Category: Cycling

No Need to Pump It Up With Self-Inflating Tires

Nothing can ruin a bike ride like a flat tire. While a crash of course is far worse, a flat is just downright annoying and frustrating because it is fairly minor but yet just enough to get you off the bike. Now Benjamin Krempel has developed a system that could keep you riding instead.

The PumpTire system consists of a tire, an inner tube that clips into it and an air valve. The concept is a different as clincher tires are from tubular tires. Basically the PumpTire is designed to automatically pump air into the inner tube by actually using the compressive effect when the tire rolls. To ensure that it doesn’t just keep inflating, the tube stops pumping when the desired pressure is reached.

Video after the jump Continue reading No Need to Pump It Up With Self-Inflating Tires

Eurobike 2011 Recap

KineticShift wasn’t able to head to Europe this year, and while we’re about to shift into full gear for Interbike in Las Vegas next week a number of product announcements caught our eyes. We have compiled a round-up of the can’t miss products for 2012 and beyond. Continue reading Eurobike 2011 Recap

Trek Makes Bike about Art

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELrnwZWXkwk&feature=youtu.be

Trek and bike-related art organization ARTCRANK collaborated to create a bike about art. The result is the Trek District ARTCRANK Edition. The Trek District is Trek’s top commuter bike. The limited edition features graphics created by ARTCRANK Lead Designer Rob Angermuller.

The Trek District ARTCRANK Edition is a single-speed belt drive bike that’s predominantly white with black and red graphics on the frame and rims. We at KineticShift find white bikes to be striking, and this bike with its bold white black and red graphics is no exception. Continue reading Trek Makes Bike about Art

Ready Steady Go

There is a universal problem with bicycles – when you aren’t riding them they’re simply in the way. The New York Times recently ran an article on bike storage rooms in New York City apartments. Even if you’re not in an apartment, good bike storage is still an issue.

If you just lean your bikes (or use the kick-stand – gasp!) in the garage, you’ll want to check out a few of these space-saving racks and hooks to get your bikes out of the way.

Last year at Interbike we met with David Steadman, who showed off his invention SteadyRack – which made storing bikes after a ride a little easier. Now a year later, Steady Corp has signed an agreement with GearUp, Inc, which brings the rack to the United States.

“We are excited to be partnered up with the lads from GearUp and the great distribution network they have and the quality relationship and service level they have established in the U.S.,” says Steadman. “The SteadyRack has really taken off here in Australia and we are looking forward to great success in the U.S. as well.”

The new Steady Rack will once again be on display at Interbike 2011 at the GearUp booth, and hopefully will be in apartments and garages in America soon after.

Steady Rack official Website
[Via The New York Times: In N.Y. Apartment Buildings, Bicycles Muscle In]
[Via EcoVelo: NYT On Bike Storage in Apartment Buildings]

Turning on No Axle

Pedals are a very personal thing on bikes, and mountain bikers often times like prefer platform pedals that involve no clipping in. This is good for downhill and trials riding – as opposed to trail riding where riders typically want that clipped in feeling. Regardless of the system, most pedals are the same in that these are built around a sturdy axle.

But does it have to be that way? In other words, why can’t flat platform pedals in fact be actually flat? And not just flat but thin as well? To date the thickness of platform pedals has been determined by the thickness of the axle, which is where the Tioga ZEROaxle MT-ZERO comes in. It is ultra thin because it essentially loses the axle, with the result being a pedal that is just 7mm thick, making it the world’s “thinnest dual-concave mountain bike pedal.” And it is concave, so instead of the thickest part being the middle, it is actually the outer edges that are 7 mm, with the inside being just 4 mm thick, with the weight being just 450 grams or 15.87 oz. Continue reading Turning on No Axle

Hand Wipes Worthy of a Safari

If you’ve been to parts of Africa you know that having clean hands can be a difficult thing to obtain, even in urban centers such as Cairo. Being a germaphobe, this reporter typically carries all sorts of hand wipes and disposable towels, and while those are fine for walking through museums or past the Great Sphinx, they don’t quite do when it comes to wiping down after a bike ride.

Now you could use two or three moist towelettes, or you could pick up the Safari Towers, which are a massive 14-inches by 24-inches, making them ideal for cleaning up after a daily commute to work, or even making yourself presentable after a long training ride. The Safari Towels are about $1 each, or 42 cents per square foot. This might seem like a bit, but it could take several other towelettes to get just as clean.

As the Safari Towels come from the makers of Anti Monkey Butt Powder, we think they know something about surviving and getting clean in a jungle, urban or otherwise.

Anti Monkey Butt Official Website
[Via Urban Velo: Safari Towels]

Interbike 2011: Competition Heads Up With Mobile Challenge

Interbike is less than two weeks away, and attendees will have a bit of extra incentive to bring their A game. Last week Interbike announced it has a new mobile app that will help attendees interact and stay connected with the industry during next month’s trade show.

Now, in partnership with Stravea, Interbike will add a little friendly competition to the mix during the OutDoor Demo event. Any rider attending the trade show’s OutDoor Demo will be able to visit Strava.com and create a free account to take part in the Strava OutDoor Demo Challenge, where riders can track performances of one another. The app is free for download to iPhone and Android devices. Continue reading Interbike 2011: Competition Heads Up With Mobile Challenge

2012 Moots MX Divide – Interbike Sneak Peek!

Typically if a bike company has a major product announcement, it will be reserved for an industry trade show like the upcoming 2011 Interbike in Las Vegas, but it appears that Moots of Steamboat Springs, Colorado has decided to let their ‘friends’ on Facebook have a sneak peek of what appears to be an exciting new design.

