How has a week already passed since our first Fresh Grit Friday? We’d love to say that the intervening seven days have been spent ripping along dusty trails a la Peter Sagan on his Specialized Diverge. Sadly we possess neither the skills nor fitness of Sags, and after a week of near constant rain, the trails ain’t looking too buff either.
On the plus side, we do have a new Diverge Comp to test, so it can only be a matter of time before we are able to wheelie and whip our way around the local woods. We’ve sent Dugast the butler out to work on his skills and deliver a ‘sick edit’ in time for next week.
Specialized Diverge Comp 2018
- Price – £2600
- From – Specialized
The Diverge Comp features a Future Shock suspension system, giving a whole 20mm of up and downness at the front of the bike. It’s designed to take the sting out of rough tracks and over cobbles – perfect for long hours in the saddle exploring tracks and trails. Check out our full first look.
Tired of words? Watch Tom talk you through the key features. He would like to apologise for the wink at the start.
POC Octal Helmet
- Price – £220
- From – 2Pure
Putting the pea into POC, this ‘cannon green’ Octal helmet stands out from the crowd. It is surprising light in the hand, and weighs a mere 196g for this size small (rather aptly, Tom has a pea-sized head). POC have gone down the route of using larger vents rather than lots of small ones and on a quick test spin, it definitely felt airy.
POC Fondo Light jersey, Fondo Shorts and Fondo Cap
- Price – £118 (jersey), £128 (shorts), £25 (cap)
- From – 2Pure
Ensuring (almost) head-to-toe matchy-matchy, we also have the POC Fondo clothing range in to test. We will be clinging on to summer with the Fondo Light jersey – made of highly breathable polyester and plenty of mesh inserts to keep things cool. If you find Tom curled in a hypothermic ball this weekend, you’ll understand why. Thanks for nothing British weather. The bibs feature POC’s Fondo chamois, which is specially designed for full days in the saddle. They’ve also got a couple of pockets in the rear straps, useful for race radios or sausage rolls and the like. Finally, the Fondo cap, er caps things off. It’s a cotton/polyester blend and will keep the sun (rain, definitely rain) out of your peepers.
Fi’zi:k M3B Uomo shoes
- Price – £229.99
- From – ExtraUK
The M3B Uomo’s are Fi’zi:k’s (this is possibly the highest ratio of punctuation marks to letters ever used on grit.cx) top of the line MTB/’cross shoe. They features a stiff, full UD carbon sole, lazer perforated anti scuff leather and a Boa closure system. They also weigh in at a feathery 360g for this size 43 test pair. Also, and most importantly, they are shiny. Shiny wins races, people.
Crank Brothers Candy 7 and Eggbeater 2 pedals
- Price – £149.99 (Cand y ), £84.99 (Eggbeater 2)
- From – ExtraUK
A pair of pair of pedals from Crank Brothers. The Eggbeaters are now a classic choice for ‘cross racers, thanks to their mud shedding abilities. Many prefer the additional platform that the Candy brings, however. We are sending Tom out to ride around with one of each on a few bikes to see which he prefers for all day exploring and an hour of power in the winter slop.
Crank Brothers Zinc 3 700c gravel wheelset
- Price – £629.99
- From – ExtraUK
Following swiftly on from the Sixth Element carbon wheels we received last week, we return to alloy with the Crank Brothers Zinc. Funky spoke lacing, no spokeholes (and therefore no need to tape the rim before fitting tyres), there’s a hellalot going on with these wheels. So much so, there’ll be a first look popping online in the coming days.
Clement X’Plor MSO 700x40c tyres
- Price – £65 each
- From – 2Pure
Throwing in a few more punctuation marks mid-word, we have the Clement X’Plor MSO ‘adventure’ tyres. Designed for a bit of everything, from commuting to gravel roads and even dry ‘cross, the tyres are available in 32c, 36c and these 40c widths. These are the 120tpi versions, with a cheaper 60tpi also available.
Top Bothy Game
- Price – £9.99
- From – Top Munro
With the combination of dry weather tyres, summer clothing and new shoes arriving at the doors of the secret grit.cx lair this week, we are absolutely guaranteed an awful weekend of weather. If it all goes wrong, you’ll find us curled up on the sofa with a wee dram, playing Top Trumps with these cards. Inspiration and fun all rolled into one. Winning!
And with that, we are setting Dugast to work on sweeping the workshop floor in preparation for another weekend of getting our #shredicine (Trademark – Wil Barrett). It’s Friday afternoon, the tunes are blasting out and it’s nearly time for some #drinkbeeratyourdeskfriday action. Cheers!
