Category: Cycling

Clean Bottle Goes Global

 

Dave Mayer was in France last summer for the Tour, but he wasn’t seeing the sights and probably not a lot of the riding. Instead was there promoting his new water bottle, which he did by having someone wear a giant suit that looked like his revolutionary sports bottle. Now he’s looking to clean up in the world wide market with the Clean Bottle, which is unique in that it unscrews at both ends. The bottle is currently available through KHS, Hawley, Paceline, J&B and Peregrine Outfitters in the United States and he’s looking to take the bottle around the world.

“During the first year of our business, I had to be a little conservative with my distribution partners due to supply and demand issues,” states Mayer. “But due to spectacular results from our Tour de France coverage on Versus and our other marketing efforts, we’re now ready to go big time.”

As Mayer begins his world wide journey he’ll be taking the “Bottle Boy” with him to major cycling events. But more importantly he’s got distribution agreements for the UK, Canada, Japan and Singapore in place. Does the Bottle Boy have a passport we need to ask?

Clean Bottle Official Website

 

Video of the Bottle Boy in Action

Quiznos Pro Challenge Stages and Host Cities Announced

This week it was official. Pro cycling is returning to Colorado with the inaugural 2011 international Quiznos Pro Challenge, which will run from August 22-28. The race will feature seven stages, traveling through Colorado’s picturesque landscape, while visiting 11 host cities. This proves to the be the most challenging pro-cycling race in American history as the event will cover 600 miles.

“We are excited to welcome sports fans and the international cycling community to many of Colorado’s most beautiful regions,” said Governor Bill Ritter. “The Quiznos Pro Challenge will provide a majestic tour of many of the state’s natural treasures while becoming the battleground for one of the world’s most intense competitions.” Continue reading Quiznos Pro Challenge Stages and Host Cities Announced

SRAM Joins With the Advocacy Advance Partnership

This week bicycle component Sram announced its continued support for the League of American Bicyclists and the Alliance for Biking & Walking. This is part of a new, three-year campaign to double federal funding for bicycling and walking by 2013. SRAM is backing this Advocacy Advance initiative by awarding up to $1.2 million to the League and Alliance over the next three years to unite active transportation advocates across the nation, and to give them tools and resources to secure even greater increased funding from existing federal transportation programs for crucial bike and pedestrian projects. Continue reading SRAM Joins With the Advocacy Advance Partnership

USA Cycling Seeks to Ban the Helmet Cam on Race Day

We’ve written about several helmet cams, cameras that mount on your helmet while you ride on some precarious single track, capture footage of daring maneuvers in traffic, or film the race while you’re riding. That last one may be off limits depending on upcoming revisions made by the USAC Board of Trustees to the rules for 2011.

There are a handful of proposed changes, which will be open to a period of feedback from the community, but the camera is the use of technology while riding, so we’re looking at that. It’s also one of the big items mentioned in an article on VeloNews.

The article states, “This rule would ban the attaching of any non-stock items — including cameras, visors and fairings — to helmets during a race.” Cyclists can still attach a camera to the bike itself during a race. The argument is that when you attach a camera to the helmet it doesn’t necessarily make it unsafe, but if there is a crash the helmet won’t behave as it’s intended to in protecting the head.

We’ll dig a little deeper into the proposed changes and follow the discussion period.

via [VeloNews]

Specialized Revamps Prevail Helmet

First seen on the heads of riders in the Tour de France over the summer, Specialized’s new Prevail helmet is more adjustable, has larger vent holes, adds protection and sheds a few ounces over previous helmets. What more could you ask for in safety and protection? Specialized probably should have given the helmet a new name instead of continuing with the Prevail model since it has so many new features.

At 185 grams, you may forget you have on a helmet. And when you look at it, it looks as if there there are almost more airholes than helmet. The structure of the Prevail looks deceivingly thin. The helmet brags 29 air vents including three exhaust ports in the rear. Now, that thin structure. The Styrofoam framework is built around a core Kevlar matrix. This makes the helmet stronger without adding weight. Continue reading Specialized Revamps Prevail Helmet

The Revolution is Here

Say you wanna Revolution? If you’re talking about the Revolution Bike Trainer from LeMond Fitness you’re in luck. We saw this trainer at Interbike back in September and it has take notice. It is a true example of the evolution of the traditional bike trainer, and dare we say revolutionary? With winter just around the corner this trainer will keep you in your bike seat until spring – and by that we mean you’re actual bike seat, rather than having to make due with a stationary bike.

Rather than resting the rear wheel on a metal disc like typical trainers, which can be quite loud and has anything but smooth resistance, this device ditches the rear wheel completely for smooth consistent training. Basically you ditch your traditional rear wheel, and connect your bike to this trainer, which works with nine speed and even the new 10-speed cassettes. It allows you to use any bike you’d ride outside, so no worrying about adjusting the stationary bike. Bikes connect and disconnect in minutes – the latter comes in handy for those warm days when you just have to get outside. But with the Revolution Bike Trainer you might be tempted to stay indoors and still put in the miles.

Revolution Bike Trainer at LeMond Fitness

Hands On: Redline Conquest Team Cyclocross Bike

Over the years I’ve had about a half a dozen road bikes, and at least an equal number of mountain bikes. But a recent move from New York City to Michigan opened up new possibilities for me. Not only could I buy more bikes since I have a garage to fill, but there were now a far great number of options with places to ride. With the change in venues also came a change in attitude. In the past few years I’ve opted to do more road riding, and far less off-roading.

