Wheelgirl

Bike Touring and eReaders Nook, Kindle, Sony PRS-T1 Sync and Annotation Review

Bicycles and ereaders, cats, it's summer time! If you plan to read for fun or research in the sun while bike touring, and you don't want to carry extra paper weight in your panniers, consider an ereader. I've simultaneously tested the Sony PRS-T1, the Barnes and Noble Nook Simple Touch, and the Amazon Kindle Touch. This post focuses on which ereaders sync ebook annotations across devices as well as the ebook file in the cloud. It also explains how different vendors deal with your public library ebook annotations. It took me a while to figure this out. It is not super clear on the manufacturers' product specs. Read on and look at the whiteboard diagram. Remember: It is technology. By definition, it has to change.

Car Companies Collaborate and Brand Bicycles

You probably already saw this posting about car companies collaborating and branding bicycles. But in case you were working on your Halloween costume for the past several days and missed it, see what you think. I haven't had a chance to ride any of these. If you have, comment.

 (Maserati and Montante Cicli, photo lifted from the post. Not sure about a front disc on what could be an uncomplicated fixie? But I like the colorway.)

 (Specialized and MacLaren Applied Materials, photo lifted from the post. Fast is good. Faster is better.)

True, on you way back from a training ride, you could knock on doors, and score some treats by convincing some you are wearing a bike racer costume. But change into a fresh jersey, or the little pirates, painters, and neurosurgeons won't ever think about being cyclists.

Oregon Manifest Modern Utility Bike Challenge and Creative Collaboration Bicycles

If you want to see the bikes constructed by those who took up the Oregon Manifest's challenge of building the ultimate utility bike for modern living, click here.

Here are some of the winners of the competition. Thank you, makers and all concerned, for providing me with some thought-provoking, two-wheeled eye candy.

 

All pixs lifted from the Oregon Manifest site. (Best of Show: Tony Pereira, Pereira Cycles), (Student Winners: Univeristy of Oregon.)

While you are clicking around on the Oregon Manifest site, check out the creative collaboration bikes.

(Peoples' Choice: IDEO and Rock Lobster Cycles)

(Fuseproject and SyCip Design)

(Ziba Design and Signal Cycles)
(All pixs lifted from the Oregon Manifest site.)

If you have a job, you better get back to work. If you don't, and you love bikes, go for a ride. You'll feel better. While you are pedaling, think about what you might create.
(Thanks to Raju for sending me this link.)

Spokeless Bike Wheel Star-Trek Style

An engineering class at Yale decided to prototype a spokeless bike wheel as a class project. They prototyped  the rear wheel only, given the one-semester time constraint and the rim manufacturing costs. How cool does this look! Now, I wonder if it might be quieter and lighter with a direct drive belt? See the Wheelgirl post on the chainless bikes of now and yesteryear. Cat on two wheels:Time stays still; we're the ones that move. Read about the Yale makers and see all the photos

Photos lifted from the Readit Site  for the Yale tech post. Yes, I like the implicit visual of bike building as a creative outlet.

Saw it on --Readit--> -DesignBoom --> PedalMafia
Scroll down on PedalMafia and check out the Mayer Hawthorne video Maybe So Maybe No. Take out one earbud and sing a little bit today on your commute.

If Forced To Visit Relatives on 4th of July, Pedal ID by PedalMafia

Eat some grilled food, talk about the economy, kiss your great aunts on the cheek, and sneak a hand-held, web-browsing device to your 4th of July gathering.  I started playing on this site after employee An introduced me to it. An's fixie was stolen, and she was trying to design her next bike. (The thieves cut down the sign to which her bike was u-locked.) An got a inexpensive orange fixie. But what rhymes with "orange"? While you are sitting at the picnic table hoping your Uncle Billy doesn't blow off a finger lighting firecrackers, go to  Pedal ID by Pedal Mafia .

Oh, how I enjoy the labors of creative and smart bike cats. The Pedal ID program is easy. Click here. You will discover colorways for track bikes that mimic those outfits of  late 1970s hair metal bands. Sometimes you will feel embarrassed by your designs and need to reload the tab.  Some tips for new users: To add a component to your canvas, click on the component. To remove a component, click on that specific component icon again, and it will disappear. You can drag and drop any components on the canvas. On the bottom left-hand corner of the Frame page, there is a Pink, Blue, Yellow Frame Paint icon which allows you to paint a frame different colors.

There are about 19 choices you can make from screens for frames, front forks, wheels, wheels bmx (spread the love), chain ring, crank (spider), pedal, toe clip, toe strap, stem, seat post, saddle, handle bar (riser and track bars), tire, tire bmx, grip, chain, exclusive, other (which includes frame pads, Chris King headsets, lanterns, Knog lights.)

No more holding up a component to your fixie and asking every friend you know as well as complete strangers, "Does this look stupid or good?"  This 4th of July, visit Pedal ID, and remember: Lighting paper tubes filled with gun powder inside of containers creates a big noise and shrapnel.

 

(Screens lifted from Pedal Mafia's Pedal ID app.)

Adrian and His Comic Book BMX Components

A guy on a light blue BMX stopped at the bike shop. And I couldn't help but notice his ride. Creative cyclist Adrian had covered his stem, seat, and crank arms in comic book pages. Adrian told me that it took a while and some experimentation to create a coating mixture that works. He showed me photos of another cool looking comic component set he had made. It is summertime; sweeten your rides, creative super cats. (Jump for close ups of comics and more photos.)

(Photos by Wheelgirl. Comic Book Component Created by Adrian)

Shimano Yumeya Website Has A Great Intro. and XTR White Gold Uber Parts

Usually, I hate to watch bike website Flash intros. I press the skip link, since I want specs, not dancing bike parts, and the far-from-entertaining intros seem to last forever. But you have to click here and see the new Shimano site for their new Yumeya product offerings. Yumeya is the set of new white and gold high-performance uber light XTR mountain bike parts. Don't skip the into. And make sure you have on your headphones if you are at work. There is music and a pretty loud yell.  This Kabuki cat, Mr. Ainosuke Katoaka, has so much fortitude and bearing, I had to watch the intro three times, and I forgot to check out the part specs.  He is not even a cat. Check out that hair. He is a lion, and he is the real deal.

