Author: Peter Suciu

Speedo Counts Laps With AquaCoach

Cyclists rely on cycling computers to track speed, distance and even cadence, while heart rate monitors can track calories and workout intensity. Now Speedo and Pool-Mate swimming computer Swimovate are partnering to develop the AquaCoarch watch, which can provide swimmers automatically detect not only laps, but also the strokes used, along with distance, speed and number of strokes, as well as calories burned during a workout.

This watch is water-resistant (but of course) to 100 meters or 328 feet, and can work in any pool over 15 meters (49 feet) long. It can remember up to 50 swim sessions too, so users can compare their latest workouts. The key to this device is that it features an accelerometer along with custom algorithms that can count individual strokes while keeping track of laps by detecting the pauses that occur when swims do the flip thing to change direction.

(Video after the jump) Continue reading Speedo Counts Laps With AquaCoach

HTC Hangs Up Pro Cycling

Last week High Road Sports announced that the team was disbanding. Team manager Bob Stapleton noted that Team HTC-Highroad would dissolve at the end of the 2011 season after a failure to find a new sponsor. Title sponsor HTC’s contract had ended.

We at KineticShift are sad to see the team break up, but it has been an interesting ride for High Road, but also for the partnership between mobile phone makers and carriers and professional cycling. HTC is just one example, and from 1991-2003 was actually Team Telekom, after the Deutsche Telekom. From 2004-2007 it was T-Mobile-Team, and then after a period of non-phone sponsorship it called up HTC in 2009 when it first became Team Columbia-HTC followed by Team HTC-Columbia before this year’s HTC-Highroad. Continue reading HTC Hangs Up Pro Cycling

Wood Makes a Return to Youth Baseball

We reported earlier this year that the NCCA had introduced new rules regarding what constitutes a “legal” bat, as some alloy metals were banned, because they gave an unfair advantage to players. But now Rhode Island has stepped up to the plate to ban all metal bats in its American Legion Baseball league for youth players.

This is just one of three states where the American Legion has reportedly mandated this switch from metal to wooden bats, citing safety as the main reason. While tradition has been cited, and thus the use of wooden bats is in line with those Major League Baseball, it has been argued that wood bats are in fact safer. Research has shown that balls tend to leave wooden bats less quickly, and this gives players on the field more time to react to line drives.

As we noted last year, the National Federation of State High School Associations adopted new guidelines that will come into effect in 2012 on the performance of non-wooden bats as well.

[Via Rockdale Citizen: Youth leagues mull different bat standards]

Is Motorola Going to Give Nike+ a Run?

Motorola has seen many bumps in the road. Once a dominant player in the mobile phone space (and a title sponsor in the world of professional cycling), the company has many times seemed down for the count, but now it appears it could be up and running again and ready to sprint against Nike.

Rumor has it that Motorola is looking to take on the Nike+ SportWatch. Online images suggest a “tricked out nano watch,” one which has been described as an “all-in-one fitness and music personal fitness device” along with GPS for “accurate performance tracking.” So far the device hasn’t actually been made public, and has no actual name (MotoActive is one rumor). The word is also that this watch can sync to a PC for post workout analysis. All this is based on an apparent online survey to help name the name – which is where MotoActive seems to have come from.

What is interesting is that this seems to be a multi-use monitor and music player, with some interesting music features. We are hearing that the “smart music player” can compile a list of songs based on the tunes that help you sweat your best. Let’s hope that doesn’t mean that it downloads “Let’s Get Physical” and “Eye of the Tiger” for you!

[Via Engadget: Motorola considering Nike+ SportWatch contender?]

For the Dearly Departed Surfboard

We all bemoan when a favorite workout item reaches the end of the line, and in many ways whether it is a bike or surfboard, it can feel like a friend passing. But what happens next we ask? While new products often get a lot of attention, less is given to what happens when the new new becomes old? The truth is that much of our new materials aren’t so easy to recycle, and many products that are made from recycled materials can’t be further reused.

Designer/surfer/artist Christopher Anderson is drawing attention to this fact with a new project he’s calling “1000 Surfboard Graveyard,” which aims to provoke new ideas and generate a conversation about the sustainability of high performance surfboards, while looking at their carbon emissions and non-renewable resource consumption and finally their eventual disposal into a landfill

The artist is currently trying to collect and install 1,000 broken surfboards on Garie Beach in New South Wales, Australia as part of a project with Surfrider Foundation Australia. We’ll be sure to follow this story and look for the results.

1000 Surfboard Graveyard Blog

Catch the Drift HD-170 Actioncam

In the past couple of years the helmet-mountable GoPro HERO HD camera has caught a lot of attention, but now Drift Innovation is looking to turn heads with a smaller version of its HD-170, making for the former model’s shortcomings.

The new Drift HD features a swiveling 170-degree lens, and is actually sleeker than the previous models, and it already seems less bulky than the GoPro. The Drift HD features a color LCD screen, wireless start/stop remote control, manual iris option and offers full HD 1080p resolution. In addition there is an external 2.5mm mic port.

The new Drift HD also goes a step further than the GoPro offering replaceable lenses, which could come in very handy for those who like to risk life and limb getting the perfect shot. This camera can also do double duty and take 9megapixel still images, supports microSD cards up to 32GB, and is compatible with PCs and Macs. The Drift HD will be available at the end of the month (MSRP $369). This is a drift that those looking to chronicle their activities will want to catch.

