Spin in Circles With the Ciclotte

A lot of exercise bikes have you put in the miles without actually going anywhere. But the Ciclotte spin cycle will have you getting nowhere in true style. The bike even looks much like a real work of art, but that’s because it is actually based on a concept bicycle is now part of the permanent collection of the Milan Design Museum. As such it is one piece of workout equipment that you probably wouldn’t mind having in your living room, even when you’re not actually using it!

 Designer Luca Schieppati took his concept bike, which was based on the classic unicycles from the 19th century, and reinterpreted its operating dynamics. This in turn became the Ciclotte stationary bicycle, which does look like it belongs more in a museum than a gym. It utilizes a minimalist design but with the utmost of high-tech components and materials, including fully adjustable saddle, pedals, handlebar and support arms. Instead of a chain-driven system the Ciclotte uses a dual satellite epicycloids system that features four gears with varying cogs. Thus the bike doesn’t have a traditional drive train, and instead has gears that turn the magnetized main wheel, in turn creating a magnetic field and thus maximizing the level of resistance. The result should be a good workout once you get into a nice spin. Continue reading Spin in Circles With the Ciclotte

Gravity Defyer Shoes Put a Spring in Your Step (Is That a Good Thing?)

We're not sure why there's a sperm on the side of the shoe either.

Some days everybody drags. You begin to wonder how you continue to put one foot in front of the other and keep moving? Will a spring in your heel help propel you through those days and even offer more health benefits? Gravity Defyer thinks so, and is willing to let you try for 30 days or your money back.

Gravity Defyer shoes come in several varieties including running and dress shoe styles. The shoe addresses the 80 percent of Americans who use a heel striking gate to walk and run. It’s built with VersoShock Trampoline Shock, an absorbing membrane heel. It also has twin stabilizers, that’s two springs that compress and expand with each step. The VersoShock benefits include less fatigue, performance enhancing, cell cleansing super workout, ease joint pain and pressure on your spine and says users can “have a more active lifestyle.”

These aren’t the only shoes on the market making health claims. Nike recently called out its competitors for making claims of toning while you walk. Will a spring add benefits to the shoe? Will it help you on your feet? Springs can be highly uncomfortable if you feel them poking through on a bed. Imagine how a spring might feel concentrated in your heel after a day on your feet? Just because the spring is powering your stride, doesn’t mean it’s relieving any pain in your body. It’s still a new company, and a new technology, but it seems like it could have imbalanced results.

Gravity Defyer official web page

For Running, Compression is Key

Socks are socks, right? Well, there’s running socks, tennis socks, cycling socks, general sports socks, dress sock and we could keep going. A little known sock is the compression sock used frequently for medical conditions. Travelers and athletes are learning compression socks can aid training and recovery. One Mile Runner David O’Meara, whose goal is to inspire athletes over 30 to avoid injury, wears compression socks during and after performance events.

As a runner O’Meara wears the Athletic Recovery Sock while traveling and after exercise. He wears the Performance Sock for running. Both are part of the Active Therapy Line from Sigvaris. The comparession in the sock helps to flush out lactic acid that builds in the leg during exercise. The sock’s benefits are the ability to relieve tired, aching legs and exercise-induced muscle soreness. Continue reading For Running, Compression is Key

Vibrant Colors Gets the Shaft

The technology of golf club design has evolved greatly since the first Scotsman took to the greens, but while the course regularly changes color with the seasons, the same can’t be said about those clubs, which pretty much all look alike. This is especially true ever since the advent of metal shafts, where you’ve been able to get your choice of chrome or plain metallic finishes. Those looking for a particular flare might as well find themselves in the bunker or water hazard, because about the only customizable aspect of clubs has been to put new grips.

But Vibrant Golf’s line of VibraCoat technology could very well change the traditional steel shaft by offering seemingly endless color combinations and finishes. The company offers opaque, gloss, flat, metallic and translucent finishes, all built around a durable polymer coating that will look good, but just as important will also protect the steel shaft from harsh weather conditions. Players can thus admire their stylish looking clubs while out on the fairway, and know that the metal is also well protected from the elements.