As to the XTR offerings, if you are all about gold and white high-performance mountain bike groupset colorways, you need to check out the product offerings.

Hip Wheelchair Rolls By On Phil Wood Hubs and Mountain Bike Tires

I was sitting on a bench slurping down my coffee before work one late morning about a month ago, and I couldn't help but notice a very hip powder-coated green wheelchair rolling by me on Phil Wood hubs.  Theodore was kind enough to let me take some photos of his ride that he designed. He told me that he really likes the Phils, and he uses regular mountain bike tires on his chair. He explained that dedicated tires for wheelchairs are really pricey (up to $300 for hard rubber specialty wheelchair tires), and these expensive tires are not half as available or comfortable as mountain bike tires. Theodore also told me that he figured out he could use standard plastic electrical connectors, which are available in giant bags for pennies each, instead of more expensive fittings to connect the hand wheel to the main chair wheels. (Jump for more photos.)

Photos by Wheelgirl of Theodore and His Ride He Designed

I Phil Good

Powder-coated white high-flange goodness. "I feel nice like sugar and spice," since the latest Phil Wood track hubs arrived last week. The pair in the glass case are pretty enough to build a bike around.  "Whoa-oa-oa! I feel good, I knew that I would, now I feel good, I knew that I would, now. So good, so good, I got you Whoa!" (Buy an "I Phil Good" t-shirt. I dare you to get the tune to that song out of your head.)

* Reminder: Those artistic cats who hit the snooze button each and every morning, wake it up! You have 11 days left to enter the Wheelgirl 2008 T-Shirt Design Contest .

Photos by Wheelgirl

Phil Wood Says You Can Radially Lace Any Hub They Make And Not Void Warranty

I just got off of the phone with Mark at Phil Wood, and then I called back and talked with Bruno at Phil Wood just to double-check (after Peter at Cog Magazine specifically asked me if this also applied to Phil Wood SLR track hubs). Cats on two wheels: Phil Wood will warranty any Phil Wood hub that is radially laced. You will not void the Phil Wood warranty if you radially lace any Phil Wood high-flange regular, SLR (the track hub with little windows cut out of the flanges), or low-flange track; road, and single-speed hubs. Bruno said he had not yet seen a Phil hub flange sheared off, since Phil uses a less brittle aluminum alloy to make their hubs and stress on the flanges causing fractures don't happen the same way they do on hubs manufactured with more brittle aluminum. The worst thing Bruno has seen are a few hubs from the 1970s and 1980s which had been re-laced 4 times over 30 years, and the spoke holes finally said that they were tired causing the flanges to warp a bit. I'll take that kind of quality any day.

According to Mark, the engineers who designed the Phil Wood high-flange track hubs design them with the thought that cyclists might want to lace their front hubs radially. If you are new to fixed gear riding, radial lacing is the spoke pattern that looks minimal and cool, since the spokes don't cross. They radiate out from the center of the hub straight into the rim.

Alright rebel riding cats, I can already hear the question: "But what if i do want to radially lace my rear fixed Phil Wood hub. Will that void the warranty?"  (Jump for the answer.)

(Example photo lifted after random Google search from Velospace.org)

Finish That Excel Spreadsheet Later, Play with Serotta Bike Frame Paint Program Now

Serotta has a web-based bike frame paint program that will greatly decrease your workplace productivity by allowing you to sit in your cube all day long and preview a zillion possible bike frame paint jobs and decal placements of your choosing. I like the details and differences certain choices create in the total look of the frame set. How does the style of the frame set change when you paint the carbon fork versus leave it unpainted? Do certain color schemes look awesome or more like they belong on a dated t-shirt in the close-out section of Ross Dress For Less? What happens when you change the decal from white to red on the down tube?

Anyone can use the Serotta paint program to get an idea of how creative paint schemes and decal placements might look like on a new custom frame or how a simple new paint scheme might kick fresh life into your your tried and true current ride.

Paint program designs by Wheelgirl (lifted from the Serotta site's paint program) frames painted for the landscape designer, investment banker, Bob Marley fan?

Bicycle When It is Quiet, AEG's Giant Decibels Meter Billboards

OK, these giant decibel (dB) meter billboards were not made to support urban bicycle commuting. They are part of a marketing campaign to encourage consumers to buy quiet household appliances made by the company AEG-Electrolux. But if you are bicycle commuting or running errands via bike and passing by these meters in Berlin, Brussels, London, Milano, or Madrid, you can try to ride during the quieter times by looking on the web. All of the dB stats recorded by the dB meters are graphed by time and date. The site, Noise Awareness site in the United Kingdom, lets you view the noise data from the cities where these giant decibel meters are listed.

And if you are one of the many gifted children who lives on two wheels in Berkeley, and you have time on your hands this summer, here's a project.  Why not put a discrete decibel meter somewhere, like at Spruce and Rose or up by Tilden Park or on Grizzly Peak, so the recreational and competitive cyclists can avoid the scenic and narrow roads during the peak times for car travel. Make sure there is a way to wirelessly convey the monitoring data to a web app. You special talented San Franciso bike riding engineers, get to work on one for Market Street and the Embarcadero.

(Jump to read a bit about the history of the noise measuring unit, the decibel.)

   

Photo lifted from the Noise Awareness site.

via notcot

Face to Face or Back to Back, You Don't Have to Look at Someone's Neck Hairs

Chen Yugang of Taiwan designed and built a tandem bike prototype that allows two cyclists to ride the bike by positioning themselves face to face or back to back. The idea, according to Chen, is that you can enjoy a different and unique view while riding on his tandem bike. The bike isn't yet in production. But according to Chen, you can change the seating configuration quickly and easily without tools.

Of course, for those sitting face to face, there is also the thrill (and potential danger) of the unknown, since you can't really see where you are going. The same thrill of the unknown is partly true for those sitting back to back, since the captain (person in the front) still faces forward and can see where he or she is going. But the stoker (person sitting in the back) is now facing backward. So the stoker doesn't have to count the hairs on the captain's neck, but the stoker also cannot see for love or money without the use of a mirror where the bike is pointed. Check out the video of two riders booking on a different tandem set up back to back.

