Propain is a small German maker of carbon trail and enduro bikes and you might have seen or heard about the Tyee – the company’s 160mm travel 27.5in trail bike. We had one in for review a couple of years ago (sorry, the photos aren’t…
Fresh Goods Friday 394 – Office Redecoration Whitewash Edition
We are in a state of some upside down-ness. Chipps is back from his long haul trip and might be jet lagged and befuddled, but the rest of us are too muxed ip to notice. Our desks have become little floating islands of relocated office…
Exclusive! New 1×12 Drivetrain From SunRace!
Well here’s one package that we didn’t expect to turn up today! It’s a collection of new shifty bits from Taiwanese manufacturer SunRace, which assembled together, give you most of a 12-speed drivetrain. You may recall that last week we stumbled across a brand new…
Sea Otter 2018: Found! New Giro Shoes Hidden In Plain Sight
The Giro booth at the Sea Otter is always a good source of news and gossip. Not usually because of the products on show (only because we’ve often already seen them, as worn by this beautiful model below…) but because everyone seems to drift by…
Chris Chance And The New Fat Chance Wicked
After many years out of the bike industry, legendary founder of Fat City Cycles, Chris Chance, returned with a new, updated version of the Fat Chance Yo Eddy back at the 2015 Sea Otter. After more ‘creative’ criticism about tyre clearance and chainring clearance, Chris…
Bold Unplugged. The Neatest Full Susser Ever?
Swiss company, Bold, was showing off its latest trail bike at this year’s Sea Otter. Featuring 170mm (or 180) travel up front and 165mm rear travel, so far so normal, but what sets these frames apart is the concealed rear shock, which leaves a very…
First Look: The UK-Made Robot R-Zero Carbon/Titanium Hardtail
Bespoked 2018 was held over the weekend at the Engine Shed in Bristol, where as per usual it provided small, independent bike and accessory companies the opportunity to show off their wares to both the press and the public. For the 8th edition of the…
Review: These Incline glasses from Ryders Eyewear have an unusual shape, but the lenses are brilliant
Hailing from British Columbia in Canada, Ryders Eyewear has been around since the early days of mountain biking. The brand was established way back in 1986 by Canadian MTB Champ Brent Martin, and it went on to become one of the most successful sporting eyewear…
Review: 4 highlights from Alpinestars for the eternal British winter
I don’t reckon I’m alone when I proclaim that this winter in the UK has absolutely sucked. It has sucked all of the enthusiasm and joy out of me that should have been on tap for a warming spring release. That release hasn’t really happened…
Sea Otter 2018: New Gadgets From Lezyne
Lezyne always launches a load of new stuff at the Sea Otter and 2018 was no different. Concentrating on its core products of pumps, tools and lights, there was plenty to see… Not everyone (ahem) can see those teeny tiny pump gauges, so Lezyne’s latest…
8 Fabulous Handmade Mountain Bikes From Bespoked 2018
Otherwise known as Bespoked, the 2018 UK Handmade Bicycle Show was held over the weekend in the centre of Bristol, with a plethora of beautiful and unusual bike-related goodies to discover for those who stepped inside the old Engine Shed exhibition centre. If you’ve not…
Review: BLS wants to get your kit organised with the VeloRacing Bag
As many who know me will testify, advance preparation and organisation have never been my strong points. Packing for a race usually involves running around the house shouting at my long suffering partner about how I can’t find anything, and furiously throwing any bike kit I do find into some…
Sea Otter 2018: OneUp Components New Tools (And Dropper)
Earlier this week, we brought you word of OneUp’s new dropper post. A visit to its Sea Otter booth brought news of interesting additions to its EDC steerer tube hidden tool. The EDC tool has found instant favour with racers and with riders who like…
Niner Shows Integrated Luggage And Teases Full Suspension Gravel Bike
Niner, which many people know for its fast race mountain bike hardtails and full suspension bikes has been developing a few new products to appeal to those with a less racy outlook. The SIR9 (Steel Is Real) has been around for a few years now…
Praxis Works Will Lighten Your e-Bike
With most e-bikes weighing in at the high 30lbs or mid 40lbs mark, saving weight is still a worthwhile exercise, yet most e-bikes run the stock forged alloy cranks that came with them. We got beckoned over to the Praxis booth where usually we get…
Black Beauty Hits Warp 8! Canyon Spectral CF 8.0 Review
Canyon’s mid-travel bike has undergone a complete redesign for 2018, and the result is a bike that looks a lot less like the original Spectral, and a whole lot more like Canyon’s flagship DH bike, the Sender. Making the new Spectral visually similar to the…
Canyon Spectral CF 8.0 Review | Black Beauty Hits Warp 8!
The Canyon Spectral gets a redesign for 2018 with input from the Dudes Of Hazard.
