by Amanda Wishart 1 day ago 27

We’re feeling all fuzzy and loved here at Singletrack World this week. Following Mark’s appeal, Charlie has been busily skipping to and from the post office with your merch orders, Zoe has been welcoming new subscribers, and the rest of the team have been riding the positivity wave and coming up with exciting new ideas for the future. Thank you to everyone that has responded, it really does mean a lot to this small team of misfits to know we’re well supported.

Cheesy stuff isn’t over yet. This week, Mark hid some rather potent brie in the office for the tech team to play a fun game of ‘where’s the cheese?’ with. How should they get their own back?

In other news, I came across something interesting on a Beech tree. I’ve spoken to my botanist and found out what they are – but take a guess in the comments. Clue: They are not caterpillar eggs.

It’s a while since I’ve been in charge of the FGF intro, so here’s my favourite music discovery since you last heard from me. Happy Friday, folks! Lots of love, Amanda.

Weather resistant uppers, Stealth® C4 rubber soles, SPD with a non-slip heel cup by way of a carbon-infused nylon shank, and made using some recycled materials… though, I can’t work out the overall percentage of recycled material:

20% of pieces used to make the upper are made with minimum 50% recycled content.

Weighing only 640g in this size medium, the Specialized Gambit is a DH certified, well ventilated helmet available in four colours. Featuring a carbon fibre shell, MIPS, adjustable Integrated Fit System and adjustable cheek pads. This one will be at Tweedlove, racing in the hardtail category, to counterbalance the weight of a steel bike.

I (Amanda) have been quite attached to my Shimano XT pedals, but having spoken to James Vincent about the Union Trail pedals he currently has on test, I’ve decided to give the RC ones a go for 10@Kirroughtree. I like the sound of how they clip in – front to back, back to front, not on an angle. Also, it’s hard to not love a nice solid machined item from Hope Tech.

A youths helmet with a fastening mechanism that works great for cold, wet and/or arthritic hands it seems! The closure is a ratchet buckle with an easy button release. The peak snaps on/off, the size is adjustable by the Ergo Fit dial, and it is available in 8 different colours and one size, 50-57cm.

These knee pads are a seamless, single-piece, super thin sleeve. In theory, there should be no irritating parts to them, as they’re simply an elasticated sleeve. It’s worth heading to the site right now as there’s a huge rebranding sale on!

Charlie, our resident chef, has a new air fryer and he wants to tell you about it.

Just about the only problem with air fryers is the people who own one can get rather evangelical about them (Hi Mark, hey Zoe). They will list all the things it can cook, and how its saves electricity and time. And they are 100% right. So, allow me to bang on about air fryers for you now.

An air fryer is really just a wee oven (no not that sort, is that sort even a thing?) which quickly and efficiently cooks food you might normally fry or roast/bake. This one has two drawers, so you can cook two different things. At the bottom of each drawer is a raised non stick shelf so all fatty juices and liquids can drain away.

The Ninja here has various setting so at one end of the scale you can slowly dehydrate fruit or make meat jerky at low temperatures for several hours. The other end is “Max Crisp” (I think I saw him play Glastonbury with his backing band “the Crispettes”) which is great for finishing things off with a nice crispy outer, such as roast chicken.

Each drawer is 1200 watts, I assume that is for the higher Max Crisp setting. It cooks veg in 10-12 minutes, and a small roast chicken took 40 something minutes. Compare that to an electric oven which takes 3000-5000 watts per hour and takes way over an hour to roast a chicken.

The sweetcorn here took 10 minutes, and was simply glazed with a little olive oil and some seaweed flakes. Haloumi is awesome and I have never had better bacon. Super fast Yorkshire puds are now a reality. You know what, it all feels very futuristic and StarTrek’y with effortless food appearing out of a machine in no time. I think I have a food robot.

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erm, doesnt that mean that 10% of those five tens are made from recycled bits?

Just gonna skip straight past the styling of the Specialized helmet are we. . . ?

Those Hopes look lovely but are they any better than some M520s? I have had a pair for at least 15 years with no problems and at their present price of £30 I would need to live an extra 60 years to get value for money out of the Hopes

So last week we had the rebel look; this week it’s the turn of the Stormtrooper. I expect there to be a shiny black helmet (no sniggering at the back) in next week’s FGF.

I was curious as to how someone gets their own botanist. Funnily enough, I drew a blank on CheckATrade, but KolabTree have a couple in the UK.

I should probably get on with some work now.