(First photo lifted from the DailyTimes . Second photo lifted from Geekologie via video from Metacafe.)

daily times to geekologie to dvice to giz

Walking Bike Takes 8 Pairs of Sneakers and Patience to Ride

Max Knight created the Walking Bike from 8 pairs of sneakers and some fancy wheel modifications. You can check out the YouTube to see how it rides. It is not exactly a smooth spinning machine, but I have a sweet spot in my heart for anyone who builds bike wheels. If you look closely, it appears Max has included the thoughtful touch of a black ankle sock for each sneaker. If you are a wheel builder, you know that the devil is in the details.

(Photos of Max Knight's Walking Bike taken by Thomas Brown and lifted from the arkitip site.)

arkitip to newlaunch to giz

Interview with Matt Bracken, President of Independent Fabrication

If you know of and love Independent Fabrication (IF) custom bike frames, you will want to check out this interview with Matt Bracken, the President of IF by Marcus Farley of Bike Radar.

Matt talks about the history, logo, and philosophy of IF as well as the Fat City Cycles connection. Here are a few tasty photo treats from the 2008 Independent Fabrication Catalog. I left out the Crown Jewel road bike, so you are encouraged to click on the catalog link and drool. We have a bunch of the new IF catalogs at the shop. We are very pleased with the way the frames look, build, and ride.

Also, in response to the 29er single-speed bike comments, we are waiting to finish the build on a lovely Independent Fabrication single-speed 29er according the the requests and design considerations of customer Robert. Trendy for a fleeting fashion moment it is not. Gorgeous and able to gracefully withstand the test of time and a thrashing on the trails and asphalt, it most certainly will be. (Check back soon for the photo of the ride Robert designed.)

Photos lifted from the IFbikes.com site. Crown Jewel track bike, Independence touring bike, Deluxe hard tail mountain bike.

Hydrogen Fuel Cell Powered Bikes

Deutsch Telecom, the German-based telecommunications company, is commercially testing bikes with hydrogen-powered fuel cell motors in Berlin. Two German companies, Masterflex and Hawk Bicycles, have collaborated on these bikes, which are intended for eventual use for transporting  mail, refrigerated goods, or other types of products that lend themselves to delivery by bike in urban areas.

Hydrogen-powered bikes already exist in England. In 2007, Valeswood distributed the Pearl Hydrogen Cycle. But the Pearl Cycles are used primarily as industry examples of hydrogen-powered fuel cell transportation, not working delivery bikes. Also, there is not a current delivery service for hydrogen gas, so Pearl Cycle owners need to "access their own hydrogen gas container to use for refueling," as stated by Valeswood's Managing Director John Turner during his interview with Bike Radar.

Hydrogen-powered fuel cell technology, as applied to bicycle transportation, is in the beginning stages. The 250-watt motors on the Masterflex/Hawk bikes are exempt from motor vehicle laws, just like regular bikes. In addition, hydrogen is believed to deliver up to three times the power of a battery, and the by-product of the hydrogen reaction is water, not carbon emissions. However, as you well may know, creating a system by which to extract, store, and process hydrogen in environmentally friendly fuel cells at a competitive price is the challenge. (You can read more about fuel cells by clicking here and here.)

(Photos lifted from the bikeradar site and the Valeswood site)

via bikeradar.com

This Valentine's Day, Show Your Love With The 1045-Piece Lego Batmobile Ultimate Collectors' Edition

If they already have bikes, make a 1045-piece Lego Batmobile Ultimate Collectors' Edition (No. 7784) to give to your lovely elementary-school aged niece and nephew for Valentine's Day.

The Batmobile has a transmission attached to the wheels, a hood that lifts via a turn of the tilt steering wheels to expose the turbo engines, a flip-up cockpit roof, and spinning orange faux flames coming out of the exhaust. The Batmobile is big ride at 17.5 inches long by 6 inches wide. (Make sure to send the Lego instruction books, so the kids can take it apart and put it back together again when they feel like it.)

A gift card for the Lego site will let them pick out an existing Lego project, or go to the Lego Factory to design their own customized Lego models. Lego will make the bricks, put them in a box, and deliver to you whatever you design. I've spent hours playing with the Lego web-based software designing the inside of the bike shop. If you want to see a cool giant Lego project, check out the time-lapse video of Joel of BoingBoing building the giant 5000-plus piece Lego Millennium Falcon ( No. 10179), which is 33 inches x 22 inches x 8 inches. And what was that yellow box 27 seconds into the video?

(More photos after the jump.)

Teenage Guy Builds Bike and Drivetrain Completely Out of Wood

Marco Facciola, a 16-year-old high school student, had to complete a personal project of a non-academic nature as a requirement for the International Baccalaureate program at his high school. So, drawing inspiration from stories his grandpa told him, he made this working bike completely of wood, including the drive train. Grandpa's stories included making his own wooden bicycle wheels during the war years, since rubber was a scarce commodity. Check out the chain and the pawl arrangement Marco designed, so he can coast down hills on his hand-made wooden single-speed. (Click here for Marco's description of his wood-working and bike-making process.)

 

Photos lifted from the online "Lee Valley & Veritas Tool Woodworking Newsletter".

Lee Valley to Neatorama (check out the naked mole rat ,scroll down) Gizmodo

Sheldon Brown's Spirit Lives on With All of Us Whom He Inspired To Build Better Bikes

Sheldon Brown died of a heart attack on February 3, 2008. He was 63 years old. If you ride a bike, and you haven't visited his website, click on this link right now; scroll down, and read everything you can. This man made a gigantic contribution to the bicycle community while he was on the planet through his prolific work as a mechanic, writer, photographer, researcher, advocate, and teacher.

Most of us who have had questions about bikes have turned to Sheldon's website and his detailed writings on historical information about bicycles, component compatibilities, and precise technical and experiential information. He shared his information and insights without hesitation through the years via the web.

He created the definitive online source of bicycle mechanical information. As importantly, he did so with humor and a positive, encouraging tone that didn't intimidate the beginning do-it-yourself weekend warrior bike mechanic or bore the pro bicycle mechanic. His articles are inspiring and the work of an exceptional teacher.

I did not have the chance to meet Sheldon or his family. (However, I have happily read the writings of his wife, Harriet, and her report on her experience riding Paris-Brest-Paris. And I have read about his family through his journal entries and articles.) Thoughts are with his family at this time.

