Fresh Goods Friday 807: The Job Of Paint Edition

You’ve heard of The Joy of Sex yeah? Let us tell you about The Job of Paint.

You can read all the reviews you want. You can watch all the YouTube walkthroughs. But does anyone ever choose to buy a bike if they don’t like the way it looks?

The answer is yes, but only if the price is right (AKA not-expensive). It’s very rare that you’ll see someone riding around on a conspicuously costly bike that they don’t think looks cool. And despite all the proverbs (putting lipstick on a pig, rolling a turd in glitter etc) there is definitely a great deal of power in a pretty paintjob.

Will you admit to ever buying a bike purely on looks alone? I’ve done it at least twice. Leave a confessional comment if you must.

Fresh Goods Friday is Sponsored by Pedal Cover – The better route for cyclists

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Cannondale Bad Habit frame

• Price: £3,750 frame (w/ RockShox Vivd Ultimate shock)
• From: Cannondale

The lure of an amazing poaint job eh? This colourway is offically called “Black with WOW colors”. And it’s hard to argue with that. Despite the Bad Habit’s enduro pedigree (Ella Conolly is Enduro World Champ) and marketing, with 160mm fork and 155mm rear travel it’s essentially a modern trail bike in my opinion. Albeit one iwth mullet wheels. It should be an interesting bike to build up as it doesn’t really follow many of the more-modern geometry vibes; it’s hella long reach (515mm on this XL) but has short 435mm chainstays. What else? Stash box in the downtube, 34.9mm seat tube, healthy dropper insertion, big bottle room, accessory bolts, threaded BB, not-thru-headset-routing.

Fox Float X Factory Evol LV shock

• Price: £699.00
• From: Silverfish UK

Although it’s tempting to run the Bad Habit with that superlight white rod ‘shock’ in the photos above, I’m duty bound to test the new Float X from Fox on it. Features: new monotube design with higher-flow main piston “for improved sensitivity and support”, updated elastomer MCU bottom-out bumper, updated top-out bumper “for quieter suspension action”, 11 clicks of low-speed compression, 16 clicks of rebound, climb switch.

Shimano XT M8250 Di2 Upgrade kit

• Price: £649.99
• From: Freewheel

Also for the Bad Habit build. After a winter spent dragging SRAM Transmission mechs along the ground and through the undergrowth I thought I’d give the Shimano XT Di2 a go to see how it goes. Aside from the mech and shifter pictured above, the Upgrade Kit gives you the BT-DN320 battery, the EC-DN100 charger and a SM-CN910 chain link. You can use your existing Shimano 12-speed cassette and chain. The big question: will I ever get used to not being able to shift from the front with my index finger anymore (which you can do with SRAM’s rocker paddle shifter)? Probably not.

Shimnano XT M8200 160mm crankset and 32T chainring

• Price: £159.99 cranks, £64.99 ring
• From: Freewheel

Is there any reason to run any other cranks than Shimano? In a functional and reliability sense, no. You put ’em on your bike. Possibly nip up the preload collar every year or so. And that’s it. Any niggles? Well, they’re not very exciting looking are they? At least these new ones come pre-wrapped with some anti-scuff protection, so theory shouldn’t look tatty after a handful of rides like previous XT cranks did. Oh, and there’s a chainring too.

Peaty’s Monarch Pro Mushroom & Knurl grips

• Price: £29.99
• From: Peaty’s

Speaking as one of Europe’s leading push-on grip preachers, the previous Monarch Knurl grip for Peaty’s was the only lock-on grip that I actually liked to use. Well, Peaty’s has rejigged both the Monarch grip designs. The Knurl is the sage grip above with the diamond dimples. The Mushroom is the mint green grip with the gills/ridges. So what’s new about these Pro suffixed replacements? They’re still dual compound rubbers (15a upper surface and ZigZag thumb pad, 30a Duralite fingerbars and bar ends) but there’s no a cutaway in the inner plastic sleeve (called the “impact dampening cut out core”). If you’re not a fan of the colours above there’s also: Brick Red, Plum Purple, Storm Blue or Black.

Smith Syncline glasses

• Price: £189.00
• From: Smith Optics

The new Syncline from Smith offers goggle-like lens size but in sunglasses form. Features a “barely-there” rimless design and – PRAISE BE! – an integrated bumper on the frame to ensure chatter-free interface when worn with a helmet. Features: “Evolve bio-based” frame material, cylindrical shield lens in Smith’s ChromaPop lens, a spare clear lens, glasses are compatible with the ODS5 Prescription Sunglass Adaptor, “Auto-lock” hinges hold the frames open for easy removal of the glasses, megol temple and nose pads react to perspiration to provide a non-slip grip.

Smith Pilot MIPS MTB helmet

• Price: £95.00
• From: Smith Optics

Smith might be describing this as a lid “for novice and emerging riders ready to tackle new terrain”, it is just a nice sorted helmet with MIPS for under a hundred quid. Thus ideal for… anyone. Features: in-mold construction, extended rear shell coverage, wrapped edges for increased durability, MIPS Evolve Core Safety System, adjustable dial fit system, 13 vents for consistent airflow while riding, sunglass storage, fixed visor.

SHALL Electric Scissors

• Price: £24.99
• From: Amazon

Ideal for slicing up the mahoosive cardboard boxes that e-bikes arrive in – e-scissors! Not really. We keep the mahoosive cardboard boxes for sending test bikes back in. These e-scissors are for slicing up all the other cardboard that we are frequently drowning in so we can cram it all into the recycling wheelie bin. If you follow our social channels (@singletrackmagazine) you’ll very probably have seen the clip of Mark (far too) excitedly demonstrating this product.

Free Performance Tee with Subscription to Singletrack Magazine

• Price: £30.99
• From: The Singletrack Shop

If you’ve been meaning to support independent MTB media… this is your nudge. Subscribe annually and we’ll throw in a FREE Singletrack performance t‑shirt worth £30.

Forum Thread Of The Week

This week’s winner is hyper_real for the Risk Normalisation thread:

The winning FTOTW in FGF gets a prize. Thusly, hyper_real please email editorial@singletrackworld.com for a random prize. Don’t forget to include your postal address please.

Stale Goods Friday – 2016 Specialized Enduro Expert Carbon 29

• Price: £4,500 (or £6,292.46 in today’s money)
• From: Fresh Goods Friday 293

While we all wait for a new Spesh Enduro that very possibly is just not happening, here’s what we said a decade ago about this one: “This mighty behemoth is an XL Enduro 29 for a forthcoming biketest. It frankly looks like a stylishly painted carbon monster. That mainframe is made from FACT carbon, apparently. FACT. And that shock yields 155mm of travel. Which on a 29er is verging on ridiculous.” FYI: 465mm reach, 67.5° head angle, 520mm seat tube, 430mm chainstays. 2016 eh? Nej tak.

Peaty’s launch video from none other than George Peat

Second in line to the Peaty’s throne.

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