IIRC those Hopes aren’t as light as XTR, don’t share the same cleats and cost more? They’ll probably discontinue them in a year or two and you won’t be able to buy any more cleats….

Just gonna skip straight past the styling of the Specialized helmet are we. . . ?

Proper Storm Trooper style isn’t it!!

This one has two drawers, so you can cook two different things.

So you could re-wax your chain while also cooking lunch?

Fab! Let us know how it goes…

The Hope pedals are undoubtedly gorgeous, but they use specific cleats, and I don’t trust Hope to continue making them… Remember when they launched a cassette with a specific freehub? When they decided to stop selling the cassette, all the fully functional freehubs in the wild became paperweights.

What’s with the cookery review? Mark was tell us yesterday they had too much mtb product to review. Cant the cookery kit be left to cookery magazines and websites

I like the look of those 5:10s. I have one pair for flatties that I use for skydiving, but I do need a pair of SPD compatible ones for commuting in. Boa is good too, faster, sleeker…

I came here to complain about £15000 e-bikes and now I want an air fryer.

erm, doesnt that mean that 10% of those five tens are made from recycled bits?

No, it’s 10% of the upper part. Now we just have to figure out what percentage of the shoe is the upper part and what percentage is the lower.

What’s with the cookery review?

Well, Charlie’s recipes are quite popular in the mag so… Also, we’ve always thrown the odd bit of non-specific content into FGF for well, a bit of fun really. There’s also the guiding light that is the chat forum – which is more popular than the bike forum. Any excuse to get Charlie to write some words is worth it – it’s rarely not funny.

See also: Music video embeds from Youtube

Just gonna skip straight past the styling of the Specialized helmet are we. . . ?

Definitely some form of gall midge moth or wasp. IANAB

Oh and I don’t get the food whining. There are regular posts about what to have for breakfast and they get a ton of replies from folk reccomnding some hand dived eggs with artisan oats and foraged berries, so what’s wrong with feeding that habit (sorry) in FGF or the mag.

No, it’s 10% of the upper part

Not necessarily. 20% of the parts of the upper , now that could be the boa mechanism and cable, or it could be the “material”.

Without knowing which 20% it could be anything between nearly 50% of the upper or the square root of sweet, well you can fill the rest in.

No, it’s 10% of the upper part

20% of pieces used to make the upper are made with minimum 50% recycled content

now that could be the boa mechanism and cable, or it could be all the “material”.

Without knowing which 20% it could be anything between 50% or more of the upper or the square root of sweet, well you can fill the rest in.

I’m going to guess next to nothing though, because surely you’d put a real number on it rather than disguise it behind linguistic ambiguities if it were anything significant.

Just gonna skip straight past the styling of the Specialized helmet are we. . . ?

You’ll never hit anything when wearing it. Expect to see them featuring heavily in the opposition’s Friday Fail videos soon!

I like the sound of how they clip in – front to back, back to front, not on an angle. Also, it’s hard to not love a nice solid machined item from Hope Tech.

Which pedals clip in at an angle? I’ve only used Shimano for the last few decades, with a short diversion to Crank Brothers, but they all clip in front to back.

Am I the only one old enough to remember Shimano’s original M737(?) SPD pedal, it was sprung at the front and back of the clip like the Hopes and they were awesome. Easiest entry of any pedal I’ve used since, just stamp on the pedal and away you go.

Which pedals clip in at an angle? I’ve only used Shimano for the last few decades, with a short diversion to Crank Brothers, but they all clip in front to back.

I think the front to back clip in is what they are talking about, it’s minimal and barely noticable after a few hours but you need to ‘toe-in’ the cleat to clip in..  with the 737’s and these Hope’s (I assume) you can just step on the pedal, heel down or toe down or flat and the pedal will grab onto the cleat.

I had a set of the 510 kestrels.

Then the soles fell off the uppers, as all the reviews said they would. I had kept the receipt and got a refund.

Have Adidas sorted out the soles coming away from the upper?

Goggle strap will make that spesh helmet look instantly 80% less weird

Im liking the look of the 5-10 shoes. I had the lace up versions and they were excellent and lasted ages. Definitely on the short list when / if the current shimano AM9s wear out

The CRC link to the 510s says £85 when you click on it it’s £119 🤔🙄

Both my kids (3 years old) love their Bell Sidetrack helmets and as an adult it’s nice to be able to buy small kids a ‘real’ helmet rather than the cheap crap kids helmets that most kids wear. Especially as mine are quite prone to crashing at reasonably high speeds!

It’s basically a kids helmet but with the features of an adult helmet (they’re a even a MIPS version)

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