Fresh Goods Friday 696: The Middling Edition

Hello, welcome to Fresh Goods Friday 696. I'm Amanda and this is... Benji. Benji

That's all I'm known as today. What have we got today? We have Fresh Goods. So obviously the most important thing is these socks here. They

are a nice colour. Full stop. Where are they from? Madison. Madison's Trail Sock I believe. Just thought they were a good length and a good colour

They're quite thick. A little bit... I don't really... It's one of the sad points of the modern era where

we all, say all, me, just wear long riding trousers. It's a tongue twister. And you never

see your socks anymore do you? So what's the point? Might as well wear ones from... Women

TK Maxx. All women's trousers will show their socks off because they're not any long enough to

cover your socks. That high? Get to the cream point? Don't know. No, you ruch it down

I suppose, right. Yeah, fine. Other than that, what else do we have? We have a white mid-power

e-bike. It's the E-Lite 150 I want to say. It's probably the works version. It's numerous

thousands. I think it's ten grand. They do one at eight. Not that that's that much cheaper

but it's there. 150 mil fork, 145 back. Bosch SX motor with... I can't remember. 55 newton

metres and a peak of 600. But that needs to be... Good luck getting that peak assist

You'll have to be spinning like Wile E. Coyote. Which is the reason why I put short dinky

cranks on as well as ground clearance. Good. I think that'll probably be quite a good bike

You would hope. 150 works. I found it. Well there you go. Look at that. It does say what it is

That was dropped off nary 30 minutes ago. So that is very fresh. That will be going up

against nothing head to head but I'll be interested to see how it compares against

my true benchmark at the moment which is the best bike I've ever ridden which is a Lapierre E-Zesty

Lots of different textures on that white. All the colours are nice for the season and

that looks alright with Kashima but I hate Kashima generally so. It is unfortunate how the rear shock Kashima looks nothing like fork Kashima does it on

anything weird. It's bronze. Yeah. Lolz. I think it'll be very good probably. You know what I mean

This is 10 grand. They do a cheap one though that's 8

I'm armed with these to turn around the golf. White. White. Oh

White. Oh look. What fresh goods do we have on the site that we don't have in our hands

This week was Specialised Epic and Epic Evo. They were XC and down country machines but

they were co-launched with RockShox Flight Attendant version 2. I don't know whether

they call it that but it's the new one which twiddles you as you go along and it learns

how you like to be twiddled. Do you know how it learns? You have to do a sprint effort

Oh right okay. That's for the power metre though isn't it? Yeah

For the full full fullness you need a quark power metre. Ecosystem. That's what they call

it innit? Yeah. So that's quite interesting for those people who like those things

If you race because on the top of the fork the light tells you how much effort you're

putting in so if you've done the sprint effort to show it what your peak power is then when

you're on a race say there's some flat section of trail that you should be going full chap

down you can glance down and if it's not red you know that you've actually got more power

assuming you've eaten enough and you're not tired. Power wise it'll say you're sprinting now

Okay. I thought that one of the more interesting things was it would, doesn't it kind of realise

how knackered you are almost and if you aren't so knackered it will firm things up and you

can grrr sprint but if you are a bit tired it realises you probably need a bit more cush

in your life and it gives you a bit of respite from the firmness and it can do fork different

from the back which is quite good I thought. Yeah. I liked it

And it will also be a good, more importantly it'll be a really good placebo won't it if

you think you've got that on your bike. Extra advantages. I don't think it's a placebo

It's so quick. I didn't say it was just a placebo did I? I said it will also be a placebo

Okay. Yeah. So I did have a niggle with it though that you know when you've got axis

gears and you hear the zhup when you press them that's the sound flight attendant makes

and because it's doing so much else and it's making the ride so efficient you hear that

noise and you think it's shifting for you so I would then forget to change gear. I just

got so lazy because it was doing so much else for me. I got to the point where I thought

I have to press the gear. So the fresh goods read other things up on below us that's stuff that's arrived this week

I've got something really exciting arriving at home that I'm just going to tell you about

It's extendable chopsticks. Cool. Are they like the aerials you used to have on transistor radios? Yeah. Brilliant. Metal? Yeah

Not wood. It would burn if you opened them really quick. I don't know what metal they're made out of. They are a gift

Actually I've got an answer. Let's start with an answer. You can go to the ones written in the lovely handwriting in the book itself

You can read that. Look how perfectly written that is. What's the cheapest bike Singletrack has tested in the last 12 months

Oh, that's written. That's an answer. Oh. Yeah, we're talking about muscles and arm pump

Oh yeah. Rewind. Watch last week's. The muscles that control your fingers are in your forearms. They use tendons that run

from your arm up to your fingers. Ligaments connect bone to bone. Tendons are muscle to bone