To that end I decided that my middle aged body just wasn’t up to the hard core mountain biking any longer. I’m not alone, as many of my old riding buddies have moved on as well. That said, I still like to ride through the woods and trails, especially in the fall as the colors of the leaves change. But hitting the more technical trails, riding complex single track and choosing the right line were in the past for me. I might still head out for some mountain biking, yet what I really wanted was to enjoy the road style riding but on dirt paths, fire roads and other non-technical type trails. Thus it was time to get a cyclocross bike. Continue reading Hands On: Redline Conquest Team Cyclocross Bike

Cervélo TestTeam Offers More Behind the Scenes of the Tour de France

This week Cervélo announced that the release of the next episode of the second season of Beyond The Peloton, the High-Definition documentary following the racing exploits of Cervélo TestTeam. The series, which is available on YouTube, is the next best thing to an all-access pass to the Tour. It follows filmmakers Joe Finkleman and Booker Sim as they return to show you what race footage fails to capture “beyond the peloton”.

Beyond the Peloton

Cycle the World Virtually

There are so wonderful places to ride a bike, but the problem is that it is really not all that easy or affordable to take a bicycle on a globetrotting trip. The next best thing might be to virtually ride the world. That’s where Virtual Active comes in. The company, which has a partnership with IndoorCycling Group (ICG) has announced the release of MyRide Version 3.0, which promises to be the next-generation media console for indoor cycles. It utilizes content from Virtual Active via a 17-inch touchscreen high-definition display.

This includes more than 60 hours of entirely of entirely new media content, with more than one million different workouts and plenty of variety to keep users riding through the winter and other bad weather. Locations include the Rockies, the Swiss Alps and even the Mojave desert, and each is available for a variety of workouts that include warm-ups, intense spinning and cool downs. The coached content is also available in English, German and Spanish. Continue reading Cycle the World Virtually

Single Cell Lightform

This year at the 2010 Veloswap, Amoeba was showcasing their newest LED light, the 2x Cree XP-G R5. The name makes this system sound complicated, but it really is not. The company’s name is derived from the amoeba, the simplest life form on Earth. They follow their name and design their lights to simply have one mode – on and off.

The 2x Cree XP-G R5 is a dual spot beam, 600 lumens lighting kit that features an anodized aluminum housing offered in matte silver, bright silver or dark bronze; and the lens is made from optical grade Lexan. The battery pack is a 7.4 volt 2400mAh Li-Ion that is capable of a 3-1/2 hour runtime with only a 3 hour charge time. With a total weight of less than 6oz., this kit easily mounts to your helmet with industrial strength Velcro, Amoeba is a very small operation and each lighting kit is hand built at their facility in Colorado. Continue reading Single Cell Lightform

Cycling Fusion Gets Heart (Zones)

As the old Peanut Butter Cups commercial suggested some things go very well together, and we expect that to be true in the world of indoor and offseason training on exercise bikes. This week Cycling Fusion, the developer of indoor cycling programs, announced that it has purchased Heart Zones, USA, the company that created the first heart-rate training systems.

Cycling Fusion founder Gene Nacey had already established a relationship with Sally Edwards and her company Heart Zones. “After being certified by Mad Dogg and opening a dedicated Spinning studio, I quickly began to understand why the outdoor cyclists were not coming to class,” says Gene Nacey. “I raced MTB for 10 years and had a few years of road riding under me as well. The cycling community needed a lot more science and sport specific training than what they would normally find in Spin class. That lead to my work with Sally Edwards and Heart Zones. The heart rate training began to bring them in, but I have to say, it wasn’t until the Keiser power bikes arrived that they began to take us seriously. This combination became quite compelling.”

The new partnership will hopefully see even greater innovation in the world of indoor cycle training. KineticShift.com will follow the developments from Cycling Fusion and Heart Zones in the months to come.

Cycling Fusion Official Website

Bicycle Briefcase

There have been a lot of folding bicycles, including several that are small enough to fit in a suitcase, so when we heard that there was a briefcase bicycle we quite expectedly got a little excited. But in fact the bike doesn’t fold up to a size small enough to actually fit inside a briefcase, and instead the carbon fiber bike comes with a carbon fiber briefcase that helps maintain the rigidness of the frame while riding. The bike was designed by Marcos Madia, a finalist in the Seoul Cycle Design competition.

It is an interesting concept, and it is just in the concept stage at this point. The biggest downsides we see to the bike is that it is still likely to be too big to bring into most offices (those building managers have something against bicycles), and the briefcase is too small to transport much. Likewise, there is the fact that this could be a tricky bike to lock up too – and it has “steal me” practically written on the side, even if it isn’t quite stable enough to ride without the briefcase. Now if only there was a way to get a folding bike that could actually fit inside a briefcase. George Jetson had his aircar that folded up, so a bike should be a no brainer.

Microwaves Change Lights for Cyclists

Any cyclist will tell you that stopping at a red light is a drag. And when that light stays red because it needs the weight of a car to turn it green, it really puts a damper on your cardio workout. Most often lights that need to be triggered by cars are controlled by an inductive loop, a sensor embedded in the pavement that flips a switch on a computer to turn the light green. Cameras are increasing in number, but are subject to environmental conditions such as ran, twilight and wind.

Cycellicious reports that the city of Pleasonton, California is experimenting with the use of microwaves to trigger traffic lights to change. This method is more reliable than cameras, can distinguish vehicle types and give cyclists more time to get through the intersection than cars, and works with lightweight travelers such as cyclists. You may still have to wait at a few traffic lights, but the time will be reduced. About enough time to practice your track standing skills.

[Via Cyclelicious: Microwaves, bikes, and traffic lights]