The clubs with VibraCoat are permitted under the rules of golf, while the addition of the coating has virtually no effect on the weight or swing. According to the company it can be applied to any steel shaft regardless of taper or stepping. The best part is that you know even if you can’t always get into the swing of things, your clubs will good trying.

Vibrant Golf Official Site

Cage Fighting Comes to the Living Room With Kinect

Two gamers enter, one gamer leaves – that’s the concept behind this new fighting game, but let’s hope the living room is left in order after a session of Fighters Uncaged. The twist with this upcoming story-centric fighting game is that you don’t sit your backside on the couch and merely mash buttons.

Fighting Uncaged from Ubisoft and developer AMA Studios, which is scheduled for release this November, is being designed exclusively for Kinect on the Xbox 360 video game system. In this action fighter players will experience authentic fighting style of Thai boxing with everything except actual contact thanks to the controller-free Kinect. That means getting off the couch to make the moves just you would in real life, but without the fear of actually getting your ass kicked in the process.

In the game players can create 70 different strikes inspired by martial arts and compete in 21 different fight environments, which on screen will transport gamers from their living rooms to dark alleys, abandoned churches and other “exotic” locations. In addition to tracked moves, players can further utilize voice-activated strikes, and unlike new skills to use against their opponents. The Kinect body tracking system will allow for accurate dodging and blocking of incoming strikes, which should make the gaming experience more realistic than ever.

“Fighters Uncaged is the first motion fighting game for Microsoft Kinect, dedicated to a core audience,” said Adam Novickas, U.S. director of marketing at Ubisoft. “Fighters Uncaged requires players to get out of their seat to engage in a controller-free full-body combat game and experience the authentic fighting style of Thai boxing.”

Fighters Uncaged will arrive for the Xbox 360 this November from Ubisoft. It is likely the next best thing to taking it outside.

Fighters Uncaged Official Website

Strap On the iPhone with iSkin pulse Sports +

Take your iPhone on a run, and you may worry about the handset flying out of your grip on a sprint. It’s also not ideal to do exercise, say push-ups, that an app is dictating on the screen while holding the phone. Enter the pulse Sports + case from iSkin.

Designed as a case to be used with the iPhone app PocketCPR, the pulse Sports + case has a hand strap that secures the phone on the back of the hand or palm so you can easily see the display. While it is marketed as the companion to PocketCPR, the strap design lends itself to referencing the iPhone during activity. If you have a running program, you can play music and look at your progress for your run on screen. If you’re doing stretches or exercises, you can reference the proper positioning while in pose or movement.

The case is contstructed using microban, which stretches to accommodate your hand and the material also has antimicrobial properties and inhibits the growth of fungus and bacteria that you may otherwise worry about after sweating on a case during a workout.

iSkin pulse product page

PocketCPR product page

No Long Way Down For Long Boarders

Wes Sampson (Photo: Welcome to Williams Lake)

Wes Sampson knows as well as anyone what goes up, must come down. And if the veteran longboarder has his way he’ll come down very fast. He’s the organizer of this weekend’s upcoming Mount Washington Downhill Race in Comox, British Columbia, and if all goes as planned he hopes to break the International Gravity Sports Association downhill skateboarding world speed record of 113.02 km/h.