Ride on Sheldon, and thank you for making all of us more knowledgeable, helpful, and inspired cyclists and bicycle mechanics.

  Sheldon with his family in Jan. 2007.

Photo lifted from Wikipedia and Sheldon Brown's website

Folding Bicycle Wheel Design

Duncan Fitzsimmons, a mountain biking enthusiast and industrial designer, has come up with a prototype of a full-sized road or mountain bike folding wheel. The folding wheel allows commuters and those who need to store their bicycles or wheelchairs to collapse the wheels into long and flat compact positions. This facilitates storing your ride, for example, in slim tall public lockers or above a train seats on a luggage rack.

Carbon fiber is Duncan's wheel material of choice in order to reduce the total weight of the wheel,  given the added weight of the hardware and hinges. You can check out more photos and a video of the wheel prototyping process on Duncan's site.

Photos lifted from Duncan's site. Original link sent to me by Customer Shawn from bikeradar.com

Not Riding Your Bike in the Rain, Build the Escape Robot from a Kit

It is January. Stop watching bad movies on cable. Build a robot from a kit. This is the first of several robot-building experiences for 2008.

The Escape Robot from Jameco costs $19.95, and you just spent that on two chai tea lattes and a couple of pumpkin bars. So, no excuses. You don't have to be an electrical engineer. The directions come in the kit. And it gives you a chance to practice your soldering skills. It has a infrared sensing system. So, it will move in different directions based on what it perceives. It is not at the same level of the Mars Rover, in terms of intelligence, but it is still cool to block its progress and watch it turn to avoid something in its path.

You are not riding your bicycle during the late, dark, rainy night hours. And your non-soldering friends can go wild and unleash their creative forces by building a maze that the robot can negotiate. Building one robot is the first step of creating a Robot Circus.

So, here is how it works:

1. Read the instructions included in the box before you do anything else.
2. Make sure you have fresh batteries in the house. If not, go get some now. Otherwise, it is a total drag when the robot is ready to roll, and you have no way to power it and play with it. (Try to use rechargeable batteries if you can. Since you will probably play with this toy until the batteries are dead.)
3. Organize the pieces in the kit and make sure that they are all there. (I use old egg cartons to separate the pieces.)
4. Follow the instructions and solder it together.
5. Take it to a maze made by your friends and see if the Escape Robot has what it takes to get a job offer from the Robot Circus Director.

More information and photos after the jump.

 

Photos taken by Wheelgirl

Home is Where the Handlebars Are

I've been thinking about mobile offices lately. What happens when you attach a towable living structure to a bicycle or tricycle? First, check out Paul Elkins' bicycle camper, a small, towable, 100-pound shelter attached to a bicycle in order to camp more comfortably at the annual Burning Man event held in the Nevada desert.

Then, view the video of Casey Wong's tricycle home, which also has a door, a window, a writing desk and a fold-out bed. Casey's bicycle home, which is 3 x 4 feet in dimension, is a response to the high cost of living space in Hong Kong. Casey now has the ability to enjoy a view of the ocean from his home .

If you think these are newish ideas, take a look at the article from Modern Mechanix July 1935. Joseph Dorocke, from Chicago, Illinois, made a 50 lbs, 4-foot long and 2-foot wide collapsible bicycle sleeping trailer. The bigger box housed a smaller box inside of it. When stopped for the night, he could lengthen his bed to 8-feet of open or enclosed sleeping space in which a cyclist could comfortably catch up on some beauty sleep. (If you've made a bicycle camper trailer, make sure to post a link to photos.)

 

Photos lifted from Paul Elkins' site, Reuters via Giz, and Makezine.com, respectively.

Make a Room Screen From Old Chain Rings, Cassettes, and Cogs

At the shop, we had been talking about putting a screen of some sort in front of the repair area to protect these bikes from the over curious.  Right after that conversation, Head Mechanic, Daniel, found this old fireplace screen with holes in it by the dumpster. The discarded screen had one broken support stand with it. Stainless Matt (maker of stainless steel bike frames) took the support stand, flipped it, drilled some holes, and created a base for the screen. Customer Ben helped sort some worn bike parts for shop art projects, and he filled a box with a bunch of cogs and chain rings.  I cleaned the parts in the solvent tank and decorated the screen with these no longer useful chain rings and disassembled cassettes.

So, if you are a road or mountain warrior or a fixed gear rider, you can write down your hours and miles on the bike in your training journal. Or, you can ride as much as you can. And then, decorate a screen with your used up and shark-toothed chain rings, cassettes, and cogs to create a visual representation of your commitment. If you make a screen with your old chain rings and cogs, send us a link to a photo. (More information after the jump.)

Photos taken by Wheelgirl.

Head Tracking with Wii Remote & Track Bike Racing Game

I've been thinking about Johnny Chung Lee and his presentation, "Head Tracking for Desktop Virtual Reality Displays Using the Wii Remote." I watched Johnny clearly explain the concepts and demonstrate head-tracking with the Wii remote a few days ago. 

Watch the YouTube, and after the concise explanation, at about  2:45 into the video, you'll see what all of the excitement is about. Someday, if the Nintendo Wii game developers start seriously downing some kegs of Red Bull, weekend warriors will be able to sprint the last 200 meters of a Grand Tour flat stage at 45 mph with three dozen pro cyclists trying to box them out. Or you might chose to tear it up in a Six Day track bike race on a track banked to your liking. For those who have no desire to ride Paris Roubaix, it will become more challenging to blow up, burn, shoot, kill, and drive the nouns in your games.

Check out the quick links to Johnny's other projects like the Wii remote whiteboard on johnnylee.net. Click on procrastineering.com to read about more "productive distractions" from the guy with 3 patents, 4 patent applications, a Ph.D from Carnegie Mellon University, and the panache to wear a Krispie Kreme doughnut hat in the photo on his curriculum vitae.

Holiday Music & Light Video Occupies Loved Ones, Gives You Time to Think About Your Next Bike Ride

We all know what happens when families get together for the holidays. You are not allowed to disappear for five hours on a bike ride, and someone gets put in charge of keeping an eye on all of the cousins until it is time to eat. The cousins who are school age are pretty easy to handle. They usually design some sort of game that includes running around the house and yard happily screaming at the top of their lung until it is time to eat or someone gets hurt. The little kids need more attention. They can't really sit still for a whole movie; they don't understand football; the bigger kids don't want them around; and momma is busy catching up with her sisters. All the tiny kids want to do is rewind, at least forty-six times, a short video that fills them with wonder.We at Wheelgirl are here to help. This short video clip will make your holiday babysitting job a piece of pumpkin pie.

