If you’ve ever visited London you know that the Brits like to paint clear directions on their streets – as in “Look Right” for those who are about to cross the road. No doubt that is done because they drive on the opposite/wrong side of the street (depending on your perspective), and it probably wouldn’t be good to have the black taxicabs run down American tourists. But this summer London has introduced another type of painted marker – and this one is a lot more than just merely “look” plastered on the ground. London now has cycle superhighways, with the first two being opened this year, and to keep riders safe the routes are marked out in bright blue paint.
The Aurumania Gold Bike will set you back a mere $25,000. We hope that includes grip tape and pedals!
With the Tour de France is full gear there has been no shortage of expensive bikes on TV and in the news. Think those pricey? Actually, those cycles are small change, at least compared to some of the truly expensive rides that can be hand. Forbes magazine offered a peak at some of “The World’s Most Expensive Bicycles,” complete with a slide-show.
Now in fairness, most of these bikes aren’t the type you’re likely to find at your local bike shop – and although some of the bikes are based on off-the-shelf frames, the bikes included are one-of-a-kind pieces of works, decked out in jewels and featuring exclusive paint jobs. Interestingly, many of these bikes are now in private collections, such as a Trek Madone 7-Diamond, which was decorated with 100 white diamonds in honor of Lance Armstrong’s record-breaking seventh Tour de France victory in 2005. That bike was auctioned for charity and sold for $75,000.
Other bikes included in the slide show feature gold leaf and special finishes. When you consider that most serious riders get pretty upset when they scratch the paint or nick a decal, imagine even thinking about risking these bikes on a road ride!
At first glance the GSG-5 is a terrifying little number, it looks like a serious machine pistol. In fact, the design is a near perfect clone of the famous H&K MP-5 submachine gun, a favored choice of small arms for anti-terrorist and Special Forces units around the world. The H&K MP-5 is regularly seen in the hands of police department SWAT teams, so does this mean the gun is available to consumers complete with silencer?
Actually, no it isn’t. But the GSG-5 isn’t a submachine gun. It is actually just designed to look like the H&K MP-5, and instead of serious 9mm, this one is the target friendly .22 caliber. The gun of course doesn’t include a silencer either – the faux suppressor at the front is just a nifty extension of the barrel. Basically this .22 has the look of an assault weapon without the power of said firearm – sort of proving that looks and laws can be deceiving. Continue reading Hands On: Sport Shooting With a Sleek Looking .22
Rudy Project was the eyewear of choice of Olympic athlete Anastazia Kuzmina of Slovakia who won gold in the women's biathlon.
As the Olympics close, the Rudy Project reports it had a hand in 18 medals, internationally. Before the torch was lit, Rudy Project said it would supply eyewear to a number of Olympic athletes. The round-up of athletes that placed on the podium included gold for women’s biathlon competitor Anastazia Kuzmina from Slovakia, who also won a silver medal. German cross country skier Claudia Nystad won gold in the team sprint. Johan Olsson from Sweden took gold in the cross country 4 x 10 relay.
Kinetic Shift congratulates all the athletes who competed in the Olympics. And kudos to Rudy Project for supporting so many winning athletes.
March is National Nutrition Month, a time to look at what you eat and how you exercise.
This month is National Nutrition Month, a campaign created by the American Dietetic Association to raise awareness of our diets. It’s a time to learn to make informed food choices and reinforce your physical activity habits. This is low tech, unless you want to use the Web to research exercise, nutrition, and recipes. That’s all good. But we’re all for the diet and exercise the ADA is promoting here. So see it as a time to evaluate, and learn about what you can do to increase your fitness and overall health.
We met up recently with the eco-folks of Klean Kanteen, who showed us their new Wide Insulated bottles. You have probably seen Klean Kanteen products at your local yoga center or Whole Foods. These particular beverage holders have double-walled vacuum insulation and are made with a solid 18/8 brushed stainless steel designed for handling food. They’re also BPA-free, but what isn’t these days since the “scare” of a couple years ago. They come in three sizes—12, 16, and 20 ounces—and all cost less than $30 ($22.95, $25.95, and $27.95, respectively). They can also accommodate the optional cafe cap ($5.95) you can screw on, great for coffee drinkers.
But the big seller to these new bottles is the said double-walled vacuum insulation, which Klean Kanteen says will keep a hot beverage hot for up to six hours and iced drinks for up to 24 hours. Now, when you throw those kinds of claims in my face, I become skeptical (I’m generally skeptical anyway, but that’s another story). After all, we’ve grown up with those Thermoses that promised to keep our soups hot by lunchtime, only to find it lukewarm. After Klean Kanteen provided us with a 16-ounce model to try out, we put it through a quick real-world test.
We brewed some instant coffee (times are tough, leave us alone), poured it into the bottle, and sealed it tightly with the included loop cap. Just to see how tight the seal is, we threw it in a backpack that contains some clothes and we tossed around for the next few hours. Luckily the seal was tight and we didn’t find any coffee-soiled shirts. We opened it once after three hours to check on it (still hot). After a total of 6.5 hours later, we opened the bottle again and took a sip. Sure enough, the bottle lived up to its claim of six hours. But the coffee wasn’t just hot, it was lip-burning hot, as if we had just poured the coffee into it a minute ago. We were pretty surprised that it was so hot. Luckily we had the cafe cap on, which made it a bit easier to drink than pressing your lips directly on the stainless steel (ouch).
We didn’t test it with cold beverages for a complete 24 hours, just 12. We poured in some diet cola with ice, sealed it, and left it in a warm room with a steam heater nearby. After 12 hours, we removed the cap and found the cola very cold, how soda should be drank. The ice, however, had melted, so the cola tasted somewhat diluted but nothing we couldn’t drink.
The one issue we noticed is that, despite having cleaned it with soap and water after we dumped out the coffee, we could still smell a bit of the coffee in the bottle when we were sipping the cola from it. Klean Kanteen says the bottle does not retain or impart flavors, which we didn’t find when we tasted the cola, but we wonder if that also meant smelling it from the bottle. Also, due to a narrow internal chamber it’s a bit difficult to wash using just a regular household sponge, yet the bottle was too big to fit in our Jeep’s cup holder (although Klean Kanteen says it’ll fit most). Plus, it feels a bit heavy when you compare it to non-insulated bottles.
Design-wise, some may find it a bit boring to look at, but we think the simple and clean design is appealing. It lacks the design and color choices of a Sigg bottle, but here we think the function definitely outweighs the option of graphics or pretty colors (just slap a sticker on it to make it yours). Overall we are really impressed, and we think it’s worth the money if you like having the option of either hot or cold.
Update: We soaked the bottle overnight in regular dish-washing detergent, and we found no trace of any smell from the liquid it held prior. So make sure you give it a thorough cleaning unless you enjoy smelling coffee with your cola.