Behold The Pole Machine
The Pole bike company (confusingly from Finland) has always done things a little differently. And rather than go to Taiwan to make a carbon premium frame, it decided to machine the whole thing from billet aluminium and put it all together in Finland. Having announced…
8 Platform Clip-In Pedals Tested & Reviewed
Wil and the clip-in crew have spent the last few months trying to work out which are the best platform clip-in pedals. Here’s what they found. In Issue 113 of Singletrack, David coordinated a flat pedal group test that put no fewer than 17 flatties…
Kona’s 2019 Newcomers Go Big On 29ers
Kona is 30 years old this year and has many treats in store for you. There are new carbon bikes, new steel hardtails, new drop bar bikes and new e-bikes. Among them is a limited edition Honzo ST – which has been done for the…
Cor Blimey It’s Hot! Hot sun and hot product in Fresh Goods Friday 393
Who is heading into the weekend with a light sun burn after over indulgence in the bright stuff this week? Who is heading into the weekend with the smugness of one who had booked Thursday off work and actually got to go and bask in…
Review: The superb Flow Snap Enduro Core tyre breaks new ground for VEE Tire Co.
Having tested about a kerbillion tyres on his unforgiving home trails in the Lake District as part of last year’s High Tech Trail Tyre Group Testr, James Vincent has become our resident go-to expert of all things round and rubbery. So when we received a…
Continental Revamps Its Entire Tyre Line
Things have been pretty quiet from Continental Tyres for the last couple of years. The company has been busy with some dull corporate move arounds and logo redesigns, the revamping of its head office and perhaps it’s been sat around waiting for rim and tyre…
GT Bicycles Celebrates 25 Years Of Suspension With Retro Showcase
GT Bicycles has a pretty extensive heritage to call on. It also apparently has a pretty good retro bike library back at CSG headquarters, so when it decided to mark 25 years of full suspension bikes, it had plenty of retro machines to call upon.…
Syncros Launches Lightest Wheels Ever?
Syncros has just, cryptically, launched a new wheelset that, on (digital) paper at least, appears to be one of the lightest cross country race wheelsets out there. It has also expanded its radical Hixon carbon bar/stem combo into the trail and even enduro worlds. First,…
TyreWiz – Real Time Tyre Pressure Monitoring
Quarq, the SRAM division that brought you the ShockWiz, has just announced TyreWiz, which promises to offer the same kind of precise tuning and real-time monitoring as ShockWiz offers for forks. As the bit of your bike that actually contacts the ground, tyres are the…
The new Maxxis Assegai is a mashup of the Minion DHF & DHR II tyres
More pre-Sea Otter new product madness, though this time it’s from Maxxis in the form of a brand new tyre called the Assegai. Designed in conjunction with some guy called Greg Minnaar, the Assegai is a full-blown 2-ply downhill tyre that will be available in…
Carbon Shmarbon – Pivot Cycles releases new alloy Switchblade
To kick off the pre-Sea Otter onslaught, here’s a brand new alloy version of the Pivot Switchblade. Sharing the same geometry, suspension travel and 29/27.5+ wheelsize adaptability as the carbon fibre Switchblade (a bike we tested and reviewed last year), the alloy version aims to…
Winner Of ‘Best All Round’ – Shimano Saint M820 SPD Pedals
Wil and the clip-in crew have spent the last few months trying to work out which are the best platform clip-in pedals. For this group test, they took eight of the latest platform clip-in pedals to see what each brand has to offer. Each pedal…
Could this be the most adjustable dropper post ever?
OneUp Components is used to causing trouble and doing things a little differently. For proof, just see its cassette expander cogs or that clever EDC tool – a compact integrated multi-tool that slots into a hollow fork steerer tube. OneUp has now turned its engineering focus to…
Shimano’s Deore XT M8020 4-piston disc brake is here! Plus, confirmed weights & UK pricing
Shimano has some new 4-piston stoppers for 2018, and they’re sliding into the range at the Deore XT level. Rather than being a replacement for the current XT 2-piston brakes though, these new brakes are an addition to the line, and Shimano is pitching them…
Scott Sports Warns Scam Sites: We Will Sue You
While fake goods and online scams are nothing new, Scott Sports has today taken the step of issuing a press release warning buyers not to be fooled by scam sites, and promising ‘intense legal action’ against those behind the sites. We’ve certainly seen the adverts…
Video: What exactly has changed on the new Stumpjumper? And why no Camber? Wil has the answers
Three years has passed since we saw the release of the last Stumpjumper and Camber models, which were first unveiled to the public back in 2015 in Rotorua. About 12 months after that launch, the team at Specialized began testing and development of some new…
Interview: Pat Horscroft – after you turn 60 it’s all downhill
Last month we launched a new series featuring inspiring women within MTB or people who have done lots to promote women riders and riding. First up was HopeTech’s Brand Manager Rachael Walker, intrepid rider and adventurer and force behind HopeTech Women. We then asked you…
Winner Of ‘Best Feel’ – HT Components X2 Pedals
