Oh hello there little buddies! It is Friday. It is kind of lunchtime ish. It’s almost the weekend. Which probably means it is almost time to ride bikes.
But before we get up, down and along dirty, let’s consume some Fresh Goods…
Kona Ouroboros CR
- Price: £2,999
- From: Mount Green Cycles
Those Shimano clippy shoes from last week’s FGF have a lot to answer for. Namely, this bike arriving. Yes, I [Benji] am going to have a crack at grovel riding – sorry, gravel riding. I’ve got a couple of gravel bikes requested. This is the first one. The other will hopefully be in next week’s FGF. This bike is coming at gravel from the modern may-as-well-be-a-mountain-bike angle. Suspension fork. Basically 29er tyres. Dropper seatpost. Carbon frame. Low (relatively) single ring drivetrain. From a classic MTB marque. Rotors bigger than an ant’s drink coaster. Both this bike and the other gravel bike have also been chosen due to the most important aspect of any bicycle: they look cool.
Oh, and hey, Isn’t it nice to have a Kona back in Fresh Goods? Welcome back K!
Aenomaly SwitchGrade 2.0
- Price: £135.00
- From: WindWave
You either need this product, or you don’t. If you’re one of the people who do require the ability to change the angle of your saddle on-the-fly – for extended periods of steep climbing, for example – then the SwitchGrade is an extremely nicely made item. Which is reflected in its price no doubt. This 2nd generation verstion of the SwitchGrade can be set via a turn-bolt doohicky to offer just two angles (as well as the original three angles). Available in different flavours to match different droppers. We’ve got this one in OneUp flavour. Because OneUp dropper posts are ace.
Robert Axle Preoject UDH
- Price: £TBC
- From: Ison Distribution
US brand Robert Axle Project’s main thang is axles. “We like to say that we are the Thru Axle Authority. Not like police style authority, but more like, we know our stuff when it comes to thru axles. That’s why, when you’re shopping for a thru axle, if you use our Axle Fitment Finder we guarantee the result, 100%. If for any reason you use our Axle Fitment Finder and it takes you to the incorrect product for your bike, we’ll exchange it for the right axle at no cost.”
Old Man Mountain Headlight Mount
- Price: £TBC ($20.00)
- From: Ison Distribution
An initially very confusing item, to us dunderheads anyway. Basically this is a bolt-on thing that can attach a front light to if your handlebar is obscured by luggage. OMM: “Designed to work seamlessly with Old Man Mountain racks and works equally well on most other brands’ racks as well. The Headlight Mount is an evolution of others on the market with a longer barrel to fit larger lights, and avoid bags and gear mounted to the deck. We also made the mounting hole, a larger, 6mm so it can mount directly to our racks in a wide array of positions. It comes with 5mm hardware as well to keep your options open.”
Roll Recovery SuperPlush Recovery Shoes
- Price: £89.00
- From: Roll Recovery
Based in Colorado, Roll Recovery makes a range of products aimed at helping athletes recover from exercise – deep tissue massage tools and such. You know, the things that make you feel slightly sick when deployed, yet weirdly pleasurable at the same time? These shoes are new to the line up, and designed to be supportive enough to let your feet rest, but soft and light enough to be comfortable. The footbed uses something called Superplush foam, which is made using algae and seaweed, and the stretchy uppers are made from ‘AirYarn’ which is made from recycled plastics. They’re floaty light and slipper like, yet structured enough to be actual shoes you could wear in the street. The uppers are totally knitted and stretchy though – don’t stub your toe or you’ll know about it!
Enduro Bearings Maxhit Bottom Bracket and Pulleys
- Price: £144.78 (BB), £233.91
- From: Extra UK
Sent to our American outpost – and indeed manufactured in the USA – these are destined to upgrade a gravel bike. The pulleys are guaranteed to last forever against corrosion. There are ceramic bearings on the inside for smooth turning, and the sprocket itself is made with Teflon infused ‘Delrin’ material that is designed to be extra durable while also reducing friction and drag. The races are cryogenically treated nitrogen steel. About as close to Hans Solo as pulley wheels get? The Maxhit bottom bracket bearings are designed to thread directly into the BB shell, eliminating the need for the aluminium cups that usually carry the bearings. This frees-up space for larger balls than standard BB bearings, which are machined from 440C stainless steel and guaranteed for life. Proprietary double-lip labyrinth seals and Enduro’s own ‘extra high pressure grease’ are designed to ensure a lifetime of trouble-free, heavy duty performance.
Chamois Butt’r Her
- Price: £1.15, 9ml sachet (17.99, 235ml tube)
- From: Extra UK
Apparently formulated specifically for women’s skin pH (the founder’s wife is a female sports medicine doctor) uses aloe vera, green tea leaf extract, tea tree oil, shea butter, lavender oil amongst other things. It’s also very good for putting on cuts and grazes too in my experience, no matter what your gender.
