Yep, it’s your weekly sneak peak through the portcullis of castle MBR to drool at the exciting new products that have been catapulted over the ramparts.

For those of you who can’t wait until the reviews come out in the magazine or go up online, here’s another in our new series of pre-emptive peeks into recent test product arrivals.

Here’s last week’s Arrivals for those who missed it

Stealthy, black on black. Although six additional coloured decal packs are available for £19.99

Halo Vortex

Price: £410.00
From: Ison Distribution

Unveiled last week, the Halo Vortex is an aluminium, tubeless and asymmetric wheel with a 33mm internal width (38mm outer, 20.75 depth) aimed at Wide Trail tyres.

The new Halo Vorex rims are designed as a heavier duty version of the existing Vapour 35 wheels. The Vapours are designed for XC and light trail use. These new Vortex are designed as “enduro capable” and Halo have the real-world testing to prove it; “We have tested these wheels rigorously on the EWS under James Shirley, who used the same set all season.”
The 33mm internal width is designed for Wide Trail-style tyres around the 2.35 to 2.5in mark, although 2.6in tyres will be fine we reckon.

We’ve got more details over here.

Price: £230.00
From: Gore

Gore’s latest fabric technology, Shake Dry brings a slightly different approach to waterproofs. The One Rescue waterproof jacket is made from Gore’s Active Gore-Tex fabric, which uses a “Permanent Beading Surface” on the outside of the jacket, eliminating the need for a Durable Water Resistant (DWR) coating, which means the fabric can be reduced from three layers to two. This makes it super light and ridiculously packable for a properly waterproof garment. It also means you can give it a little shake and the fabric is dry enough to stuff back in your pack without making everything else soggy. This version is their lightest pullover style jacket to date and with the hood should provide perfectly decent protection for mountain biking.

Granite Design Rockband

Price: £5.00
From: Granite Design

Granite is another company advocating the ‘ditch the pack’ mentality and trying to get us to go all enduro with the new Rockband.  It’s essentially a double sided velcro strap system that has an extra loop stitched in for storing all your tools. Simply load up the strap with tube, pump or whatever you want (baguettes work well) and wrap the main bit around your frame. A soft, padded section goes next to the frame to prevent any damage. Loads of colours are available.

How to ditch the pack

Granite Design Clever

Price: £10.90
From: Granite Design

It looks like the essential trail tool of the month is the quick-link remover. First Wolftooth bring out their  Pack Plier and now we have two companies in Arrivals touting versions. First up is Granite’s Clever tyre lever. Not only is it an ultra durable pair of tyre levers but slot them together and they make a stout tool for simply removing a quick-link of any speed. Chuck them in the Rockband or keep them in your workshop. They also look like they would work pretty well as a temporary item of cutlery when eating a Pot Noodle.

Burgtec Enduro Mk2 stem

Price: £84.99
From: Burgtec

Okay, so the Enduro Mk2 has been out sometime but what is totally new about this one is the length. Up until now Burgtec’s lightweight, CNC machined trail stem has only been available in 35mm or 50mm lengths. But some riders, like Goldilocks,  find either stem just a little too short or a little too long. So Burgtec went and upped your stem length choices by adding the new ‘split-the-difference’ 42.5mm length. Could this be the answer to a lot of riders prayers? Lots of colours and both 31.8mm and 35mm handlebar diameters are available.

Read: Burgtec Penthouse 4 pedal review

Crankbrothers F15 multitool

Price: £39.99
From: Extra

You might have read recently that Crankbrothers has just started sponsoring the Syndicate DH race team, supplying the riders with pedals, wheels and loads of other cool kit. To celebrate this new partnership the parts company has released a new Syndicate version of the F15 multitool. Based around a sleek aluminium sleeve with in-built magnets, the tool has all the essential little bits to keep you rolling. And for relaxing at the end of a ride it even has a handy bottle opener that keeps hold of the caps, thanks to the magnets.

Cane Creek ee-Top and ee-Nut

Price: TBA
From: Extra

Here’s a neat little concept. This little device replaces the traditional star-nut, you know, the bit you hammer into the top of your forks to tighten the headset. Instead of being a permanent fixture, the ee-Nut has a 6mm hex bolt that tightens the grippy bits into place. Not only does this mean you can swap forks and not need to worry about using the correct tools, but it also saves a lot of weight. No prices as yet as this is hot off the plane (and snaffled from Core Bike).

How to: Fit a new set of forks

Blackburn Tradesman multitool

Price: £27.99
From: ZyroFisher

And here’s the second tool of Arrivals to feature a quick-link removal device. Finished in classy smoked chrome, copper and black, the Tradesman has the air of a tool that could find a place in your pack for life. Yes, it has pretty much all the little bits to make life easy on the trails but it also has a couple of unique takes on tools that you might not have thought about. Firstly it has a disc pad spreader (we’ve all done it…) that also has a handy attachment for a spare quick-link. And secondly, the chaintool  has a second threaded device for squeezing a quick-link open that looks like a mini medieval torture device.

Blackburn Core pump

Price: £34.99
From: ZyroFisher

It’s a mini-pump of the bendy hose variety. Featuring an extra long hose for vigorous pumping, a Presta only head and a mid-sized barrel for use on any tyre size. The name comes from the additional, removable Presta valve core key that fits into the other end of the pump.

Blackburn Raceday

Price: £349.99
From: ZyroFisher

Expect to see more of these things around the race paddock of your local Enduro or XC race as riders are cottoning on to the importance of a good warm-up. This tiny device allows you to strap your bike to it (it’ll take everything up to 15mm bolt-thru axles) and pedal away to get the legs spinning. Resistance is progressive, the Raceday can produce up to 500 watts of it. Equally, keep it at home as a handy bit of kit, enabling you to get a solid workout when the weather or time constraints stop you from getting out onto the trails. It folds down for convenience and fits into its own little carry bag.

Right, we’re going to see how many more trees have been blown over at the trails. Happy Wednesday!