Wheelgirl

Interbike Vegas 2011 Kryptonite Bike Shepherd Lets You Use a Cellphone to Recover Stolen Bikes

At Interbike 2011, I took a bunch of video of the lovely wooden bikes decorating the Kryptonite booth and talked with Kevin. He explained that Kryptonite's Bike Shepherd is a product which allows you to view information about a tagged and registered bike, via your cellphone, and then use social networking to help to return those bikes registered as stolen.  (Watch the video.)

Yes, cats, if i were a bike thief, I'd try to scratch off the tags. Kevin told me that the glue is pretty difficult to remove. But I've peeled off so many bike wheel and rim labels, I'm pitbull relentless at label peeling. Bike thieves are sly, so use your collective urban cycling brains to place the tags in places someone can scan them with a cell phone, but where bike thieves won't immediately see them.  (Suggestion: If you find an excellent and stealth place to stick at tag, don't publish the location online. Bike thieves can read, too.)

Tool of Angel or Devil, U-Lock with 15mm Fixie Axle Nut Wrench Built In

Maybe I am just a bit too urban in my initial ponderings. When I saw this u-lock my first thought was some wicked cat is going to use his/her u-lock to take off my back fixed wheel; do a switch with their spent rotten hoop, and then lock my stolen rear wheel to the their bad and wrong fixed gear with the convenient satanic 15mm device. However, I do really like it, and the idea of carrying 1 item which can address safety and repair scenarios.  So, well done for the streamlining of accessories. My gifted engineering cats, please build on this good general idea, and figure out how to add to the design a discreet set of tire levers and a perhaps a red flashing LED light. What about a bottle opener?! (O that constant question!) Look at your bike, young cats thirsty for bottled root beer on the road, and figure out how to do that without an unnecessary dedicated device. Suggestion: Always wear your thinking caps on under your helmets.

Photo lifted by MonkeyLikesShiny --> CorpusFixie  --> Trackosaurus Rex --> Wired  It' gorgeous out. When you are not riding in the glorious weather, go click around on these sites, and gets some new ideas to address your two-wheeled aesthetic desires.

NiteRide MiNewt Mini-USB Light and Knog Frog Lights

The weather in the Bay Area is gorgeous in September and October. But soon we will all be riding around in the dark trying to figure out if those are puddles or potholes filled with water. Enter the NiteRider MiNewt Mini-USB.  I had the MiNewt model two years ago. And this year's MiNewt is smaller, lighter, and USB charge capable.

Now, Knog's Frog lights are light and easy to use. They have a steady and blinking mode. We sell a ton of them, and I keep a couple of those on my ride. They can live on your bike with little issue, and they help you to be seen. They come in many colors, and all of us at the shop really like the design and function of them. But the MiNewt Mini-USB is what you want if you are a commuter wanting to see where you are actually going on the bike. I have a couple of speed bumps on my ride home from work, and I have to hum my lucky tune when I am trying to see them in the dark with the one LED Frog light. The MiNewt light is bright enough to allow me to avoid pressing a bold raccoon on my commute home.(Jump for specs and detailed photos.)

Photos by Wheelgirl. Frog headlight, MiNewt USB, MiNewt Kit, Frog tail light. (Ti frame welds by Lynskey.)

LightCap200 Bike Water Bottle Night Light, Soma Crystal PolyPro, Klean Kanteen, Specialized, and Bisphenol A

If you prefer to ride your bike with a hard plastic water bottle, you can replace the current cap on a Nalgene, Camelback, or GSI water bottle with this solar-powered Sol Light 200 water bottle cap, and turn your clear or translucent water bottle turns into a bike night light. The solar light charges during the day in the sunshine while you are riding around, and the 4 bright-white LEDs at sunset shine into your empty or full water bottle turning it into a lantern. Sol Light makes the $20.00 LightCap 200 solar-light water bottle cap to fit any standard 2.25-inch diameter water bottle. The LightCap 200 has a NiMH rechargeable battery, a sensor that turns it off when it senses sunlight, and a waterproof on-and-off switch, so you can use it as a flashlight if you get a flat tire.

But of course, the questions associated with hard plastic water bottles is not about the viability of a solar light built into the cap but about the leaching of Bisphenol A (BPA) from these re-usable polycarbonate bottles. If you want to learn more about leaching plastic, you can read this. We carry in the shop the Soma Crystal PolyPro water bottles, which do not contain Bisphenol A, but the bottle is of a harder plastic, and I could never get it to deliver a really good slug of water at the top of a hill. Soma has improved the bite spout this year. So, I will try it again. I had the same type of experience trying to gulp water at the top of a hill from the non- BPA stainless steel Klean Kanteen. When climbing like a happy boat anchor in the California sun, I need to be able to deliver a stream of water to my sweaty self faster than the inflexible water bottles allow.

If you are bike racing or training, you probably ride with the soft, squeezable Specialized water bottles many road and mountain cyclists prefer, since it is harder to drink on the bike from a container you can't squeeze. (Look on the bottom of your favorite waterbottle, and see if it is stamped with the Specialized "S".) I don't have any leaching info on Specialized bottles. If you do, post a link. Feel free to post links and experiences you have had with good water bottles for endurance cycling that don't leach toxins. And if you use the Sol LightCap200, put up a post and let us know what you think.

 

Photos lifted from the Sol Light website.

Like Cool to OhGizmo to Giz

Black Tape On Your Frame is Out and Colored Vinyl for $2 Is In

Customer Will came into the store to buy an inner tube, and I couldn't help but notice the blue panels on his Bianchi Pista. Because they matched his tires, and they were, well, very blue. It was obvious that it was not paint, tape, or a bad powdercoat. His secret?

A colored vinyl sheet 8 x 11 inches costing something like $1.18 from Michael's The Arts & Crafts Store. The material (remember Colorforms?) is useful for non-marring decorations and the like. It clings like to the smooth chrome frame (as well as to a smooth powdercoat or paint job). And if you someday might need to sell your bike, the original finish and decals stay intact.

Sure it is a bit hoopdee. It won't cling that well when it is dirty. And anyone can see that it isn't paint. But you won't have to spend a bunch of time getting the adhesive from electrical tape off of your frame. It is classier than a home-made sticker, and you can try on some of your stripe and panel color idea before having to pay the big bucks for a custom paint job.