Electronic shifting. Carbon fiber. Strava. None of these will help you perform better if you bonk during a ride or run – you might as well be wearing a boat anchor around your neck. Fueling your body during an extended period of exertion is more important than whatever new whiz-bang gadget you just purchased. Just like gasoline and coolant to an automobile, if your body runs out of fuel or water, you are done.
GU Energy Labs of Berkeley, California knows sports nutrition all to well and has been involved in the industry since 1991. Their first product was a single serving gel that was fairly revolutionary at the time. While racing for mountain bike team in western Pennsylvania around that time, I remember receiving packets of GU gel to use since they were a team sponsor. The other choices at the time were chalky tasting energy bars and Fig Newtons. The GU gels were a welcome addition to the nutrition arsenal. These single-serving packets traveled well in a cycling jersey, even during events in the pouring rain. When needed, they were easy to open, consume and digest. They quickly provided the necessary fuel needed to be competitive, and as a bonus they actually tasted good. Continue reading Made in America: GU Energy Gel
The Tour de France is still just over two months away, but yellow products are popping up with cycling tie-ins. Polar is offering a limited edition Polar RCX5 Tour de France training computer. 
Cyclists are odd people. We like to support our favorite professional racer, team or country, but many of us shy away from wearing the team jersey or kit since we do not actually race for them. This certainly isn’t the case with fans of other professional sports teams, especially football and baseball. If the local pro team is in the play-offs, it is tough to go anywhere without seeing their colors and jerseys draped on the backs of their loyal fans.
It seems that great minds must think alike, is we’ve come across another innovative (and dare we say bright) idea for helping cast a little illumination for those cycling at night. Los Angeles industrial designer Nathan Wills has launched a Kickstater project to create a helmet with built-in luminous panels.
Japanese bicycle component manufacturer Shimano continues to drive innovation. The company was the first (at least successfully) to introduce electronic shifting for bicycles, with its high-end Dura Ace groupo. Now the company could be shifting gears again, as it looks to introduce an 11 speed version.
This week Waterloo, Wisconsin-based announced that its pilot program Materials Innovation Technologies has cycled more than 70,000 lbs. of carbon fiber in the year since the program was first initiated. Since April of last year, all manufacturing scraps, non-compliant frame components, and select reclaimed warranty frames undergo processing at Material Innovation Technologies’s South Carolina facility for repurposing in reinforced thermoplastic applications, including aerospace, automotive, medical and recreational applications.
There’s some innovations we have to applaud for getting people on the bike and doing some exercise. Chalktrail is one of those innovations. Chalktrail is an accessory that drags a very big piece of sidewalk chalk behind a bike or scooter to leave a line. Possibilities for fun are endless. 
At this weekend’s 
The Italians take two things very seriously – design and bicycles. So it is no surprise at this week’s Milan Design Week 2012 several new fitness devices were introduced, which can only be described in a word as “cutting-edge.” 
Handlebar grips are a necessary accessory on every bike, but they can be difficult to put on. Grip tape wants to be wrapped just right, and then it can slip. Formed grips are extremely difficult to slide over the handlebars and into place. Kickstarter project GripRings by Spurcycle hopes to change that by providing modular silicone rings to be stacked to form grips on several types of handlebars. 
Mr. Spock on TV’s Star Trek would probably think it is illogical that Android users don’t get the same level of product offerings as their iPhone counterparts. But logic, or rather BioLogic, proves that Android users shouldn’t be left out.
Automotive designers have long used the so-called “crash test dummies” to determine how a passenger in a car will fare in a crash. Now students at Ottawa’s Carlton University have developed a crash test dummy specifically for testing bicycle equipment.