In contrast with today’s Made in America feature on Genuine Innovations, we wanted to share a BBC Made in Britain video on Brompton, fold-up commuter bikes. It’s interesting to hear Brompton speak of the importance of handcrafted parts that go into the bikes, and how being made in Britain actually helps the manufacturer in the Chinese market.
[Via EcoVelo]
You might be able to change a flat tire. But do you know how to clean your rear cassette? Bike Repair App for the iPhone ($2.99), and Android ($3.07) from Atomic Softwares gives you a pre-ride checklist plus step-by-step maintenance instructions to keep your ride on the road without running to the shop every time you hear a clicking sound.
Photos with instructions help walk you through basic repairs for bike components such as wheels, rear derailleur, front derailleur, chain, handlebar/headset, crankset/pedals, brakes, disk brakes, shifter, suspension, helmet and even your body with an “aches and pains” category.
Atomic organized the app well, including a section for problems and another for parts. The app includes messages, sort of a Q&A where the developer posts answers to user emails. Throughout the app typos appear. Maybe it’s just my editor instinct. However if you’re publishing an app — especially if you’re charging for it — you should probably have someone read through the copy before putting it up there. I’d rather concentrate on identifying why my pedals click than become distracted by miss-worded instructions.
Bike Repair doesn’t replace a visit to the shop for a tune-up or major repair, but it does help you fine-tune your bike. The bike inspection information is helpful. It walks you through what to do before every ride, and a second section gives you a checklist of things to check your bike for monthly. The monthly checklist tells you to look for structural damage, looseness, and gives you tips on cleaning and other simple maintenance issues.
You probably need some knowledge of bikes to make use of the app. If you don’t know what a derailleur is you might be able to identify it from the picture, but it helps to know your way around the bike since the pictures are confined to the size of a phone or tablet. It’s a lot of instruction if you don’t know a tube from a tire.
Bike Repair App on iTunes
Bike Repair App on Android
When you’re done with that bottle of bike lube, do you wonder if you can recycle? Finish Line Technologies just made the switch to polyetheline terephthalate plastic, or PET, for its bottles. That includes Finish Line’s Ceramic WET Lube; Ceramic WAX Lube; Dry Lube made with Teflon Flouropolymer; WET Lubricant; 1-Step Cleaner and Lubricant and Ceramic Grease products.
The company used PET for its stability. The material provides improved barrier permeability, preventing paneling and the loss of product due to evaporation through the bottle walls. The barrier protection protects the stability of the formulations inside, and increases shelf life. Continue reading Finish Line Crosses the Line Into Recyclable Bottles
The League of American Bicyclists calls May National Bike Month. It makes a lot of sense. For a large part of the country, cyclists are just getting back on the saddle. And many of us are itching to do so. We don’t need an excuse such as Bike Month, but it’s nice motivation.
Additional incentive is Bike to Work Day, Thursday May 12. It’s the 17th Annual of such days for the Bay Area. This year they’re hosting sign-ups on the YouCanBikeThere.com web site. Get a few friends and coworkers together to sign up as a team of 2-5 people. The Team Bike Challenge officially kicks off May 1. Log your rides on the teambikechallenge.org site to compete. You can check your team’s status through the personalized Facebook Friends Leader board.
For the Bike to Work challenge, every member of the top scoring team in each county will receive a bike-related prize valued over $50. The top scoring team in the Bay Area receives a bike-related prize valued at over $1,000.
Even if you’re not in the Bay Area, the weather is starting to lend itself to biking to work and other places you may be headed. The Bike to Work challenge says “It’s a fun and easy way to see just how much biking does for your health, budget, and the environment.”
Bike to Work Day’s You Can Bike There
Log your miles at Team Bike Challenge
Students at Prescott College in Prescott, AZ aren’t happy with the state of biking in their city and as part of a class project they’re coming up with a solution to present to the local government. Students enrolled in the course The Bicycle: Vehicle for Social Change, studied possible solutions for bike-friendly roadways and plan to follow-through in changing the community.
The course guides students through the bicycle’s beneficial role in society. Students traveled to Europe to attend the Velo-city conference in Seville, Spain last month where the Charter of Seville was signed. The Charter is a document that proposes the acceptance of cycling. At the Velo-city conference the students observed the gathering of officials from cities including the Netherlands, Spain and other communities around the world. Continue reading Students Push for Bike-Friendly Streets in Prescott
If you’re just learning how to ride a bike, you may be surprised at how stable the bike is once you start rolling. It turns out an academic team of engineers studied the physics behind cycling and still remain puzzled by a bike’s ability to be self-stable.
This group of academics with degrees in engineering wrote a paper published in Science Mag, “A Bicycle Can Be Self-Stable Without Gyroscopic or Caster Effects.” The group of four engineers studied the bike, its history, and built a bike absent of gyroscopic forces found on most bikes, and found the bike still remains upright. While the math works out, the physics remain a bit of a mystery.
via [ars technica]
We’ve seen no shortage of cycle computers, and today these feature GPS in addition to tracking distance, calories burned and of course speed. But a pair of Colorado mountain bikers, Graeson Lewis and Mike Hogan, have opted for a more retro and stylish approach with their StemCAPtain clocks.
