Fresh Goods Friday 738: The Sanny Claus Edition

As the STW staff slowly begin to return to work (or WFH-ing) we’ve yet to sift through the many deliveries – and Sorry We Missed You cards – that have arrived at STW HQ this past week or so.

Thankfully in times like these we can break out our Emergency Foreign Correspondent (Scotland is abroad yeah?) to help populate an edition of Fresh Goods Friday. ‘Normal’ service will be resumed next week.

Over to you Sanny…

Surly Karate Monkey Frameset

• Price: £999.99
• From: Ison Distribution

Coming in this gorgeous Fools Gold, Surly’s venerable 4130 Cro-mo frameset is destined to be Sanny’s daughter’s (Julia) new bike. Designed with versatility in mind, it can accommodate 3 inch 27.5 tyres or 2.5 inch 29er tyres. With a suspension corrected rigid fork featuring a 110mm spacing, dropper post compatibility, 44mm head tube, a gazillion bosses and a Gnot-Boost rear end that can take a 142mm or 148mm hub, it is a mighty machine. For those who still love their front mechs, it can take one with ease too.

Chris King Iso Disc hubs

• Price: £460 rear 142mm bolt thru, £240 front 100m x 15 bolt thru
• From: Saddleback

Chris King is widely regarded as the cycling equivalent of jewellery. Featuring bearings manufactured in-house, a 5 year warranty and able to be user serviced with King’s Hub Service Tool (not supplied), these little beauties come in a truly gorgeous turquoise colour. The price is unquestionably on the expensive end of the scale and King have now adopted a revised hub design. As such, these are new old stock. However, they are a proven design with Sanny still running ones that he has used and abused for over 15 years. These ones are destined for his daughter’s bike.

Halo Vapour 35 rim

• Price: £79.99
• From: Ison Distribution

The Vapour 35 rim is Halo’s light but strong 27.5 rim designed to run tyres from 2.25 to 2.8 inches. Tubeless ready, they are constructed from heat treated alloy, have an internal width of 30mm and a depth of 19mm. Available in either stealth black or high polished silver (for an extra £5 a rim), they weigh in pretty much bang on their claimed weight of 485 grams.

Halo Tubeless Valves

• Price: £17.99 in 44mm
• From: Ison Distribution

Coming in a range of five sizes from 34mm to 100mm, these removable valve core tubeless valves from Halo come supplied with three core removal tools – one red anodised one that can be stored on each valve like a lock ring and a neat little one for your home workshop.

Weldtite Thunder Foam

• Price: £10.99
• From: Ison Distribution

Coming in a 500ml can, the gloriously named Thunder Foam from Weldtite (Is it just me or is anyone else getting thoughts of Captain Underpants when they see the name? No? Ok – back in my box) is a chain and cassette degreaser that does what it says on the tin and foams up on application. Unlike most chain cleaners, it is designed to be used without water. The instructions say you spray it on, let it foam up then brush or cloth it off. In a hurry, you can rinse it off if you would rather. Disc brake and carbon safe, it comes with a “fresh citrus scent” so you can imagine you are in a lemon grove in sunny Spain as you apply it as opposed to post ride on a wet and grimy Huddersfield on a sopping wet February night – or really any time there. It is Yorkshire, after all.

Weldtite Snow Foam

• Price: £10.49
• From: Ison Distribution

You’ve cleaned your chain so you might as well do the rest of your bike too. Snow Foam bike cleaner, like its’ chain and cassette counterpart, is a waterless based foam cleaner designed to allow you to clean your bike with a cloth or soft brush without recourse to a hose. Sanny, who has a bike cleaning regime that seems to consist of keeping the drivetrain clean and, errrrr, that’s it, has claimed this and has reported back that he likes it a lot as it means he does not need to get the hose, bucket and brush out post ride – not that he did normally. Claimed to be disc, carbon and e bike safe, Sanny has put all three claims to the test with his now shiny again Pivot Shuttle SL test E bike.

Camel Chops Blimp X 2.0 Handlebar Bag

• Price: £54.00
• From: Camel Chops Gear

If you are a gravelista, you cannot help but notice the proliferation of handlebar roll style bags that the drop bar-ists are adopting. Ever the one for a new bag, Sanny put his hand deep into the darkest recesses of his wallet, realized it was empty then asked his mum if she would like to buy him one of these for his birthday. Manufactured to order, Sanny opted for the waxed cotton option which is one of many fabric options that Wayne, the man behind the sewing machine, offers. Offering 2.8 litres of space in a stiff cylinder with side pocket for gels and elasticated straps at the front, the bag attaches to the bars via two YKK buckle straps. Suffice to say he is rather pleased with his purchase, especially as it is a custom option for less than the cost of a number of off the shelf numbers. Although this is not a review, Sanny has said he has been particularly impressed by the quality of the stitching and the overall design.