My favorite part is between 1:09 and 1:39, where a bit of Christmas mystery really makes itself seen and heard. Click on the YouTube to watch with amazement. The little ones will screech with happiness. And I am pretty sure your great aunts and great uncles will proudly adjust their Santa hats and shake their snow globes to the beat once this video begins to play. The seniors have been listening to Jingle Bells for seventy-to-eighty years, but never have they seen and heard the December song set to a 4th of July fireworks display. Auntie, wearing the reindeer antler headband and the Christmas wreath pin on her sweater might have to wipe a tear of joy away from her eye with one of her candy-cane-themed dish towel.

Best wishes for the holiday season from everyone at Wheelgirl. (More about the guy who made this dazzling display and the song he used after the jump.)

via gizmodo

Solar Table Let's You Run Laptop Outside

The Sun Table, by Sudia Designs,  is designed to power your laptop and mobile devices while you hang out on your urban balcony or on the patio at your off-the-grid home. Of course, the cost of the solar table versus the cost of running an extension cord carrying electricity from a wall outlet is a consideration. But if you don't have a wall outlet in your off-the-grid home, you can quickly create the option of working remotely via your laptop.

For bike touring, there is not of yet an easy, inexpensive, light, portable solar solution for powering a laptop, so you can work remotely and get paid while you are away from your office building. I know that this does not make sense to people trying to get away from civilization on a bike. But computers never sleep. So, if you work on a project basis in high-tech, you can tour on your bike during the day, do your computer work via stored solar energy at night, and thus, get paid while you bike tour.

I like the idea of the solar table, because it doesn't require me to change my behavior. So, maybe the market for these solar tables are places that already have outdoor tables for working and socializing, like Starbucks, Peets, coffee shops, and outdoor cafes. If this solar table inspires you to come up with a good design which lends itself to bike touring applications, put up a post. Here is the info. on the solar table.

According to Sudia, located in Brooklyn, NY, the Sun Table is made in the USA, weighs 45 lbs, and costs $3600.00. The panel is a 64-watt multicrystalline with triple-junction solar cells. Its construction is unbreakable; it has a polymer encapsulation, and there is no glass. The Sun Table stores "13 amp hours, at 12 volts. That equals 156 Watt/hours in total. Enough to run a laptop for over 3 hours, or a TV for 4 hours." It is not designed to run big kitchen appliances. It takes 3 hours to charge in direct sunlight, and there is a battery meter for the Nickel Metal Hydride (NiMH) battery, so you can tell when the table needs to be recharged. It is not designed to be used in a rainstorm or submerged. The batteries can be replaced, and almost all of the table can be recycled after its 25-year life expectancy comes to an end.

Sudia Designs Sun Table
Treehugger to
to gizmodo

Make a Holiday Reindeer from Worn Bike Parts and Donate Decent Bike Parts to Trips for Kids

It is time to get your holiday art groove on by taking the broken and worn out bike parts you are holding on to for no reason that anyone but you can understand and making a reindeer.

All you need are some zip ties, a few mugs of hot chocolate, and a sense of humor. If you don't have a sense of humor, ask your friends who do have senses of humor to help you. We don't want the little children having holiday nightmares about one of Santa's troubled and savage attack reindeer. (Post a link to photos of your worn bike part reindeer.)

*Suggestion: While sorting through your old bike parts to make your worn bike part reindeer, you can box up and donate the dated and working bikes parts that you know you are never going to use again to Trips for Kids (TfK). You will help to give a kid the gift of riding a bike.

Photos and Worn Bike Part Reindeer by Wheelgirl.
Parts include black zip ties, rusty bent toe clip, ripped and rusty toe strap, those horrible canti brakes with broken springs that bike mechanics love to hate, seat with bent rail, worn rim, worn and/or broken chain rings, bar tape wrap excess from garbage, black tape excess from aforementioned bar wrap, broken seat clamp for reindeer tail, old exercise bike that was scavenged from a pile of refuse three blocks away and abandoned by the scavenger in front of my home for no known reason. Oh, lucky me!)

First 100-Percent Solar Bus in Australia Can You Take Your Bike?

Adelaide, Australia launched the first totally solar-powered bus yesterday. The bus is named, "Tindo," which is "Sun" in the language of the indigenous Kaurna people. I couldn't tell if there was a bicycle carrying rack on the bus. Combining bus and bike transportation works pretty in the Bay Area. (Adelaide cyclists, post a thought on this.)

The bus was manufactured by Design Line, head-quartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, with a principal manufacturing facility in Ashbury, New Zealand.  For you gearheads, here is the tech info from the Design Line press release:

"Using solar PV panels supplied by BP Solar, the solar PV system at the new Adelaide Central Bus Station will generate almost 70,000 kilowatt hours of zero carbon emissions electricity each year, making it currently the largest grid-connected system in Adelaide. Much of the funding for the $550,000 solar PV system has been provided by the Adelaide Solar City program, with the Adelaide City Council also committing significant funding. [My note: The city is ponying up over $8 million dollars toward achieving initiatives.]

With an operational range of 200 kilometres between charges under typical urban conditions, the air-conditioned solar electric bus is able to carry 27 passengers, with 25 seated and two wheelchair spaces. The bus uses 11 Swiss-made Zebra sodium/nickel battery modules which give it unprecedented energy storage and operational range."  [My note: Read more about Zebra batteries here and here.]

"The Lord Mayor says the solar PV recharging system and resulting carbon neutrality sets Tindo apart from other electric buses used around the world. 'There are few pure battery electric buses around the world, and most are characterised by being significantly smaller in size than Tindo, and they have a shorter operational range,' he says. 'The Adelaide City Council’s solar electric bus is the only one recharged using 100% solar PV electricity.''"