Unlike traditional skateboards, this race is essentially like street luge, but standing up. Thus this can be a serious deal, and Canada.com reported that one longboarder lost year life just last month while riding down Mt. Seymour Road in North Vancouver. This week’s ride promises to be safer, as it is a sanctioned event, with traffic controlled on the Strathcona Parkway during the event. Continue reading No Long Way Down For Long Boarders

Tony Hawk Flies Again New Game

After the last game it looked like the Hawkman’s wings were clipped for good, as Tony Hawk Ride wasn’t so much a thrill ride as outright spill. But you can’t keep a good skater down, and the champ of the board is rising from the ashes, proving he’s a video game phoenix. All indications say it looks like he’ll back in full video game form with the upcoming Tony Hawk: SHRED, in part because this arcade style game isn’t just about the usual sidewalk surfing either. This time the game includes both skateboarding and snowboarding action, and more importantly puts players on a truly revolutionized controller to get the wannabes off the couch and on a virtual deck. Continue reading Tony Hawk Flies Again New Game

Virtua Tennis Takes a Swing with PlayStation Move

Did you have a tantrum and want to throw your racquet at the referee last time you played tennis? Sure, everyone has. Get ready for the court next year. SEGA is in development with Virtua Tennis 4 for PlayStation 3, which will use the Sony PlayStation move controller and be 3D for those who spring for a new 3D HDTV set. Continue reading Virtua Tennis Takes a Swing with PlayStation Move

Erie Colorado to Get Velodrome

An artist's rendering of the proposed Boulder Valley Velodrome, a 250-meter outdoor cycling track planned for the intersection of County Line Road and Bonnell Avenue in Erie. (Courtesy of David A. Beal & Associates )

The Erie Trustees recently approved plans for the Boulder Valley Velodrome, which could be operational in as little as a year. This would be the first velodrome built to Olympic guidelines in the United States since 2004, and it certainly could be of interest to the world’s cycling community. While single speed and fixies have become popular in recent years, the fact remains that there are woefully few places across the country to actually compete, or even to learn the ropes. Continue reading Erie Colorado to Get Velodrome

Ubisoft Lets You Dance Your Way to the Gold

While Sony and Microsoft prepare to roll out their respective motion-centric game system add-ons this fall, Nintendo isn’t taking it lying or sitting down. The company, which has essentially danced its way to the bank with the Nintendo Wii, now will let gamers do the dancing. This week Ubisoft announced that Gold’s Gym Dance Workout is available for gamers to shake their way to better fitness.

 The game offers a variety of dance routines with workouts that include Latin dance styles, as well as choreographed boxing dances and even mini-games that target specific muscle groups. Gold Gym Dance Workout includes multiple training modes to appeal to a range of fitness levels, whilst the difficulty of the gameplay can evolve as the player’s actual fitness level increases. Virtually players can hit the gym and visit some of the most iconic locations, including those in Japan, Egypt, India, Australia or even the legendary Gold’s Gym in Venice Beach. Continue reading Ubisoft Lets You Dance Your Way to the Gold

Boa Technology Calls Out Steve Jobs

Hey Steve, no laces to tie!

Boa Technology, you are our heroes this week! The company noted that Apple CEO Steve Jobs stopped in the middle of his talking points during a recent press conference to… gasp… tie his shoes. No big deal right? It happens to the best of us. But as Boa Technology noted in An Open Letter to Steve Jobs, “It struck us as downright appalling that the CEO of a company leading the charge towards the 22nd century would resort to First Century Technology to close his shoes.”

The company further noted that they sent Mr. Jobs a pair of shoes “that is true to Apple’s forward-looking culture” (their words, not ours as we’re far from Apple zealots at KineticShift.com). So what exactly makes the Boa Technology stand apart? Continue reading Boa Technology Calls Out Steve Jobs

Showdown Over “Toning Products” Looming?

A war of words could be brewing over those so-called “toning” shoes reports MediaPost, which notes that Nike is firing back at rivals Reebok/Adidas (Adidas owns Reebok). Nike is running print ads (see below) for its own Trainer One women’s shoe, with the headline “The Ultimate Quick Fix is not a magical toning shoe,” and follows with the tag line: “This shoe works if you do.” In other words it goes back to the old Nike slogan of “Just do it.” So is that the end of the “toning” craze? Not likely. Continue reading Showdown Over “Toning Products” Looming?