There are few details as of right now, but it appears that the new 2012 MX Divide is a complete redesign of their somewhat archaic current cross country bike, the Zirkel. The most significant difference with the new MX Divide is that Moots teamed up with the Sotto Group of Watsonville, California to design this new frame using a single pivot design and position the rear shock more inline with the travel of the rear triangle. Sotto Group is well known in the bicycle industry, plus they have the experience to design and test making them a perfect resource for this new design. Since the MX Divide is designed to be a cross country bike, the frame has 4-inches of rear travel and is designed to work with a 100mm (4-inch) suspension fork. The rear triangle uses a combination of titanium seat stays and aluminum chain stays with a carbon fiber swing link connecting the seat stays and rear Fox shock.

Along with the new frame design, the MX Divide features an inset 44mm oversized head tube and press fit BB30 bottom bracket which is becoming more standard on mountain bikes due to both items increasing the overall stiffness of a frame.

Another feature that will be appreciated by current Moots owners (such as this reporter) is the curved down tube. I had recently completed building a 2011 Mooto X YBB and personally had an issue with the adjusting knobs of the 2012 Fox F29 fork hitting the down tube. The new curved down tube alleviates this issue and will hopefully appear on other 2012 Moots frames.

This ground-up approach by Moots has produced what appears to be an exciting new bike that we hope to swing a leg over at Interbike to hit some trails. The 19-inch frame MX Divide shown in the photo reportedly weighs just 24.5 pounds which should make this one fast bike on the trails!

Moots Official Website

Made in America: Paragon Machine Works

Paragon Machine Works is a name that may not be familiar to you, but one of their products might be right in your garage. Machined from aluminum, steel, stainless steel and titanium, Paragon Machine Works manufactures and stocks precision made components for bicycle frame builders. They stock the largest variety of titanium bicycle frame building components in the world, plus they offer design development and high volume manufacturing capabilities allowing them to offer competitive pricing.

Founded in 1983 by Mark Norstad, Paragon Machine Works had its humble beginnings in the Marin County basement of his parent’s house with just a lathe and mill. From that basement, Paragon Machine Works has grown into a 6,000 square foot operation in Richmond, California, employing ten full and part-time employees. Continue reading Made in America: Paragon Machine Works

Is Plywood the Next Big Bicycle Material?

Bonobo Bicycle

This year we’ve seen bikes that have simulated wood grain and even bikes made of bamboo in a variety of form factors. Now words comes that a couple of manufacturers are working with plywood, a very odd choice for frame building at first thought, but isn’t plywood technically a composite material?

Well, it isn’t carbon fiber but plywood has advantages in that it is strong, can be made into shapes that typical wood boards can’t, and it has a springiness as well. Polish designer Stanislaw Poloski has created a one-of-a-kind bike called the Bonobo, which is made of curved, laminated layers of plywood. The bike, which weighs about 16 kilograms, is fitted with a single-speed drivetrain and disc brakes. Continue reading Is Plywood the Next Big Bicycle Material?

FX Offers New Way to Trek by Bike

There are bikes that are ideal for off-road adventures, and bikes that will get you going fast on the road. For everyone else Trek Bicycles has revamped its line of bestselling fitness riding-targeted FX bikes. These are aimed at commuters as well as modern fitness riders, and are built around the concept of the “the fastest way to fit.”

The team behind the FX line looked at the needs of urban commuters and causal suburban riders alike and assessed what was needed for those who don’t always tone Lycra yet mostly stick to the road. The result is a bike that borrows from Trek’s road heritage and technology, combined with an emphasis on comfort and all around practicality. The FX line features road bike compact double cranks, and a tapered E2 headtube on key models to provide lively ride quality while the refined rack and rim lock mounts make the bike even more practical for city and suburban riding. Continue reading FX Offers New Way to Trek by Bike

Fitness Journal: Fix it, Don’t Trash it

When did we become such a throwaway society? For most people, once a cell phone, computer, appliance or even a bicycle frame breaks, they are just chuck it into the trash instead of taking the time to fix the item. For many products it remains cheaper to buy a new one than it is to try to repair the broken one. This fact is especially true with electronics, but bike frames are a bit different. Depending on the type of break and material, a frame can be repaired and often for a fraction of the cost of a new frame – even carbon fiber.

Over the years, we’ve come across a number of companies that either offer the service of frame repair as their only business, while some frame builders offer the service on the side.

We’ve combined a list of a few companies that will let you fix it instead of trashing it:

Continue reading Fitness Journal: Fix it, Don’t Trash it

GORE RideOn Cable System Goes on a Diet

W.L. Gore & Associates, the makers of GORE-TEX, have recently announced a lighter version of their RideOn cable system. With the upcoming release of the Gore RideOn Ultralight Sealed Shift Cable System, cyclists will enjoy  a 42 percent reduction in housing weight and shifting friction reduced by 20 percent. Along with the diet, the new RideOn cable system will feature 100 percent non-ferrous housing (no rusty housing); improved flexibity to aid in cable routing; full length, lubricated housing; and a new GRUB seal which is designed to be more compatible with new derailleurs.

The original RideOn Cable System was introduced back in 1993, and even though it was expensive, became a favorite for mountain bikers. I personally used RideOn cables in the mid-90’s when racing in the mud and muck of the East Coast, but to squeeze our meager racing budget, we only used it with the rear derailleur. We saved the cable and casing that was intended for the front derailleur for use later in the season with the rear derailleur. Gore stopped producing the RideOn Cable System  in 2003, but resumed after relentless requests from cyclists.

Continue reading GORE RideOn Cable System Goes on a Diet