Wil and the clip-in crew have spent the last few months trying to work out which are the best platform clip-in pedals. For this group test, they took eight of the latest platform clip-in pedals to see what each brand has to offer. Each pedal…
Found! SunRace has a new 12-speed MZ90 11-50t cassette
Adding to its growing line of value-oriented wide-range mountain bike cassettes, SunRace has recently unveiled a brand new 12-speed option called the MZ90. This new cassette will be available in an enormous 11-50t size that’s designed to slide onto a standard Shimano freehub body, which…
TweedLove Bike Festival unveils its full line-up
Now almost ten years old, TweedLove Bike Festival seems to keep on growing. Held annually in the Scottish Borders’ Tweed Valley, more new events have been added, and the demo/expo is attracting more and more big name brands. Taking place over the weekend of June…
Winner Of ‘Most Durable’ – Time ATAC DH4 Pedals
Wil and the clip-in crew have spent the last few months trying to work out which are the best platform clip-in pedals. For this group test, they took eight of the latest platform clip-in pedals to see what each brand has to offer. Each pedal…
The Coronation Street Of Race Reports – Cwmcarn: #MakingUpTheNumbers
“I like Making Up The Numbers; it’s funny. It’s like a soap opera. Not like EastEnders though as there’s no arguments. It’s like Coronation Street. It’s the Corrie of race reports.” It’s Saturday afternoon and we’re at Cwmcarn for Round One of the highly anticipated…
2019 Specialized Stumpjumper review | Expert Carbon 29
I’d be lying if I told you that Specialized has just unveiled its most advanced and refined Stumpjumper yet. Because there are actually three new Stumjumper models for 2019. And they’re all rather snazzy. This year we’re going to see two additional models of Stumpjumper…
Specialized launches THREE new Stumpjumpers for 2019, but no more Camber
Having already relaunched the Epic and Enduro models last year, the biggest story for Specialized’s 2019 mountain bike lineup is the arrival of the all-new Stumpjumper. Except there isn’t just one Stumpjumper. There are actually three brand new platforms. Well, technically there are six new…
Cane Creek’s hollow welded titanium cranks are here – and they’re only a thousand pounds
When was the last time you saw welded, hollow cranks like these? While it’s not a new idea, it’s not something that has been done very often and, despite the advantages, it’s very hard to get right. Cane Creek today launches this set of ‘eeWings’…
Dyfi Enduro 2018 Cancelled: Welsh Water Just Too Wet
We’ve just heard that, unfortunately, persistent wet weather and a resulting high water table means that this year’s Dyfi Enduro has had to be cancelled. This is certainly a favourite event of Chipps’ – he keeps taking part even though he claims to have given…
Hunt Bike Wheels heads off-road with the new sub-£350 TrailWide wheelset
We’ve just got our hands on a brand new wheelset from Hunt Bike Wheels, which is due to be available to the public very soon. Up until now, Hunt has only offered wheels for road, cyclocross and gravel applications, but that changes as of today…
Winner Of ‘Best In Mud’ – Crank Brothers Mallet DH Pedal
Wil and the clip-in crew have spent the last few months trying to work out which are the best platform clip-in pedals. For this group test, they took eight of the latest platform clip-in pedals to see what each brand has to offer. Each pedal…
Review: Bontrager’s versatile & durable SE4 Team Issue tyre earns a ST Recommended award
With four casing options, six different tread patterns, and numerous widths and diameters available – not to mention the four fat bike tyres it offers – the Bontrager mountain bike tyre range is about as niche-filling as it gets. Thankfully its mountain bike tyre line…
FGF 392: Sticky shoes from Giro, flat pedals from Shimano, and a weird expanding tubeless foam thingamabob
Good morning all, and welcome to the three hundred and ninety second edition of Fresh Goods Friday! I honestly have sweet FA time for anecdotes this morning, because this week it has been ALL GOING ON. Hannah’s still off on her family holiday in the…
This handmade bike has a 60-70° head angle that you can adjust on-the-fly
Now that we’ve moved on from being dicks about wheel size (well, mostly), the new super exciting topic for debate in mountain biking right now would seem to be geometry. Yes, numbers. Having taken over as the focal point for online debates between bike designers…
Annie Last Brings Home Commonwealth Gold! Plus, Evie Richards With Silver!
Annie Last can add a Commonwealth Games gold medal to her trophy chest after a convincing win overnight at the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games XCO race in Nerang, Queensland, Australia. In a dominating performance on the dry, dusty and highly technical 4.5km long race…
The New Singletrack Magazine Weekly Spine Line Round-up
Subscribers of Singletrack Magazine (Yes, there’s a magazine) will be familiar by now of the random and seemingly bizarre sentences that appear on the spine of every issue. They are given without explanation and certainly no context. They just exist to stimulate the imagination but…
Go on a behind-the-scenes tour with Santa Cruz Bicycles
Last month Santa Cruz Bicycles took the wrappers off the all-new, third generation Blur. This was a big deal for Santa Cruz, given that it’s been quite a few years since we last saw the Blur – a bike that has been well loved by…