Camel Chops M-Perry Pack

• Price: £55.00
• From: Camel Chops Gear

Ever the one for the aesthetic, Sanny could not help himself and ordered a matching seat pack to go with his handlebar roll. Designed to give 3.5 litres of storage, the wonderfully named M-Perry (Is Wayne a big Friends fan, I wonder?), the seat pack attaches with a Voile strap (supplied) and features a daisy chain to allow other bits and bobs to attach like a mug if that is your bikepacking vibe. Available in a whopping 33 colours as well as 3 duck cotton options (this being cumin), you would struggle not to match your bike colour scheme, no matter what you ride.

Camel Chops Hump Top Tube Bag

• Price: £47.00
• From: Camel Chops Gear

Never one to mix colourways unnecessarily, the Hump top tube bag was an impulse buy after Sanny decided that he could not face the mix and match despair that is bikepacking bags from different manufacturers on the same bike. Available in either Velcro or direct mount design, the main chamber is accessed by a zipped pocket while there is also a side pocket that is perfect for keys and credit card. The bag comes in ten different colour options although if you ask Wayne nicely, he will be able to knock up pretty much any fabric colour combination you could hope for if he has the fabric.

Surly Sunrise Bars

• Price: £79.99
• From: Ison Distribution

Oh my giddy aunt! These 820mm suckers are destined for a future feature where Sanny is going to determine whether, based on an entirely unscientific and statistically invalid sample size of one, whether gravel bikes are indeed just repackaged mountain bikes of the eighties and nineties. Featuring 15 degrees of back sweep and 76mm of rise with a 22.2mm clamp diameter, these are going to be fitted to his old Fat Chance Yo Eddy Team bike to raise up the front end to a more comfortable height compared to the arse up, head down approach that proliferated back then. Look out for a completely original Raleigh Maverick from 1985 featuring in the experiment too.

Brompton Custom by Kinetics

• Price: from £2,095
• From: Kinetics

Brompton may just have launched their 20 inch G Line series but Ben Cooper of Kinetics in Glasgow has been building custom Brompton conversions for years. This particularly beautiful example is a custom build for forum regular, Myheadsashed, who has quite the eye when it comes to cool looking bikes. A no expense spared example of what Ben can do, this 20inch wheeled number features an 11 speed Shimano Alfine hub with J-Tec shifter, Gates Carbon Belt Drive, Rotor Vega ST cranks, MKS Always pedals, custom stainless steel back end, Halo T2 rims, Shimano SLX disc brakes, Fidlock bottle mount, Brooks Cambium saddle, colour matched Ergon grips and a pair of NOS Dialled Bikes Pablo Esco Bars. Gotta love a pun.

Surly Moonlander 2.0

• Price: £4,699.99
• From: Ison Distribution

If you know, you know. If you have ever wondered just how fat a fat bike can get, Surly have your answer. Very! When Surly launched the original Moonlander over a decade ago, it made folk stop and stare. It was a fat bike on steroids and built up a loyal following of riders. Never one to rest on their laurels, Surly have turned the dial up to eleven and beyond with the second generation model. Everything about it screams more. Starting with a mid-tail design in order to accommodate the quite frankly enormous 6.2 inch tyres on 24 inch 100mm wide Surly Clown Royal rims, Surly have upped the ante with the inclusion of a 9 speed Pinion gearbox. Featuring a 197mm rear AND front hub spacing, you could, if you were so inclined, run different sized rear cogs, depending on where and when you were riding. Want to go traditional 26 inch wheel on a skinny 4.8 inch tyre? Heck, you can do that too. This particular model is one of only ten to have landed here in the UK but our resident fat bike fanboy, Sanny, managed to persuade Andy and Pat at the distributors, Ison Distribution, to let him have one as a test bike for the next couple of months. Early reports from him suggest that it is a hoot to ride, that it handles very similarly to his own Surly Ice Cream Truck and that its rides and feels a lot lighter than you might expect from looking at it. He has a couple of silly off grid adventures planned for it which you can read about when we publish his review and is already trying to figure out if he could sneak it in under the radar as a post review purchase. The answer is probably not……….but one can dream.

Featured Member Reward of the Week

• From: Singletrack Members Rewards
• Reward: 50% off OS Maps

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Thread of the Week

TOTW is still back! Still! For 2025CE! And this/last week’s winner is scud for this one-to-bookmark thread right here:

As ever, the winning TOTW in FGF gets a prize. So scud please email editorial@singletrackworld.com for your random prize (it will probably be a Singletrack Forum Bottle Opener). Don’t forget to include your postal address, as it really speeds up delivery logistics like. K thx bye!