The Windover Beacon, Wolf Tooth Components' new pump, Race Face's carbon chainring, a saddle from Title and more from Prestacycle

This week's Five Cool Things plus the best stories of the week.

Liam Mercer

Aug 23 2024

In this week's Five Cool Things, we look at the Windover flat-barred Beacon that blurs the lines between gravel and mountain bike. We also dive into the mad end of the pricing spectrum with Race Face's super-blingy Era chainring while touching base with Title and Presta cycle. Also featured in this week's collection of cool is one of Wolf Tooth Components' very latest products, the EnCase pump.

Before getting into the good stuff, let's glance back at what went on during the past five days. Topping the headlines was Fox's Transfer Neo. It's the brand's first foray into wireless actuation and the designers have seriously gone for it. The post might cost more than £1,000 but it promises zero latency when actuating the dropper and a host of durability features.

If that wasn't enough, Merit unveiled the second bike to don 750d wheels, the Jumbo. Claiming to be the first carbon bike to do so, the brand has taken advantage of the new wheel's larger contact patch, improved grip and better fit for taller riders. This all sounds incredibly similar to 29er arguments of old...

On the subject of new bikes, Santa Cruz's latest Bronson 5 has ushered in small updates to make an already great bike that bit greater and Kona has added the Remote X and 160 DL to its e-MTB roster.

As for features, we've delivered our comprehensive guides on how to set up your mountain bike in the best way possible and our Lance dived deep into the ins and outs of Boost spacing.

Windover Beacon Race

£3249

Windover's new genre-bending Beacon looks like it may well pack a punch. Windover says that this bike is an 'MTB inspired, all-terrain mega machine' and it seems like the brand's hit the nail on the head as it takes clear cues from mountain biking while looking ripe for huge gravel epics.

The Beacon is set to provide mountain bike capability with its large Vittoria Mezcal tyres, Shimano SLX 1x12 drivetrain and cross-country-esque geometry while carrying the efficiency you would expect of a gravel machine. To touch on the geometry, this bike gets a 67.5-degree head tube, a 74-degree seat tube and the medium frame pictured here has a 446mm reach.

Of course, all this is built around a Reynolds 853 DZB steel-tubed frame that's welded in Sussex. Up front, there's a Type 3 carbon fork and plenty of mounting points to carry all your luggage.

www.windoverbikes.co.uk

Wolftooth Components EnCase Pump

£125

With its new EnCase pump offering, Wolf Tooth Components is looking to bring the heat to brands such as OneUp and its well-received EDC Pump. It's available in two sizes, 40cc (pictured here) and a larger 85cc.

The EnCase pump's trick is that it can hold Wolf Tooth's Chain and Tyre Plug Multi-Tool or the Hex Bit Wrench Multi-tool that comes as part of the brand's bar-end-based kits. This 40cc pump can only hold one whereas the 85cc pump can hold the whole shebang.

The EnCase pump is compatible with Presta valves and there are no locks or hoses, so it pushes straight onto the valve before you get pumping. It's made of 6061-T6 aluminium, glass-filled nylon, NBR, EPDM and urethane and, as expected of a Wolf Tooth product, it's covered by the Right to Repair system.

www.wolftoothcomponents.com

Race Face Era chainring

£170

Usually, a chainring isn't deemed cool enough to make it into Five Cool Things but when it's made of carbon fibre, stainless steel and aluminium – and with a price tag of £170, it's definitely something to talk about.

The Era chainring is built of three separate components which have allowed the brand to cherry-pick the best material for its given use. As such, its teeth are built of stainless steel which is stronger than titanium, and provides five times the wear life of aluminium. Then, to save a bit of weight in a very low-wear area, the Cinch interface is made of aluminium.

Perhaps the coolest part is that these two components are bonded with a carbon-fibre spider. It's compressed and co-moulded in the same way as the Era crank that we saw in a previous edition of Five Cool Things. Race Face goes on to say that the spider can withstand the torque of a 5.9L Cummins diesel engine.

The whole idea of this chainring is to provide a very long service life thanks to the use of strong materials but without exceeding the weight that's expected of a regular aluminium ring. So while the initial investment is fairly monumental, it should save you money in the long run, while looking incredibly slick.

www.raceface.com

Title ES1 Enduro saddle

£85

Although Title has a history in freeride, it has a firm enduro and trail selection, too – take the ES1 Enduro saddle for example. It's constructed without stitches to boost durability, with its cover bolted to the base. That base is designed to be flexible to improve comfort.

The saddle sits on a pair of CroMo black rails and the foam uses 24.45 per cent recycled materials. It comes in two width options, 145 and 155mm, measures 255mm in length and Title claims it weighs 288g in the smallest width.

www.titlemtb.com

Prestacycle PocketRatchet and TorqRatchet Go

£23 - £56

Prestacycle is known for its beam-type torque wrenches and has a vast array of handy tools and here we have one of each. Both use a similar ratchet handle setup but rather than stuffed with the torque wrench gubbins, the PocketRatchet is filled with Allen bits, making for a super small and potentially ergonomic multi-tool that'll easily fit in almost any pocket. The brand says that it can withstand up to 60Nm of force and comes with double-ended bits, all of which fit inside the tool.

The TorqRatchet Go then provides torque readings from three to 12Nm and comes with a small, but useful collection of bits. It's smaller than the brand's Pro model and can be used to loosen and tighten bolts. It's calibrated for over 5000 cycles and its read-out scale is three times, larger, says Prestacycle.

prestacycle.co.uk

Author block

Liam Mercer

Since beginning his mountain biking career while working as a resort photographer in Greece in 2014, Liam became a freelance contributor at off.road.cc in 2019. From there, he’s climbed the journalism job ladder from staff writer to deputy technical editor, now finding his place as technical editor.

Partial to the odd enduro race, heart rate-raising efforts on slim-tyred cross-country bikes, hell-for-leather e-MTB blasts or even casual gravel jaunts, there’s not a corner of off-road cycling where Liam fears to tread. With more than 40 bike reviews under his belt and hundreds more on MTB, e-MTB and gravel parts and accessories, Liam’s expertise continues to be cemented and respected by the industry.