HKT x DMR Bikes 30th Anniversary Front Mudguard
- Price: £12.00
- From: Upgrade Bikes
2025 is the 30th birthday of DMR. The distributor has taken on board the brand HKT, known for their mudguards and frame protection wraps. Hence, this anniversary themed ‘guard.
Hotel Chocolate
- Price: N/A
- From: ‘G’
We like big box and we cannot lie. These fancy chocs came courtesy of a forumite (who we won’t name because we don’t know if they want to be known) as way of a reward for the IT Dept getting the new forum up and running. My [Benji] personal favourite was the one that had peanut butter in it. Obvs. By concidence I drove past the Hotel Chocolate factory on my visit to the Core Bike Show (more about this soon). Small world, baby, small world.
Forum Thread Of The Week
username Nick pics this thread
As before, the winning TOTW in FGF gets a prize. So Nick please email editorial@singletrackworld.com for your random prize (possibly a mini cowbell). Don’t forget to include your postal address, as it really speeds up delivery logistics like. B-bye!
STW Long Sleeve Ride Base Layer
- Price: £42.00
- From: The Singletrack Shop
Back in stock at last! This lightweight, technical jersey is ideal as a summer ride jersey or a winter baselayer. Super soft and wicking, you will likely wear it as much off the bike as on.
Featured Member Reward of the Week
- From: Singletrack Members Rewards
- Reward: 20% off VivoBareFoot
About Vivobarefoot: “Founded in 2012 by two seventh-generation cobblers, Galahad and Asher Clark, Vivobarefoot is based on one simple insight – barefoot footwear is regenerative to human health. A Vivobarefoot product or experience is one that literally brings us closer to nature. We believe: The closer people are to nature, the more they will protect it; The natural world is the only real model of sustainability; Barefoot footwear is regenerative to human health.”
Stale Goods Friday – Nukeproof Mega 275 Comp
- Price: £2,599.99
- From: Fresh Goods Friday 279
With the news of Nukeproof coming back from the dead (via Belgium), we thought it apasite to feature one of the original Nukie Megas…
STW, February 2016: “With 160mm of RockShox driven travel, this Aluminium Puppy has its heart in the Alps. Can you guess the wheel size? Here’s a clue: the numbers are 752, and there’s a decimal point in there. Rearrange to your heart’s content! Saddle dropping comes courtesy of Nukeproof’s Oklo post … there’s a Pike up front … to go with the Monarch out back … and the whole shebang is propelled with SRAM’s GX-1 groups. And your legs. Lots of tidy Nukeproof finishing kit, too. 65 deg HA, 75.5 deg SA (crikey), 435mm chain stays and (in this large) 460mm reach.”
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“SuperPlush Recovery Shoes" – is that what we’re calling slippers these days?
More things we didn’t know we needed ……
Saddle position lever – really?
Female specific bum butter – Isn’t human skin all the same? – Hannah will probably tell me I am wrong about this.
A thing to raise the height of a handlebar light – oh come on! Are there lots of bike packers out there cheering “at last!"
Recovery shoes – you mean shoes.
Is this the sign of the bike industry inventing stuff for the sake of it rather than to satisfy a real world need.
That OMM Headlight mount is just a more expensive copy of the Restrap Light Mount, isn’t it?
https://restrap.com/collections/accessories/products/light-mount
£233.91 for some jockey wheels? [this_is_fine.jpg]
Yes, really. Heard plenty of folk raving about how the original version was a game changer for them.
id have one myself but they don’t make one for my choice of seatpost, yet.
That’s the best looking gravel bike I’ve ever seen!
thinking the same thing, cant see myself every buying a gravel bike, but if i absolutely had to that Orouboros would be the one i wanted
also the stale goods Nukeproof, apart from the wheelsize has geo numbers we seem to have settled on now
I enjoyed “the jockey wheels are guaranteed against corrosion". Well yeah they would be, they’re plastic, like most oe jockey wheels. Might as well say “now guaranteed anthrax free"The Maxhit’s schtick was basically that the BB shell was the outer bearing race, which is kinda clever, especially paired with the limited lifetime warranty (albeit, one that has at least 2 total bullshit getout clauses, you are required to get them annually serviced by a professional and the warranty doesn’t cover “dirt ingress") But these ones look like a conventional bearing pressed into a conventional cup? Unlike the other ones it seems like you can see an outer race.Gravel-mountain-bikes are the most ridiculous thing but I have to admit those forks are very cool. Also old Megas are also cool.
Blimey, to my mind that’s a double bagger. One over the bike so I can’t see it. One over my head in case the bike one falls off.
Can’t you guys proof read your copy? Sorry to be the SPAG Nazi here, but at least run it through a spell checker before posting. That won’t help with the chocolate, but small steps would make you look more professional.
generation verstion-> generation version
doohicky -> doohickey
Hans Solo -> Han Solo
concidence -> coincidence
Robert Axle Preoject UDH ->
Robert Axle Project UDH
Hotel Chocolate-> Hotel Chocolat