We’ve been discussing favourite words here at ST Towers this morning. Words which are fun to say, regardless of their meaning. ‘Subsequent’ was mooted. And ‘Trouser’. But the overall winner of that one was ‘Plinth’. So it follows that the consensus favourite phrase in the office is…
Subsequent Trouser Plinth
…good luck working that one into a story.
_________
It may have escaped your notice that it’s Black Friday [Actually, it isn’t… perhaps the laudanum is finally affecting your time perception – Ed], so we’ve carefully collated this week’s Fresh Goods to include a variety of brightly coloured things, just to thumb a nose at this new corporate murdered-out trend.
Or have I missed the point?
Specialized Stumpjumper FSR Comp 6Fattie
A magnificently orange Stumpy for a forthcoming bike test, the 6Fattie is a highly fun-looking beastie. 67 degree head angle, 74 degree seat angle and (is it obvious?) 3.0 tyres of maximum boing.
Fox 34s in a nice wide Boosted flavour.
The new Specialized dropper post – 5 inches with 12 positions…
…and the cute, comfy and ergonomic lever which replaces the left hand shifter.Â
SRAM (GX) and Shimano (Deore), together in perfect harmony. Which was presumably Stevie Wonder and Macca’s first choice for the song before they decided to scrap it because neither SRAM nor Shimano were a thing yet.
Short(ish) stem keeps things under control.
Fox Float with Specialised’s autosag – pump it up to 300psi, sit on the bike fully kitted out, press the red valve and FEEL THE MAGIC HAPPEN.
Price: £2500
From: Specialized
Scott Scale 710 Plus
More fun-sized goodness in a 650+ sort of package – this time Scott’s Scale 710 plus hardtail. Same geometry as the regular (World Champs winning) Scale, but more fatterer. What’s not to love?
Neat and surprisingly simple to use handlebar lever controls…
…lockout and stuff on the Fox 32 fork.
Long cockpit, short stem and relaxed (for a hardtail) 67.6 degree head angle.
31.6 rigid Syncros post – there’s stealth routing too, should your tastes run to such things.
148×12 Boost back end to keep things stable.
and there’s more Boost in a 110 stylee at the front.
Price: £1899
From: Scott
Yari RC Solo Air
Okay, okay – we couldn’t entirely get away without anything black. The new Yari forks are essentially Pike outers, but with the slightly older (but still ace, if we’re honest) Motion Control damper. And all for less than a Pike. What’s not to love?
Here, Barney makes a pretty successful attempt to conceal his beard from all and sundry, and the creeping realisation that it makes him look like a sort of satanic Noel Edmonds. Oh, OK – a MORE satanic Noel Edmonds.
£560 from SRAM
XX1 Groupset
a complete XX1 groupset for a Chipps build (no, a bike build; he’s not the Terminator. At least we don’t think so…)
Price: £997.97
From: Fishers
Cateye Volt 6000
6000 lumens. Which is amazingly bright – fluffy bunnies burst into flames when you point around 2000 lumens at them – so if you’re riding with this baby through foliage, it should burn a path straight through. Scorched earth, people, scorched earth. In ‘low mode’ (which is still a perfectly adequate 1000 lumens) you get a whopping 12 hours of burn time. 6000 lumens will last an hour apparently. Slightly disappointed it doesn’t have that stadium lights clunk when you turn them on, but there is a cool little fan inside.
Price: £649.99
From: Zyro
CatEye Rapid X2 and X3Â 
Surface-emitting LED strips pump out 100 lumens (for the X2 front light) and – er – 100 lumens (for the X3 back light) – win!
Price: £44.99 (X2) and £54.99 (X3)
From:Â Zyro
Lezyne Digital Overdrive ABS2 Track Pump
Pumpy pumpy pump pump. Digital readout, and sturdy metallic construction. There’s a video all about it here.
Price: £84.99
From: Upgrade
Clif Bar
Clif have sent us a pack of goodies to promote their new Coconut Chocolate Chip flavour bars. The pack includes sunscreen stick, and a variety of charging leads and a power pack. The bars are very yummy though, I’m reliably informed (Hannah has locked herself in the changing room with them. There are lots of chomping noises… …no, Hannah, that’s just the sunscreen. Put it down. PUT IT DOWN)
Price: £19.08 for 12
From:Â Extra
Topeak Mountain Morph Pump
Magnificent-looking mini-track pump sort of thing from Topeak. T Handle, foot stand, and all in a packable format.
Price: £28.99
From: Extra
Crank Brothers Sterling Lg Pump 
It’s a long air pump! What is long air, anyway? Regardless, the Sterling lg is long (hence the ‘L’) and has a gauge (hence the ‘G’). It’s also got a ‘high volume/high pressure’ switch. Gnarly.
Price: £44.99
From:Â Extra
Knog Blinder Mob Kid Grid front light
Rechargeable lightage for your front. Apparently, ‘badass’.
Price: £34.99
Knog Blinder Mob V Kid Grid rear light
Rechargeable lightage for your rear. Also apparently ‘badass’.
Price: £34.99
Both from Moore Large
Lezyne Micro Floor Drive HVÂ Pump
Anyone would think we’ve got a mini grouptest on the go. Micro-floor pump from Lezyne. Up to 90psi, sturdy-looking, floor stand. Sahweet.
Price: £34.99
From: Upgrade
Lezyne Tech Drive HV Pump
My notes here tell me “Black is size medium, Silver/Grey is size small.” Which is a little Alice in Wonderland. But more capable of inflating. Which might be unfair; I have no idea of Alice’s lung capacity.
Price: £24.99 each
From:Â Upgrade
Lezyne Strip Drive Pro rear light
 In black and red casings to match your bike (as long as it’s black, or red),  the Strip Drive Pro kicks out a mighty 100 lumens, to make sure that if someone rear ends you, it’s not because they didn’t see you…
Price: £39.99
From:Â Upgrade
Niterider Lumina Oled 800
800 lumens, with an OLED (wait, how did you guess?), 172g in weight and it only takes 3 hours to charge. Plus, it looks good – which is always a bonus.
Price: £130.00
From: 2Pure
Niterider Sentinel 40
And here’s a back light to now with the Lumina OLED – 40 watts of LED power to ensure easy viewage by the rearwardly approaching motorist/cyclist/exceptionally fast runner.
Price: £45.00
From:Â 2Pure
Time XC8 Carbon Pedals
For another upcoming group test (not the pump one) – carbonium and lightness abounds in these pedals from Time. Nice box and laser-cut foam presentation, too. We all went “ooooh”.
Price: £129.99
From: Extra
Overboard 12L Dry Tube and Overboard Waterproof Zoom Lens Camera Case
Waterproof bag for storage of precious things that you’d rather not get wet – and a camera case through which we’re promised you can still take photos. Barney is rather hoping it might miraculously improve his lamentable photography skills; we’re reminding him that there’s no cure for what he’s got, which is effectively a non-existent eye for composition, and a great eye for photographic compost.
Price: £18.49 for the bag and £24.99 for the camera bag.
From: Overboard
And that’s another quite substantial Fresh Goods over and done for another week. Next week apparently we’re in for SNOWMAGEDDON, so expect a light flurry on Tuesday.
Have a great weekend!
ST out.
Leon – I’ve heard back from Scott, and the fatties have different geometry. So ignore the text and believe the geometry charts 🙂
we’re leaning towards Miranda again with ‘plinth’
in this office, popular words are ‘flange’ and ‘gusset’
the typeface geeks always plump for ‘Flange Open’ and ‘Gusset Wide’ though VAG Rounded always gets a mention