Photos lifted from the Adelaide City Council site.

adelaidecitycouncil.com to a-new-life-downunder
to autobloggreen.com to ubergizmo.com

Solar LED Christmas Lights Thanks Altoids, IKEA & China

It is getting dark at 5:00 pm, and I have a bike shop signs that needs to be lighted at night during the winter holiday shopping season. So I repositioned a solar garden light ($5) in an Altoids box, cut off and took some pieces from some battery-operated IKEA Glansa LED Christmas lights ($1.98), and made some solar LED Christmas lights that don't require a wall outlet for their power. It was less expensive to modify stuff that had already been manufactured than to start from scratch.

When it is dark, the photo sensor in the solar panel of the solar LED Christmas lights tells the circuit to use stored battery power to turn on the lights. When the sun is shining brightly, the sensor tells the circuit to not turn on the lights, but rather to take the electricity made by the solar panel and store it to a rechargeable battery, so the battery has the powers to run the lights during darkness.

I am sure that others will be able to enhance this design. But for now, I can concentrate on building two sets of Chris King BMX and road bike wheels and avoid dealing with plugs, ladders, hooks, wires, and holiday electrical fires.

The next thing is to make solar window lighting for the Wheelgirl large, store-front windows. You can always make some solar LED Christmas lights to joy up an ugly window in your home. Jump for the instructions and more photos.

Photos taken by Wheelgirl. (The little lights around the Wheelgirl sign are two short strings of solar LED Christmas lights.)

Get Your Holiday Lights On Japanese Bike Decoration Style

You think you've got some Christmas light show going on this holiday season? Think again, my friends.

These tricked-out Dekochari bikes ("decoration" + "bicycle" in Japanese) are pretty much the closest thing to a human-powered Christmas tree light festival on wheels.

Check out the YouTube and the accompanying soundtrack, described on the Pink Tentacle site, as " 'Ichiban-boshi Blues' (sung by Bunta Sugawara and Kinya Aikawa), the theme song from the Torakku Yarou movie series that sparked Japan’s dekotora craze in the ’70s."

 

pink tentacle to gizmodo

Google's Holiday Gift 2GB USB Drive Better Than Tiny Calendar or Weak Magnet

You will not be receiving a Google-branded teeny tiny calendar that you can't read and/or write on or a refrigerator magnet that is too weak to hold a sheet of paper.

If you are a chosen-on-some-unknown-criteria Google Adsense publisher, this season Google is giving you the holiday gift of portable data, a 2GB USB flash credit card drive. The drive is made by Walltex, which makes water-friendly USB flat credit card drives designed to be stored in wallets. (Photos from Google gifts from 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007 after the jump.)

Photo lifted from everythingusb site.

But Can Chimp Remember Where Your Cycling Gloves Are?

Check out the videos of the 5-year-old chimp winning a speed number recognition memory test while pitted against college students. The college students and the chimp had the same accuracy scores. But the chimp also won the speed number placement memory test.

The chimp is obviously chewing while kicking butt. I want to know if the co-eds got fed treats for their efforts? And what is that little chimp eating capsule filled with Red Bull and Sports Beans?

Evidently, young chimps and human children have higher recognition abilities, which decline with age in both chimps and humans. So, the chimp is going to compete against some real players soon, other single-digit-aged creatures.

National Geographic to
AP
to gizmodo

Cyclists Who Love to Fall Head Over Heals

I saw this CrimethInc Safety Bike video clip, and it made me smile. You can see the adrenaline of the upside-down unknown turn to joy in the faces of the guys who finally get their bodies to spin with the bike.

via Boing Boing

USB Batteries Let Your Be A Forgetful Slob Bike Commuter and Watch Movies

It is dark now. The time change is always a drag if you love to cycle outdoors. You are using your bike lights everyday on your commute home from school or work. If you are powering your lights with AA batteries, USB batteries could be more convenient than batteries that require special chargers, in that USB batteries charge from a USB port on any computer.

Usually the realization that the batteries in commuter bike lights are on their last legs happens on a dark ride home from work or school in the evening. If you are disciplined, you will promptly put the dead batteries in the charger, and then make dinner. If not,  you will park your bike, eat dinner, chat, mess around on your computer, read a bit, watch some movies, and forget completely about needing to charge the batteries, until the next night when you are cheating death on your dark commute home.

With a couple of USB batteries, you are always covered. You can ride your bike to work or school the next morning and charge the dead batteries you forgot to put in the charger the night before on your computer.

You take off the green top, which is attached by an elastic string (kind of nutty), and plug them into your computer's USB port, just like a USB flash drive. Like many rechargeable batteries, it takes a while to charge them. And when the lights on the batteries indicate that the batteries are charged, you replace the green cap. They are not inexpensive. But they do offer another strategy for recharging batteries. Click to buy some.

Skid Spot Charts, Skid Patch Calculators, and Your Bald Fixed Gear Tire

Customer Nick came into the shop needing a new 135 BCD Miche front chain ring for his track bike. (Miche shares its bolt circle diameter with the classic Campagnolo BCD. You can't put a standard track chain ring, 144 BCD, on Miche track cranks.) Anyway, I ordered him a new chain ring, and we started talking about ratios and skid patches.

There are a couple of schools of thought about managing skid spots. One school is that if you keep skidding in the same place, you will wear a hole in your tire and /or tube. However, if you know where the skid spot will be, you can rotate your tire to the left or right of that spot, now and again, and manage the wear better. The other school says it is better to spread out the damage. However, spreading out the damage means that it is harder to keep track of managing the damage. And that actual spot size is a bit deceiving. In fact, there are many conversations about hows and whys, and not all of the participants agree with each other. Also, when calculating skid spots, you need to be comfortable riding on the street in the ratio that you choose for your eventual tire destruction.

If you just like to ride, and you have a decent job, you may decide to buy a new tire when yours is as bald as Kojack and save your knowledge of numbers for the daily newspaper suduko puzzle.

Screen shot taken from the Hong Kong Fixed Gear site; more info. about it and other calculators and charts after the jump.

(For good or bad, I like a big ring up front. And, I like pricey tires, so skidding is not my life. Nick likes to skid, and he rides 45Tx 15T.)

Not Sure about HYmini Wind Charger for iPod or Cellphone

Here is another renewable energy portable battery charger for your personal music and communication devices. (Specifications are after the jump.)