And who commented that? I can't read your handwriting. Tallteacher I think is his YouTube handle

If he's called Tallteacher, we'll take that as a fact. Yep. Come on then, more questions

When will the sun come out? When you go on holiday, go abroad

The sun's always out. It's just when the weather clouds will go away. Next

That was Shark Attack. Duncan Callum asks, why do we still use Presta valves

The next magazine will answer that for you. All revealed. Duncan Callum also asks, why is orange jam called marmalade? You swerved it last week

It's something to do with the French I think. Isn't it something to do with being ill on the sea? Malade en mar. And they used it as

a cure for being seasick. I imagine that's total balls. But that is an answer that's

sometimes trotted out. Stated like a fact. Yeah. Zippy, will it stop raining this year? This is very negative. Will it stop raining this

year? Yes. I can appreciate that because I went out the other day and thought this is great. And then

the day after it just hoofed down as F. I'm usually pretty weather agnostic, but it was

a bit of a letdown. Stumpy01, what are the best ways to reduce the beat up feeling of a hardtail, apart from

buying a full suspension bike? Higher rise bars made of aluminium, 31A and push on grips. And probably get some insoles

for your shoes. Bigger brakes. Tyres and wheel choice and basically everything else apart from the frame

Tyres are just a give. But just be that kind of, so make your front end more comfortable

to get more comfort out of the back. What is the cheapest bike Singletrack has tested in the last 12 months? There's the

Voodoo, is it Bragg or Braag? The Voodoo Braag. And we did the normal bike at 5600

550. The Mongoose Fireball. That was like a dirt jump machine. Canyon Nura AL8

A normal full suspension. It's like you get bored of writing a letter halfway through writing the character. You

just do a bit of it. The cheapest full suspension mountain bike is going to be £2,250. Canyon Nura AL6. And recently

Murray, what tyre for bottomless mud? I'd say a Hillbilly. I don't know

You've got a rubber fetish. Probably a Michelin Wild Enduro 2.25. Wild Enduro Mud, is that what they're called

Harry the Spider, do Selfridges, Selfridges. Yes. Duncan Callum, again, how did we get here

I don't know. Oh, I came in the van today. I'm trying to remember how I got here

Spesh Paul, why is it always so quiet, the audio? Just turn the volume up

Everything else you're listening to is too loud. So turn, just, everyone else is wrong

Jamesy, should you buy an Orange Stage Evo? Probably yes. I think I'm taking it, yeah, good

Yeah. Reeksy, is there really a magazine? There's loads of them. Loads. They're all really nice as well now. Well, they've always been nice, but they're

extra super really nice now. Here's one we made earlier. Like and subscribe

How can we properly thank the employees of CRC? I think they've got a bigger fish to fry, I wouldn't worry about it

Stand on your doorstep and clap. Doncha, why is everything bike related so expensive

Because you're buying high-end, not pointless, it's a pastime that's not an essential thing

You don't have to buy the expensive stuff, you can just not buy anything, or you can

buy entry-level stuff that's not too bad really. I think everything is expensive. A pack of Jammie Dodgers now is £1.20

Used to be 50p. Everything is just expensive. Unless you've got a Singletrack subscription, because then

you get loads of discount codes, and it makes things cheaper. There's loads of bike things in the easy discounts

Look at that unplanned promo there. What is expensive that you can't avoid buying

I think drivetrain bits have got expensive, but I am going to be the shill apologist for

the bike industry. You don't buy drivetrain bits anywhere near as much as you used to, back in day

I don't think it particularly evens out, but there is an aspect of things lasting quite a bit longer

I tend to buy expensive drivetrains so it lasts even longer, because I'm quite a neglecter

I won't buy a cheap chain and have to replace it. Oh yeah, cheap chains and cheap cassettes are just a really boring thing to purchase

One of the things you should spend a bit more money on than you might like

as opposed to all the stuff that is more exciting to spend money on, like handlebars, or saddles, or droppers

I don't get excited about handlebars because I never know what I need. I found one bar I like, ever, and they don't sell it anymore

Oh, Spank. They'll come back. They still exist, they just don't have a UK zone at the moment, do they

I don't worry about that, it's all good. I do know they still exist because they were doing their foam filler filled rims and stuff on the internet the other day

Other than that, I think I've had enough. I've got to go and ride a bicycle

We've got another bike arriving that won't be in this Friday. Another secret bike, full of secrets

There we go. So, yeah, send more questions in. Check out the actual Fresh Goods story for pictures of the things that we don't have here

and look forward to the next mag to answer the Presta question

Bye. Laters