Welcome to this week’s Fresh Goods. There’s something strange going on in the office lately, with a rash of bikes with strangely skinny tyres and bars that have the wrong kind of rise on them. Sim’s the latest victim to the ‘cross outbreak. He’s just got a Cube X-Race Pro cyclocross bike. It’s got a light 7005 series alloy frame, 10spd Shimano Ultegra group and some strange things called canti brakes that work on the rim of the bike. How quaint.
Price: £1,399
From: Cube Bikes
Talking of strange things happening to Sim, he seems to have contracted a strange rash of Lowepro. Actually we’ve just been sent the even-larger-than-last-week Lowepro Pro Runner AW 450 camera bag. It’ll hold a DSLR with attached lens (up to 300mm f/2.8) plus 4-6 lenses/flash and accessories, a tripod or monopod, personal items and a up to a 17″ widescreen laptop. It’s got a waterproof cover, padded compartments and is designed to just squeeze into the maximum airline hang baggage allowance. Cunning.
Price: £134.99
From: Lowepro
He just needs a bigger camera now.
Jamie has got himself some Answer ProTaper Carbon 720AM bars. He’s finally moved into this decade and got some properly wide 720mm bars on his bike. They come in 12.7mm, 25.4mm, 50.8mm rises and are marked for trimming to the desired width. They’ve got gritted grip areas for maximum grip friction and the unidirectional carbon has 12 layers for stength and light weight.
Price: £119.99
From: Hotlines UK
Gnar to the jey…
This is rather fragrant Pextenement cheese, made just up the road from us in the hills above Todmorden, made using certified organic milk. Supplied solely by Pextenement Farm, the milk is in the cheese vat within minutes of being milked. The Pextenement Farm herd is unique, comprising a number of different breeds of cows, creating a unique blend of milk and some very tasty cheese.
From: Petenement Cheese Company
This Effetto Caffe Latex tubeless sealant uses synthetic latex, contains a foaming element (ActiFoam) activated by wheel movement which claims to be able to seal up to 6mm punctures on mountain bike tyres.
Price: £24.99 for 1000ml, £9.99 for 250ml
From: Upgrade Bikes
Benji has got his hands on this Dahon Biologic iPhone bike mount. Fully waterproof, it’s compatible with all iPhones apart from the latest 4G, although a new iPhone 4 mount is out now. You can mount you phone at any angle and combined with a bikey app such as the Bike Hub one, it’ll help bring hip Apple joy to your bike riding.
Price: £44.99
From: Cyclemotion
Super cool Canadian brand Chromag have made this rather tidy hard anodised Seat QR. It’s got an extra large bronze bushing for secure and smooth clamping and a 6mm bolt that should last a lifetime. They do lots of colours (black, pewter, red, blue, gold, green) and sizes (30, 32, 35mm) too…
Price: £36.99
From: Shorelines
We’re going to be having a full roundup of adjustable seatposts in a couple of issues’ time, but here’s a super low tech solution for saddle droppers that keep forgetting how high to put their seats up. The Slick Strip is a piece of velcro that secures around the seatpost clamp head and then to the seat QR, so you can pull your saddle up without a moment’s thought.
Price: £3.99 inc P&P
From: CTS Ltd
Roly is doing his best impression of a bear in this Rab Cirrus Windtop. Using Pertex Quantum fabric, it’s super lightweight and packs down to a very small size for those just-in-case moments. The hood can be rolled up out of the way and you even get a couple of decent sized pockets that act as ventilation too.
Price: TBC
From: Rab
Ooooh!
..and here it is in the supplied stuff sack.
We get a better class of dosser sleeping on our floor. He’s in a Rab Neutrino 200 sleeping bag, which is their super minimalist bag for bivvying and lightweight camping. It uses Pertex Quantum fabric filled with goose down and a 3/4 length zip.
Price: £190
From: Rab
Also for some lightweight bivvy adventures is this Rab Alpine Lite bivvy bag. It’s new for this year, but not currently on the Rab website. Using eVent breathable fabric it’s even lighter than the previous model.
Price: TBC
From: Rab
The loop is for staking yourself down in high winds or clipping in to precarious bivvy spots…
This Rab Merino jersey is a bit different from your usual.Made them along with a company called Cocona who make yarns with discarded coconut husks. They take activated carbon from coconut husks that are a by-product of water filtration and mix it into the yarns. This makes it very quick drying and also adds an element of odour control and also has a natural UVA and UVB resistance that doesn’t need re-treating.
Price: TBC
From: Rab
A subdued Sim models the Rab Cirrus Pull On, which uses the same very lightweight Pertex Quantum fabric as the jacket but comes without a hood and uses a 3/4 length front zip.
Price: £50
From: Rab
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is that a £50 note? blimey.
Who’s the rich kid with the £50 note then? ‘Suppose if you get all this free stuff you’ll never need to spend it….
damn, beat me to it!
Love the slick strip – I was thinking of trying to craft something like that myself!
I think Tim Saddler should get a big payrise, all this promotion he is getting for Lowe Pro 😉
I bet the STW car park is just filled with Bentleys and Hummerzines. The only riff raff allowed in the grounds are the chauffeurs, who are standing round just shooting the shit while they wait for their betters to come out of the gold plated office that is STW Towers.*
*Possibly.
I made a ‘slick strip’ out of a shoe lace and some gaffer tape. Coupled with a well reamed (oo-er etc) seat tube and a Chromag quick release, it was ideal.
If my Endura is anything to go by, Merino doesn’t need any ‘extra’ odour control, seems a waste of time putting extra coconut in there as well.
When I got my bike it was fairly obvious that I would have to find a way of stopping the muck getting to the rear facing seat post gap. Cue off cut from an old bit rubber cut to size which keeps the dirt out and also acts as a guide to saddle height. Well it’s worked for two and a half years.
mmmmmmmmmm cheese
Hmmm, a fifty you say, that’s upping the game a fair a mount!
Oh & Mat, you can’t email people, get a reply ten minutes later then just ignore it 😉
£36 for a seatclamp, are you mental?
that clamp does come with that hi-tec new alloy ‘bronze’ though so it’ll be like off a spaceship – from the middle ages 🙂
I like the look of that Cube CX, very nice.
I thought that the point of dropper seat posts was that you would set the fully extended post to your desired height for level/climbing riding? So I have to fail to see why you need some form of gauge to allow you to return your post to it’s maximum height. Surely this is a solution to a problem that doesn’t (or shouldn’t IMHO) exist.
ooops – just goes to show that one should fully read and then attempt to understand what has been said, before making clever replies.
A big -10 for me and my brain.
Yes the Chromag’s expensive – but they are a premium brand.
If no-one wants that white Fox fork in the background od the second bivvy bag pic, just send them up my way? sat there discarded, resting against a cabinet forgotten about…
£45 for an iPhone holder – a bit of plastic which barely seals. Now theres a good profit margin. Think I’ll stick to a food bag tucked away nice and safe out of harms way.