The HYmini captures mechanical energy created by wind, and you can mount it to your bike handlebars. It is a "supplemental" wind generator with 1 W max capacity. You can also attached miniSolar cells to it, (0.7 W max capacity, 140mAh max output, 5V max output). Stringing up to 4 miniSolar cells to the device predictably increases the battery charging capabilities.  The HYmini has a lithium-ion battery (1200mAh) that is not replaceable. Output is 250mAh to ~850mAh. You can charge the battery in the device via the wind, up to 40 mph, then it turns off. Or you can use USB, a household wall outlet, or a miniSolar cell to charge it. However, it takes 4 hours to charge it via the wall outlet, and according to the site, you can't full charge the device via the wind.

What? You can't fully charge the wind charger via the wind? Isn't this a bit counterintuitive for someone spending $49.99 for a wind-powered battery charger?

In that cycling allows you to generate mechanical energy, and provides you access with solar energy, you could design a faster-charging, stronger portable battery charger if you could couple mechanical energy from wind and bike vibration with electrical energy created by solar cells. (Just a thought for you gifted children living in the snowy states and looking for a good cycling project this winter.)

(Note: If you are not technically minded, but like the idea of using available energy to power your portable devices, don't buy anything, just keep reading about different devices. It is just like learning about gas mileage and TV flat screen resolution. The more you read, the more the numbers will start to make sense. Then, type into google your questions like "what does mAh mean" and you will get a pretty good idea of how the features and benefits of different charging devices are measured. Also, you will learn a ton about  the electrical devices and batteries you use in your everyday life.)

Bicyle Addiction Usually Much Less Expensive Than Sailboat Addiction

I had a visit from Jim and Tracy a few weeks ago in the shop. Jim has a site, cyclofiend.com. Go click around on the gallery if you want to see some eye candy in the form of 400 classic bicycle submissions from owners, which you can view by maker, if you like. Then, you can check out the collection of Nishiki and Univega bike photos on yojimg.net , which belongs to Jim G., another Bay Area cyclist.

Between both sites, you should be able to get more info on your old Nishiki, Univega, Bridgestone, Rivendell, and Ibis. (I drilled down through the links on a bunch of submitted classic bike gallery pages, and I ended up finding an article on my 1960s Legnano via ebyker.com.)

Wait until you get to work before you start clicking on these sites, or you are going to be late again.

Photo of the #400 submission to the cyclofiend gallery, a Heron Wayfarer, is lifted from the site.
Photo of the Univega happy cycling family is lifted from the yojimg.net 1983 Univega catalog directory.

Dutch Students and Their Nuna4 Solar Vehicle Win Race Across Australia

I know you love your bike. And you may think that your car is boss.

But this solar car is wicked boss.

Dutch students build and race a solar car and win the Solar Worlds for the 4th time while wearing their orange proudly (just in time for Halloween).

Check out the site of the Nuon-sponsored team site. Click on the "nuna4 in actie" button on the bottom right to get a view of the driver's seat. Teams from all over the world participating in the race look like they had a blast.

Spoke Toys Persistence of Vision Devices for Your Wheels

Ok, I was planning to try my hand at making one of ladyada's spoke POV (persistence of vision) programmed led electronic devices for my bike, since I had a grand time making the minty boost.

Ladyada's electronic device allows you to program words or images, which once you attach the device to your spokes, show up when your bike wheels are spinning. (If you check out her site, you can see the Pacman characters are moving.) If you want to know how and why it works, check out the FAQ on her site.

(These photos taken from the ladyada.net site.)

And, now, the consumer equivalent is here, the Lex.

For those who do not want to solder and make devices, you can use Windows (XP, 2000, or Vista) to program into the device a word or sentence in English or in characters (Hiragana, Katakana, and Kanji). You plug the Lex into your laptop via USB, and you transfer your intended message to the device. You attach the device to your spokes, and when your wheels are spinning, the device creates a message via the programmed led lights. One AA battery is good for 96 hours of cycling word fun.

(If you know the price and where to get the Lex, post a comment for us.)

(These photos taken from the Digital Cowboy site)

• ladyada (for the whys, hows, and gallery of home-made spoke POV images)
• Digital Cowboy (Japanese) for the Lex,
  to Everything USB
  to Gizmodo

Ladyada's Minty Boost Reduces Spider Monkey Incidents on Bikes

Ok, I am impressed. Really impressed. This week I decided to make ladyada's Minty Boost, a portable USB power pack that will charge your iPod, takes 2 x AA batteries, and fits in an Altoids gum tin.

Why would you make the Minty Boost?  Because you turn into a spider monkey on acid the moment your USB-powered mp3 player dies and you can no longer ride with tunes. Stick a Minty Boost in your seatbag, and put your mind to rest, since now you will not have to get to a USB connection on a computer to restore the power to your player. Plug in your dead iPod and pedal away in happiness. The Altoids tin is a great size for stashing in a jersey pocket.

These photos taken by Wheelgirl

(*Deep Thought: Put the earbud in only one ear. Listen to your music on low, so you don't get pressed. And unless you are trying to win a Darwin award, think about why you don't want to listen to loud music through noise cancelling headphones while on the road.)

ladyada studied some of the other USB portable battery packs, and she designed this pack a while back, in part because it is smaller, lets you listen longer, and doesn't have an on off switch that you can leave on by mistake. Her documentation on her design process and the kitting up of an original electronic design is a good read for you gearheads.

Make a $5 Be Seen Solar Bike Light in Your Kitchen

My red flashing led rear bike light has never let me down. But what do you do when you have a great bike headlight and are a couple of miles from home when the battery dies?  I decided to reposition a $5.00 solar garden light into a light-weight portable "be seen" solar bike light that I could hang on my backpack. Now, in the event of a dead headlight battery, pedestrians and drivers can spot a me and my bobbing white light when I am biking on the road after dark. During the day, ride with the panel facing out. Once it is dark, flip the box over, and the white led brightly shines.

