Do you ever set out for a ride and realise the moment you’re out the door that your legs are too tired to join you? It happens frequently to some of us here in Calderdale, probably due to the gradients on our valley climbs. Amanda…
Fresh Goods Friday
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Fresh Goods Friday 548 – The everything is secret edition
Yes, we have stuff, but we can’t tell you about it. It’s all secret. It’s a moving feast of secrecy. As if it wasn’t complicated enough to remember what can or can’t go in Fresh Goods Friday in any given week, now product launches keep…
Fresh Goods Friday 547: The Dr Dolittle Extra Animal Edition
Lockdown, week whatever. Or are we still locked down? Kind of not – we can ride bikes with five friends and sit outside a pub in all of our coats. That sounds like freedom, right there. Still, not everyone has been making the most of…
Bikes, Bike Bits & Bum Balm: FGF 546
Happy Friday, Singletrackers! And what a treat we have. The sun is shining, the weekend is here and our favourite eateries and drinkeries continue to work on their outdoor seating areas for us all. This week I have discovered new food and revisited a pre-lockdown…
Wheels, Components, Lycra and Turkish Rock: Fresh Goods Friday 545
There’s plenty of news to talk about this week. I believe the pubs are open? And Scotland is easing restrictions on how many pals you can see at once? Well there’s some huge news that not everyone will be aware of yet. THE GEESE HAVE…
Fresh Goods Friday 544 – Blinking into the bright future
Have you got your Big Coats at the ready? A nice warm hat? A fetching mask and a handy bottle of hand gel? The pubs are soon to open, and this is surely all essential kit for anyone venturing out there. Remember the days when…
Fresh Goods Friday 543: A jam-packed Easter FGF
We’ve crammed so much stuff into this week’s Fresh Good Friday we worry we won’t have room for our Easter Eggs this weekend! If you have been following FGF recently then you’ll know that Andi spent some time on a not so secret mission. After…
Fresh Goods Friday 542 – Here Comes the Sun
Happy Friday everyone! This Fresh Goods Friday comes to you like a beam of sunlight piercing through the clouds. Optimistic, warm and filled with positivity. It’s a while since I (Amanda) have had much input to FGF. I’ve been busy doing handstands on my desk…
Fresh Goods Friday 541 – The Sunn is shining edition!
While we won’t argue with anyone at all that it’s high time for spring – after all, the flowers are popping and the winter was soooo long and soooo cold, but we’re not quite ready for spring time yet just because we’re still finishing off…
Fresh Goods Friday 540 – The We’re Coming Up On 20 Edition!
Normally here it is customary to include some waffle and some wibble about whatever is happening in the world. But a) we’ve no idea what’s happening in the world because we haven’t been out in it and b) we’re way too distracted by the prospect…
Fresh Goods Friday 538 – Are You Jumpy or Grumpy?
The countdown to (a bit more) freedom is on. We might (possibly maybe) soon be able to meet a few friends outside, or head to the pub after a ride, or travel to our favourite trail centre. Possibly, maybe, hopefully, if all goes well and…
Fresh Goods Friday 537 – The Hope Edition
It’s that time of year when each ride is an opportunity to look out for signs of hope. Snowdrops, daffodils, lambs, bees – with each sighting Spring gets a better foothold and we escape winter’s clutches. Of course there can be false starts – mild…
From The Frozen North It’s Fresh Goods Friday 536
Opening with the obvious – it’s really cold. Instead of grumbling about this relentless deep freeze we’re experiencing, I’d like to show you this incredible ice sculpture created at the top of the hill out of Hebden Bridge. At first I thought it was field…
Fresh Goods Friday 535 – Bringing colour to your life
It’s a grey old world out there right now, but this week’s mailbox has brought us a shower of colour. Which got our thoughts turning to our walls. Did you paint yours at the start of Lockdown Mk1? A nice tasteful shade of linen mist,…
Fresh Goods Friday 534: The ‘We’ve Found Bikes!’ Edition
It’s a crazy time – in general, but also in bike land. First, everyone seems to have sold all of their bikes and there are some long lead times heading our way for new models, with some surprising Brexit-related price hikes for those you can…
Fresh Goods Friday 533 – The Too Much Weather Edition
What’s his name? Storm Christoph? He can bog off now, thanks. We’ve had enough ‘exciting’ weather for a while and we’d just like some nice, dull, grey, dry winter weather for a month or two before we ease, gracefully into spring. Is that too much…
The Self Improvement Edition: Fresh Goods Friday 532
I’m putting my positive pants on for this round of Lockdown. It sucks, for many reasons we are all aware of, so I plan to make something good come of it, and you can too! My plan is to choose a thing that I’m missing,…
Fresh Goods Friday 531 – The Homeschool Breakdown Edition
What have you learnt this week? And what have your kids learnt? Have you thrown yourself into creative home schooling and your offspring are now adept at cooking, sewing, and can recite pi to 100 places? Or can they list all the episode titles of…
Fresh Goods Friday 530 – Well Hello 2021!