Essentially, the device replaces the generic – and frankly boring – handlebar stem cap with a timepiece or other similar round gizmo. These include waterproof thermometer or compass (think of that as old school GPS). The installation is simple enough. Remove the old stem cap and replace it with the aluminum base of the StemCAPtain and then snap in the clock or other insert. A silicone gasket at the bottom reportedly keeps it snug and rattle-free.
So do these caps do anything that a cycle computer doesn’t do? Not really, but it is a sort of nifty and easy swap out, and can add a bit of individuality to a bike. The StemCAPtain is available directly from the company, with prices ranging from $19.95 to $26.95 US. Time to ride.
[Via Gizmag.com: StemCAPtain – not a bike lock, but a bike CLOCK]
While quite worthy of a Kinetic(Mis)Shift the new “Only the Brave Bicycle” is indeed one only for those brave enough to be caught dead riding it. The bike, which was reviewed recently by Wired.com, is the result of a collaboration between clothing company Diesel and bicycle maker Pinarello.
As Wired noted, it features something that has become all too common in hipster friendly fixies, namely odd-colored wheels, but this one takes it a step further and mismatches them to boot. We also don’t get the bent frame either… maybe that is to make it look like it was already in a crash, and thus matches the pre-worn jeans for its urban dweller rider.
And then there is the kicker… namely the price. While there is no shortage of fixies in all price ranges, this one comes in at $1,200, which is a lot of money for an aluminum frame bike that just says “fail” all over it. It also seems that Wired isn’t the only ones that think this bike is an eyesore. The “negative” reviews are piling up.
Diesel and Pinarello Team Up to Make World’s Ugliest Hipster-Bike [Wired]
Diesel/ Pinarello urban bike [Bicycle Design]
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
Change is coming, and we hope this time it is actually means something. We’re not talking about anything political either, but rather the Change Folding Bike. We’ve seen a few folding bikes we like a lot, and we’ve seen a lot of folding bikes we don’t like at all. The Change is one that might actually “change” everything. It features the traditional diamond frame – with a few sexy curves thrown in for good measure – and more importantly this is one of those bikes that doesn’t offer tiny wheels and a messed up center of gravity. It offers full sized 26-inch tires, disc brakes, is compatible with standard bike parts and weights just around 11.5 Kg. Continue reading Interbike 2010: Fold and Change
There was no shortage of helmets at Interbike this year, but one was hard to miss – mainly because it lighted up the booth and more. Leave it the Taiwanese to put an electronic fiber optic light into a cycling helmet, and actually make one worth even considering. Aegis could have just slapped a normal bike light on the back of a simple helmet and called it a day, but at the company developed a nice brain bucket that is ideal for commuting and other causal riding.
It features 19 large vents to help keep the head cool, while stainless steel mesh over the holes work to keep out insects and other objects. The shell is constructed of high impact PC, and the YKK clip and chinstrap ensure a nice tight fit. The LED light is powered by 2 AAA batteries and can flash for up to 120 hours, while the LED offers a lifetime up to 50,000 hours. It is EMS certified, so no worries about harmful electromagnetic waves frying the brain it was meant to protect.
When we first heard about the Treadmill Bike we were convinced it was a joke. After all, why the need to combine a treadmill with a bike? Couldn’t you just run outside? Running on a tread to move a device not only seem counter productive but it sort of seems incredibly silly too. But in fact it is a real device, and one that has been getting a fair amount of attention lately.
The truth is that most stories about it ask the same exact questions we’re asking, which is why you couldn’t just go running instead. Apparently the benefits of the device are that it offers (according to the official website) “the benefits of running on a convention treadmill but outside.” The Treadmill Bike thus further protects “your feet from dirt and other contaminants commonly found on the earth’s surface.” Continue reading Running on a Moving Treadmill?
Imagine being able to do the running and cycling parts of a triathlon at the same time? That’s sort of what the ElliptiGo can do. This outdoor elliptical bicycle essentially combines running with cycling, for what the manufacturer dubs a low-impact yet high-output cross-training form of exercise. The bike lacks any seat, but does utilize typical hand brake levers.
Developed by Bryan Plate, a former cyclist and Ironman competitor who suffered from hip and knee injuries, the ElliptiGo is a 18.1kg eight-speed trainer that is geared towards runners who want to avoid the impact of road work, but still want to remain “out of the saddle.” While the ElliptiGo is probably best for fairly flat terrain – and does require a reasonably smooth surface – the bike can reach some decent speeds, around 24 km/h, although the company maintains that strong riders/runners could reach up to 40 km/h.
The ElitptiGo retails for $2,200 and is available in blue, black and for the environmentally friendly, green.
[Via Asia Cnet: Taking the ElliptiGO bike for a spin]