A bumper drop from Endura to keep us warm and covered on the trails plus some reasonably priced droppers and a 11-50t cassette for 11 speeders.

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

Brand X Ascend XL

Price: £164.99
From: Hotlines

Fresh in for a reasonably priced dropper post Head to Head, the Ascend XL is Brand X’s long travel seatpost. Riders are clamouring out for longer droppers and the 150mm of travel on the Ascend XL should meet most needs. That 150mm of movement is delivered by way of a neat and tidy, sprung-loaded lever. Available in both 30.9mm and 31.6mm diameters.

Giant Contact SL Switch

Price: £169.99 (£199.99 with 1x and 2x levers)
From: Giant

And here’s its rival. Giant’s Contact SL is another reasonably priced dropper with 150mm of travel. Our post was sent with both 1x and 2x remote levers to give options for fitting to bikes with any gearing configuration. A neat little touch is the cable clamps at the lever end, making it a simple operation to set up and take-up any slack. only available in 30.9mm diameter (it’s what Giant use!), it’s available in three lengths and with three different, corresponding drops; this is the longer 440mm/150mm one.

RRP Proguard

Price: From £24.99
From: Extra

Mudguard wizards RRP have this new Proguard out now. Pretty much different to anything else they have produced (it’s pretty solid to start with), the Proguard is available in a standard version or this Max Protection guise. Both look similar but the Max is 68mm longer at the rear and 21mm longer at the front, to provide a whole load of mud protection. The Proguard fits 26″, 27.5″ and 29″ wheels and up to a 3″ tyre width as well as standard and Boost forks. You can keep it stealthy like this one or choose between one of the 11 colours for either the logos or stickers.

Not a monkey in sight on this side.

Oh, there’s one! USWE’s ‘No Dancing Monkey’ cross-strap setup keeps everything tight.

USWE Lizard 16

Price: £79.99
From: Madison

I like monkeys but it sounds like the guys from USWE might not be too enamored with our primate cousins. Or at least the dancing ones. The Lizard features USWE’s ‘No Dancing Monkey’ cross-strap back system to prevent it from jiggling around like the proverbial gyrating primate. It features a one-handed release mechanism, a bit like a car racing harness, for ease of use. All four strap sections are independently adjustable to really stick it in place.

The best hydration packs

USWE Zulo 2

Price: £79.99
From: Madison

For ‘epic distance’ adventures. The Zulo has just enough space to cram in the essentials for a decent ride. There’s a 1 litre HydraPak reservoir with an insulated hose to keep things cool in the summer. The wide back panel also features reflective material to keep your body from warming your fluids too much.

Endura Hummvee 3/4

Price: £65.99
From: Endura

At this time of year three quarter length shorts are a pretty good option. It covers all the delicate joints but keeps a little bit of skin out to help regulate temperature. The Humvee is a properly heavy duty piece of kit with tough panels around the seat and inner thighs. The whole thing has a DWR coating to keep the moisture out as much as possible and  the lower leg has velcro to keep the breeze at bay. A padded liner and belt come as standard along with three colour options.

There’s the little green bits of Koroyd.

Endura MTR Knee Guard

Price: £69.99
From: Endura

MTR is Endura’s lighter weight mountain bike range aimed at fast trail riding. The MTR Knee Guard has a more minimal construction than the heavy weight MT500 pad. It makes use of Koroyd, that stuff that looks like chopped up plastic straws to add additional padding without beefing up the weight. There’s a nice velcro strap at the thigh to keep things in place  and the padding can be removed to make washing a much easier task.

Endura MT500 Enduro Helmet

Price: £149.99
From: Endura

Not necessarily that ‘new’ but still a cracking helmet. The MT500 Enduro is still really light and comfy for a helmet designed to provide protection when charging big mountains. Just like the MTR pads above it uses Koroyd to add additional protection without adding to the weight. The visor is properly adjustable to fit goggles, plus it has a goggle strap clip at the back. A neat accessory clip fits to the top if you want to ride with a helmet light or GoPro. Three other colours are available but this Mango is pretty standout.

Endura Singletrack Softshell

Price: £99.99
From: Endura

Windproof, breathable and stretchy. The Singletrack Softshell straddles the line between technical riding jacket and casual hoodie. A DWR coating extends the protection further to keep you reasonably dry in the rain. There are zippered hand warmer pockets and a chest pocket with a hole for your headphones to keep the tunes pumping on the trail.

Endura Hummvee Lite

Price: £19.99
From: Endura

Danny MacAskill’s favourite gloves. Minimal materials make the Hummvee Lite a glove to appeal to riders who prefer zero padding and maximum feel. The mesh back makes them perfect for warm weather riding. Loads of colours are available including these two fetching versions.

SunRace MX80 11-50t 11-speed cassette

Price: £99.99
From: Ison Distribution

Do you like the idea of SRAM Eagle’s whopping 50t big sprocket but don’t really want to change your whole drivetrain and rear wheel? SunRace have the answer. Continuing the venerable brand’s re-birth as an aftermarket wide-range cassette manufacturer for the working man/woman, this MX80 gives you 12-speed range for your existing 11-speed setup. The MX80 follows on from their cult-classic MX8 cassettes which gives 11-speed-style 11-42t gearing range to older 10-speed set-ups.

And that’s our big bag of bits unloaded for another week. See you next Wednesday for the next load.