We know that it’s been pretty hard to keep track of what day it is all year, and whack the amorphous zone of Twixtmas into the equation and we suspect some of you might be very surprised to hear it’s Friday. It may not surprise…
Fresh Goods Friday 529 – The Quiet Mad Friday In Edition
Traditionally this would be ‘Mad Friday’ when everyone would be out on the town being inappropriately over familiar with their office mates while wearing a poor choice of jumper and perhaps headgear too. It might have taken until mid December to find a positive in…
Fresh Goods Friday 528 – THE One Where We ASK you QUESTIONS
We are going to start this week’s Fresh Goods Friday with a survey. The results will be sent to Mark, Chipps, Zoe, their MPs, your MP, and your parents. How do You FeeL abOut Fresh Goods Friday? A) indifferent B) what is it C) shocked…
FGF 526 – The Countdown To Better Things Begins
Things are about to get better. No, we’re not talking about world events, we’re talking about the giant giveaway of goodness that is December 2020 Plus A Bit Of November And The Megasack Too. We’re still working on the name. But what you need to…
FGF 525: Dizzy with excitement, or just befuddled?
There are certain things that you know will happen. If you look at the square edged rock you don’t want to hit on your descent, you will hit it. If you really need the printer to work, it won’t. You won’t drop your phone, until…
FGF 524 – The Conversation Starting Edition
Who has run out of conversation? With a narrower window of experience than usual, after 11 months or so you could be forgiven for not having much to say. Without daily and varied interactions, perhaps not even a daily trip out of the house, you…
Fresh Goods 523 | Cars, Guitars, Beer and Women
Feeling a little tired? Thumbs suffering RSI from doom scrolling and refreshing? Now totally expert on US constitutional law? Still gripped? Go join in on the forum. Here, we’re taking a break from graphs, counts, and bemusing broadcasts with our own version of chaos. It’s…
Fresh Goods Friday 522 – The ‘Oh, Not Again’ Edition
Wasn’t that the thought of the Hitchiker’s Guide whale that turned into a plant pot (or was it the other way round?) Anyway, it seems that Singletrack Towers is locking down again and joining our fellow Tier 3 stalwarts just over the border. At least…
Fresh Goods Friday 521 – The ‘Let’s Get Funky’ edition
Ahh, Friday, the gateway to the weekend and freedom from work. Or not, as seems the case with many of us at the moment. Wherever you are, we hope that you’re still able to get out on a bike (or at least spin some wheels…
Fresh Goods Friday 520 – The Take Us To A Quiet Space Edition
Put you left foot in, your right arm out, stick your bum into the air and shake it all about. Never mind tiers, levels, deal or no deal, or clips vs flats. Don’t breathe on anyone, wash your hands, don’t burn peat bogs, be kind,…
Fresh Goods Friday 519 – The ‘Not Van Halen too?’ Edition
Hey! How’s it going? Sorry for the late appearance of Fresh Goods this week, we’ve had a busy old week and there’s a lot of stuff to get through. Grab a brew! (Or a beer if you’ve finished work already…) – oh, and we’ve checked…
Fresh Goods Friday 518 | The Great British Doorstep Disco Edition
Hurrah! It’s Friday! Go wild, do your hair, get your glad rags on and… erm… sit on the sofa with a takeaway? Humph. What this world needs right now is dancing. How about a nationwide silent disco street party? Saturday night, headphones on so as…
Fresh Goods Friday 517: Autumn is here!
This week has seen the temperature drop, almost overnight, which raises a few points. Have you got a good jacket? Are your socks warm enough? What’s your shoe drying regime? What is your ultimate post-ride comfort meal to warm you back up? Whilst you figure…
Fresh Goods Friday 516 – The ‘Oh no, not again’ edition.
Yep, we’re going to be starting with the news-just-in that us lot in Calderdale, along with the rest of most of the north are locking down again – though not until Tuesday. Oh and pubs are still OK for some reason. But anyway, that news,…
Fresh Goods Friday 515 – The Six and Half a Dozen Edition
Six. Six is the number of sausages you annoyingly get in some packets – just the wrong number for a family of four. Give us sausages in multiples of 8! Six is the number of digits Steve Bate nearly has on one hand after an…
Fresh Goods 513 | Andi’s Vacation Collection
Are you here for the waffle, or the product? If you’re here for the product, Andi says: Just because he had 2 weeks away from the office doesn’t mean the industry stopped sending our ginger ninja fresh new kit. Check most of it out below…
Fresh Goods Friday 512: It’s Hardtail Season
Let’s start Fresh Goods Friday with some breaking news! Carly, the Scottish half of everyone’s favourite Van Gals, has had her first major crash. Naturally, Emma responded as any good girlfriend should: Fear not. Carly is OK, she’s had stitches in her elbow and a…
Fresh Goods Friday: FGF 511 – The Can-we, can’t we? edition
Crazy times on crazier times. We find ourselves here at Singletrack Towers in the midst of local lockdown where we can’t go to someone’s house or garden, but we can go for a bike ride with them. So that’s good. But at the end of…
2 Bikes, 3000 Midges, 1 Puzzle | Fresh Goods Friday 510
Fact: 3000 midges makes a meal for a bat. This means that on Tuesday night there was enough food in Todmorden to feed every bat on earth (this is also a fact, but we have no evidence aside from Amanda’s legs). Does everyone have that…
Fresh Goods Friday 509 – The Well, That’s Another Free Weekend Edition.