Drift HD Official Website
[Via Gizmag: Drift Innovation releasing smaller HD actioncam]

Plastic Fantastic Recycled Bike

There are materials that are just easy to recycle. And while plastic isn’t quite gold, as in it can be used over and over again and forged into new shapes, Israeli design student Dror Peleg has a golden idea with the Frii concept bicycle. While working for his degree at Bezalel Academy of Art and Design in Jerusalem, Peleg came up with the idea for a bicycle made of recycled plastics using injection molding technology.

The Frii is a single speed city bike that looks unique and has some very unique characteristics. While recycled materials aren’t new, Peleg’s idea is that the bike could be manufactured locally for local use, thus further making a very green product in the process. Components could be injection molded into modular shapes that snap or otherwise connect together, resulting in a strong, yet lightweight and very colorful bike. Continue reading Plastic Fantastic Recycled Bike

Interbike 2011: Mini-Velodrome To Be Installed at Sands Expo and Convention Center

Fixie riders will get to take to the track at the upcoming Interbike, as Portland Design Works will be rolling in the Circulus, a 132-foot circumference, 45-degree wooden mini-velodrome. This track will be installed in the Sands Expo and Convention Center, and is being sponsored by Paved magazine, Yakima, All-City Cycles and Portland Design Works. It will be the site for multiple events during the Interbike Expo in Las Vegas, from September 14-16.

Show attendees will get to take to the track to ride All-City Cycles and even compete in events for the first and second days of Interbike.

“Circulus will add something completely new and unique to this year’s show,” said Interbike Brand and Communications Director Rich Kelly. “We’re placing a big emphasis on urban cycling and the brands that support it and having Circulus there will be a big draw for that segment of the market. And, of course, I can’t wait to take a spin on it myself.”

(Video of Circulus after the Jump) Continue reading Interbike 2011: Mini-Velodrome To Be Installed at Sands Expo and Convention Center

Simulated Wood Grain For Your Bike

Back in the early 1990s there was the now largely forgotten Los Angeles one-hit wonder alternative band School of Fish, which in its one-hit “Three Strange Days” offered the lyric: “And Johnny Clueless was there, With his simulated wood grain.”

Well, Rob Pollock of New Zealand is no Johnny Clueless, and he probably never heard of the song nor the band. But he’s spent his life painting faux wood finishes on various things, a process he calls “woodgraining,” which is now taking to bike frames after customizing his son’s bike. Those looking for a wood-esque bike can send their frames to Rob’s Woodgrain Bike Frames, where Pollock paints them individually over seven to 10 days.

The process, which can run about $1500 US, involves stripping the old paint, where he sprays a light colored base, and then uses a multi-step process to hand brush the actual one-of-a-kind woodgrain pattern in darker colors. Clear coat is added, along with a protective epoxy coating. The result is a bike that looks like wood.

(Video of the woodgraining process after the jump)

Continue reading Simulated Wood Grain For Your Bike

New Spin on Bamboo Bicycle

We’ve seen many bicycles designs that incorporate sustainable materials, including bamboo. But most are built around traditional frame designs. Now Alexander Vittouris, a master’s student at Monash University in Australia had devised a three-wheeled vehicle made of the quick growing grass.

He is in the running for the Australian Design Award for his concept bicycle. Rather than take the time to harvest, weave and compress the bamboo, which has traditionally been needed to make the grass conform to traditional bicycle frame design, Vittouris instead made his vehicle conform to the shape of the bamboo – creating a skeleton frame from the long strands.

In other words, his Ajiro bicycle was essentially grown in the backyard of his Malvern East home. After taking shape, traditional bike parts were incorporated, so the result is a front-pedal design that resembles a recumbent bicycle.

And while Vittouris admits the first concept didn’t come cheap, he does envision a future of mass-grown vehicles, planted in fields.

[Via WAtoday.com.au: Bamboozled? Give it a grow]

Skateboarding is in the House

There was that old Brady Bunch episode where Bobby kept uttering the immortal line, “Mom said not to play ball in the house,” and some silly scenario ensued. Well Carol Brady probably wouldn’t have approved of the PAS House, a full-scale, 753.5-square foot prototype house being designed in Malibu,CA by Francois Perrin of LA-based Air Architecture.

Come to think of it Mike Brady was an architect, but yet he never came up with something as revolutionary as this design for former pro skateboarder and Etnies footwear founder Pierre-André Senizergues. The house, which will feature a sofa, bed and furniture from the Skate Study House collection is actually designed to be skateboard friendly. The concept was part of a the recent Public Domaine/Skateboard Culture at the new La Gaite Lyrique museum in Paris, but the completed residence will measure 2,200 square-feet and will be designed to overlook the Pacific in Malibu. Continue reading Skateboarding is in the House

SIA Preview: Boots That Fit Like a Glove, Only Better

While a lot of skiing is of course about the actual skis, the truth is that it is the boots that play a big role. Having ill fitting boots can result in bad form and accidents. But now Fisher Skis US is looking to make ski boots that fit like a glove.

The Fischer Vacuum Fit pretty much gives away how they accomplish this, setting a new standard in Alpine boots, making for the first ski footwear that has a 100 percent custom fit. The patented Fischer VACU-PLAST material provides for a completely anatomical fit of the entire boot. But yet it doesn’t take a massive amount of time or money to obtain this level of quality. Fittings can be in about 20 minutes, offering a reliable and stable result. The material inside can be reshaped up to five times ensuring that each customer gets a 100 percent perfect fit.

(Video after the jump)

Continue reading SIA Preview: Boots That Fit Like a Glove, Only Better