ball bearings. IGUS friction bushing. Replaceable pins. P.S. why do pedal designers place pins in the middle area of the body? Doesn’t everyone just end up removing them? Just us?

Coros Pace Pro GPS Sport Watch

  • Price: £349.00
  • From: Coros

This is the latest watch to be released by Coros. You get an AMOLED display – visible even in bright light, so none of that squinting and looking for shade you get with some screens. It has built in maps, GPS tracking, promises up to 38 hours of battery life while these functions are being used. You should get 20 days out of it in basic watch mode, without tracking. It’s got an optical heart rate monitor, optical pulse oximeter and ECG sensor. It’ll track your sleep and help you get the most out of your training. Sadly it doesn’t do the dishes, but it is waterproof while you’re doing them. You can use it control your action camera too! Probably not a function to combine with doing the dishes.

Shimano Deore SM-RT64LL 220mm Rotors

They may not quite be the size of dinner plates but these 220mm rotors are pretty much as big as you can get. We’ve got these in as we’ve found certain gram-counting mid-weight ebikes not quite having brakes that cut the mustard (again, not literally). And yes, the Center Lock option is what we wanted; the aforementioned wee-bikes always seem to have Center Lock flavoured hubs (gram shaving init).

Singletrack Multi-Use Tube Of Seamless Wicking Cloth

What would you call it? It stretches and wicks away your cranial outpourings. Perfect for under a helmet all year round and you can even rock it as an 80’s vibe headband. Hair bobble, sweat band, beanie, pirate hat. This one time, at band camp, we saw someone wear one as a boob tube. What would you call it if you couldn’t call it what you know it as?

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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.

Orange Switch 6er. Stif Squatcher. Schwalbe Magic Mary Purple Addix front. Maxxis DHR II 3C MaxxTerra rear. Coil fan. Ebikes are not evil. I have been a writer for nigh on 20 years, a photographer for 25 years and a mountain biker for 30 years. I have written countless magazine and website features and route guides for the UK mountain bike press, most notably for the esteemed and highly regarded Singletrackworld. Although I am a Lancastrian, I freely admit that West Yorkshire is my favourite place to ride. Rarely a week goes by without me riding and exploring the South Pennines.

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Home Forums Fresh Goods Friday 733: The Bottled Flies Edition

Viewing 14 posts - 1 through 14 (of 14 total)
  • Fresh Goods Friday 733: The Bottled Flies Edition
  • andyspaceman
    Full Member

    Just me, or is that saddle wonky when viewed from the rear?

    Separately, I suspect that a bit of the text intended for Norco Optic description has found it’s way into the blurb for the SQLab pedals.

     

    ebikegum
    Full Member

    Sack the editor!! Looks like there’s a mish-mash of copy between the peddles and the over-priced acoustic bike!

    Creaky
    Full Member

    You can’t buy the SQ Lab stuff from their website, as they don’t ship to the UK and they still do not appear to have proper distribution here. I have been interested in buying some of their handlebars in the past but they’re too difficult to get hold of.

    monkeyboyjc
    Full Member

    Would love to try the sqlabs bars and have looked at them for the last couple years, but the cost just puts me off…

    Btw the embeded link in the story takes you to the aluminium version on the website – thought they’d massively dropped in price for a mo there…

    1
    honourablegeorge
    Full Member

    CreakyFull
    You can’t buy the SQ Lab stuff from their website, as they don’t ship to the UK and they still do not appear to have proper distribution here. I have been interested in buying some of their handlebars in the past but they’re too difficult to get hold of.

    Frankly, at two times the cost of the (arguably best on the market) OneUp carbon bar, they can keep their handlebars. Crazy money.

    1
    monkeyboyjc
    Full Member

    Frankly, at two times the cost of the (arguably best on the market) OneUp carbon bar, they can keep their handlebars. Crazy money.

    Had a OneUp for a year or two, wasn’t that impressed tbh + the sweep was wrong for the position/ bike & I personally didn’t find it particularly more vibration damping than any other carbon bar. The sqlabs has the sweep/rise/upsweep Id like to try out but absolutely don’t won’t to spend that kinda cash to find it uncomfortable.

    Yak
    Full Member

    Looks like there’s a mish-mash of copy between the peddles and the over-priced acoustic bike!

    HOW MUCH?? £7k for axs pedals  HOW MUCH???!! arrrrrghhhhh

    (think it was done on purpose to get mugs like me to go HOW MUCH???!! )

    hirise
    Full Member

    I’ve found it easy to get the bars I want from Tweeks Cycles.

    mmannerr
    Full Member

    Those 70x grips are one of the better grips I have used but for sure they were fastest wearing grips ever. Mine were worn through at index finger in about eight weeks.

    oily76
    Full Member

    Thought that Norco was a Hope when I first saw it.

    BadlyWiredDog
    Full Member

    You can’t buy the SQ Lab stuff from their website, as they don’t ship to the UK and they still do not appear to have proper distribution here. I have been interested in buying some of their handlebars in the past but they’re too difficult to get hold of.

    They have a few UK stockists – Google suggests Tweeks and a few others – plus you can buy on amazon uk as well. I get on well with the saddles, which also, interestingly hold value well sold used on eBay. Never tried the bars mind.

    Northwind
    Full Member

    I hope we see more big-backsweep bars, it just makes a lot of sense with longer and longer bikes. I reckon in a few years we’ll look at 8/5 like we look at 660mm, a weird thing that we did for too long and can’t quite understand why. And tweaking the reach on them is smart too, Nukeproof did something similiar but less with their v2 bar and again it’s just obviously the better shape for a bar with more backsweep. Something On One were ahead of the game on with their weird bendy bars back in the day though those were all really narrow.

    Not going to spend 280 euros on them mind!

    1
    sharkattack
    Full Member

    Norco must be trying to copy Santa Cruz by adding the Minnaar tax. Otherwise that astronomical price is an absolute mystery.

    chrismac
    Full Member

    How much is that Norco. Does it have an engine or some magic propulsion system. I’m wondering how they justify that price for that bike. Perhaps Greg’s wages really are huge

Viewing 14 posts - 1 through 14 (of 14 total)

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