With the sad news that the Malverns Classic is definitely cancelled this year and postponed until next year, it looks like we all have another spare weekend to fill with bike riding, shed building, gardening, baking, clearing out, going to the tip, painting the kitchen…
FGF 508 – Fresh Goods Friday Of Hope
OK, we’ve had a couple of weeks of rain, yes, it’s good for the plants and all that. Has anyone noticed just how good it’s been for the nettles? And the brambles? Some of our local trails are going to take a machete to clear…
It’s a jungle out there! | Fresh Goods Friday 506
Good morning readers! @slimshady I trust you have your scrambled eggs and coffee at the ready? This Fresh Goods Friday comes to you from deep inside a valley that has exploded with bracken. It seemed to happen overnight, somewhere between the blistering heat and the…
Fresh Goods Friday 506 – The Shall We/Shan’t We? Mid-Lockdown Easing Edition
You can go to the pub. No you can’t. Not yet, but you will. You can queue at Primark. You can probably go camping. You can go to places, but the loos will probably be locked when you get there. You can’t go to Durham,…
FGF 505 – The Enjoy This Weekend. Nights Start Drawing In Soon Edition
Did everyone’s grandad always greet midsummer like this? Or just mine? Was it a celebration of a summer barely half-through? Or a lament at months wasted and a looming winter to look forward to? Who knows? All we know is that the weather has mostly…
Where Did Summer Go? FGF 504
‘Ooh, well it’s good for the grass’ as many of our parents would be saying. It seems that summer has abandoned us again, leaving heavy wind, hail and rain showers. So, a normal June then. Normally at this time of year we would be putting…
Fresh Goods Friday 503 | Shed, solar, sunflower, Suntour, Stash, saddle and spokes!
Fresh Goods Friday 503 is filled to the brim with new forks, cool Troy Lee Designs clothing, Hope bling, saddles, and even shed accessories. For a break with tradition, we did consider publishing Fresh Goods Friday on a Saturday, but instead we’re going to start…
Fresh Goods Friday 502: Bad Gateway, Resolved!
In recent weeks months we’ve all been riding closer to home, getting more familiar with our local area, experiencing our favourite trails in the dry, discovering new ones… and really getting to know which gates are hard to open. My favourite ‘isolation loop’ has a…
Fresh Goods Friday 501 – Dicing With The Gods Of Luck
This Fresh Goods Friday is not brought to you in multiples of thirteen. There are no thirteens in this Fresh Good Friday, none at all, no. There are no black cats, either, or ladders, or new shoes on tables. There are not thirteen products bringing…
Fresh Goods Friday 500! Happy Birthday To FGF!
It’s the five-hundredth Fresh Goods Friday! Wow! That means that it’s getting on for ten years of a weekly check of the things that have appeared in the office. Started way back when by the Mark and the great Jon Woodhouse, Fresh Goods Friday has…
It’s Friday? Again? | Fresh Goods Friday 499
It seems my rum recipe went down quite well last week, so I delved deeper into my drinks cabinet and made this fine concoction below. The theme this week is not Green Health Sauce, but Rouge Bitter Throat Lube. I had a craving for an…
Rum Fuelled Fresh Goods Friday 498
I had something deep and meaningful to open this Fresh Goods with, but on reflection, nobody needs that right now. So instead I’m going to share a recipe with you, a recipe with a story. 1 frozen banana 1 mango 2 fistfuls spinach 1 cup…
Fresh Goods Friday 497 | Funn in the sun, gravel and rainbows
Fresh Goods Friday 497 drops with rainbow, gravel bikes, Funn and Granite components, plus a new big travel enduro frame that’s affordable! Yes, there’s a whole pile of exciting stuff below, but nothing is as exciting as the cover of the next issue of Singletrack.…
Fresh Goods Friday 496 | Beech Nuts and Beach Nuts
Ah, without so many cars, step outside and there is the sound of the breeze, the birds and…JET WASHING? What are you all cleaning? Surely there can be nothing left, no trace of algae, moss, or mud? Are you trying to erode your patio? Distress…