Novara, REI’s bike line, is marking its 30th anniversary with a new line of bikes and gear that includes folding bikes for transportation, road bikes, mountain bikes and reflective clothing. Retailer REI will start to get the 2013 line of bikes, and continue getting new items through spring. Continue reading Novara Offers New Bikes, Gear at REI
Tag: TUBES
Bicycle Tubes – More Than a Blip on the Map
Blip tubes are a clever design by Urbane Innovations, “that saves waste, saves packaging, and saves the time of explaining tube choices to consumers.” Lofty goals for a fundamental piece of cycling equipment. But tires and tubes are certainly often replaced items on a bike. So any efficiency gained has a large impact overall. Bicycle tubes come in a mind boggling array of sizes. Blip tubes seek to remove some of that confusion and help the environment at the same time.
By making the stem removable from the tube, spare tubes are purchased without a stem. With the stem removed the tube cost is less, the weight is lower, less packaging is needed, and less space is used for storage ( in shipping, bike shops and on the bike). Since 2003 there have been more than 100 million bicycles produced EACH YEAR worldwide (source: Worldometers.info). That figure is over twice the number of cars built each year. Clearly the number of replacement tubes needed for bicycles each year is very large. Continue reading Bicycle Tubes – More Than a Blip on the Map
Stan is the Man Thanks to His Tubeless System
During the Second World War many nations relied on bicycles to transport soldiers in rear areas, and to carry messages. Some nations, such as Japan, even used bicycles to rush troops to the front lines. This worked well until the bikes got flat tires – and with rubber in great demand many bikes proved to be sort of worthless, a feeling any rider with a flat probably feels. However, the Japanese solution was simply to ride on the rims until those bent out of shape. Fortunately today bicycle tubes are still just about the least expensive part on the bike, but that’s little comfort when you get a flat and have to change the tire – unless you think of riding on the rims.
So we’re not exactly sure who this “Stan” might be, but he invented one cool product – at least as long as you’re not the maker of bicycle inner tubes, or like riding on your rims with flat tires. The Stan’s Tubeless System is essentially a kit that allows for most standard bike tires to hold air without the use of a tube. This innovative system uses a rubber rim strip to cover the spoke holes along with a liquid sealant to prevent air from leaking through the tire. Continue reading Stan is the Man Thanks to His Tubeless System
K-Swiss Gets a Little Too “Powerful” With Tubes Campaign
- He’s not an athlete, he just plays one (badly) on TV
Nike didn’t drop Tiger Woods as a spokesman after all of his “problems,” which suggests that even bad boys can still sell products. But the recent decision from K-Swiss to use a fictional athlete to market shoes seems way, way off base. A newly launched ad campaign for the TUBES fitness shoes from K-Swiss features “slightly delusional ex-professional baseball player” Kenny Powers, played by actor Danny McBride, from the HBO series Eastbound & Down. Considering that Powers seldom thinks before opening his mouth, it is an odd choice for a spokesman.
But David Nichols, executive vice-president of K-Swiss sums it up another way, “we wanted to deliver unfiltered straight talk about how awesome TUBES are. Who better to do that than Kenny Powers?” Continue reading K-Swiss Gets a Little Too “Powerful” With Tubes Campaign