The rules of the game for making the be seen solar bike light were that I could only use things I could find in my kitchen, except for the solar garden light, which was in the living room. (They make very nice mood lights.) I had to make it relatively quickly, have fun, and be able to use it bike riding when I was done. You can certainly make yours snazzier, neater, and more weatherproof. But I was in my PJ's on a Sunday morning feeling lazy. The tools and supplies I used for the $5 be seen solar bike light are as follows:

• An old kitchen knife, a pair of scissors, a corkscrew, a wooden cutting board, a ballpoint pen, a Sharpie, a nail file.
• A solar garden light, a small wooden match, an old postal envelope,a twisty tie, a Newman's Own Organic Ginger Mint metal box. The images on Newman's mint boxes are really cool. I used the ginger dragon. But I have a cinnamon tiger tin waiting for another project. (I thought of making it with a cassette tape case, since the clear plastic will allow more light to escape. But the tape cases are made of plastic that tends to shatter. I've dropped my be seen solar bike light a couple of times, and it has survived.)

Directions to make the $5 be seen solar bike light are after the jump.

Tips For Kids Building Their First Bikes

Yesterday I had two inquisitive young men, a mountain goat of a hill-riding teenager, and an encouraging dad cyclist come into the shop in search of possible components for single-speed bike building school projects. This, of course, warms my gearhead heart. Start them while they are young, and they can ride and service their bikes with confidence the rest of their lives. If you are planning to help young people put together their bikes this winter, here are a few tips:

• Your generous donations of bits and bobs to the bike builds may need to be augmented by a few well chosen components. Kids generally need much shorter cranks and much narrower handle bars than adults. Smaller wheel sizes can make a world of difference in handling as can smaller frames. Also, kids have smaller hands, so make sure they can actually grab and use the brake levers.
• The UCI has different maximum gear ratios for those Under 12 (52T x 18T max) to professional adult bike racers. This is so the kids don't blow out joints during  youthful hammerfests.
• Chain line, chain tension, and rear wheel spacing and alignment in single-speed and fixed gear frames are not negotiable. They are big safety and performance considerations. Read, read, read. Then ask a bike mechanic to show you if you have any doubts.

Photo by Erik Silverson

Solar Bike Touring & Getting Your Solar Panel To Work With Your Devices

I was reading makezine.com a couple of months ago, and came across a post about Steve "Chippy", a British cyclist living in Germany and bike touring along the the Rhein River. His trip is about balancing "a 450km cycle camping trip with work and a solar powered UMPC experiment". In his posts, he details the good, bad, and ugly uses of solar technology to power his communication devices and Ultra Mobile PC (UMPC). UMPCs are handy little devices if you need or want to work, but like to travel light.

Chippy made a video of how to use a solar panel to power your communication devices while you are off the grid riding around on your bike. But watch the video and read the posts before you start hooking things up to your solar panel. He outlines issues with solar charging on his bike trip in detail; scroll from the bottom first and read to the top, and it is easier to understand.

Of course, you can argue that if you are away from civilization riding your bike, that is the point, to get away. I agree until it is night, and the moon is full; you have a flat in the middle of nowhere; it is cold; you can't find a match or lighter; it is sprinkling rain, and the batteries in your flashlight are dead. Oh, I almost forgot, and you are really hungry.

(Scott a guy Chippy links to in his post has put together a 4.4 pound solar-powered communication solution during his hiking trip of the Appalachian trail. So, you might want to check that out, too.

Does This mp3 Player Make My Butt Look Fat?

You are a cycling freakazoid. Your friends keep wondering if they should initiate an intervention. You have gone to bleeding-edge stupid light-weight componetry because you can. You have traded in your fat watch. You have shaved off all of your body hair. Your head is clippered daily. (Oh yes, girls can do the self-imposed sci-fi convict look, too.) Now, it is time to trade in your chunky boat anchor of an mp3 player for this $39.00, 2 GB, 12 grams skinny minny USB Chocolate mp3 player. (Specs after the jump.)

In case you are wondering, a 1 GB iPod Shuffle weighs 15.6 gms and costs $79, according to Apple tech specs.

(I am not sure that the Chocolate USB mp3 player is a brand new product, based on post comments on other sites. The navigation icons alone are worth the price.)

http://usb.brando.com.hk/prod_detail.php?prod_id=00359

Cycling Music and Resetting The Insignia Pilot 8GB MP3 Player

Ok, I got gadget fever today, and I went to Best Buy to get the Insignia Pilot 8GB MP3 player, since I had been playing with the demo a week ago. (Insignia is a trademarked label of Best Buy.) The Pilot has a crazy list of features (listed at the end of this post) that I wanted inside of one very, very light, Bluetooth enabled media player, so I could ride the rollers with Bluetooth headphones on, keep the device away from perspiration, and not have to constantly stare at and reposition white wires.

As importantly, the Pilot doesn't use any special software. (I did not open or install the included CD.) You plug the Pilot into the USB port on your computer. It shows up on the screen like an external drive, and you drag and drop your happy stuff onto the device. You can record songs from Raima Radio and drag them into your device. You drag and drop your vacation photos. Perfect. Easy. Foolproof. Almost.

While experimenting with the voice recording feature, I stuck a headphone jack into the mic jack, talked into the ear bud and froze the thing. Not really sure why, it was probably a coincidence. But I hate when you get something new and almost destroy it. I pressed all of the possible button combinations for 5 minutes. Nothing could make the screen unfreeze. I couldn't turn it off. I didn't have the patience to wait until the battery went dead. I didn't see any reset button. In that I could either take it apart or go back to Best Buy. I took it apart.

Here is how you can reset the Insignia Pilot if the screen freezes; get it to work again and probably void your warranty.

Need New Music for the Rollers? Record Int'l Internet Radio to mp3 with Raima Radio

I was up too late playing with this new toy, an app called Raima Radio.
You can record internet streaming radio stations from around the world to mp3s. The interface it pretty intuitive and easy to use. I have XM radio's Delphi, and I like it, but it is too heavy to carry on rides. So, I do the mp3 to iPod shuffle cycling music thing. But I need some new tunes. Raima Radio has come to my musical rescue.

You may have to click on a bunch of different stations, since many do not open for some reason. But if you are patient, you can find a good one, and you can record immediately or schedule recordings of anything playing on the internet radio stations in the search results. There is a drop-down menu for different types of searches, such as station name, genre, country. If you right and left click your mouse buttons,  you should be able to figure out how it works. Click on the Wrench to see or change the default settings or the directory where the newly recorded mp3s are routed.

I went on the Raima Radio user forum and poked around, and I get the feeling the whole app has been created and iterated by one or maybe a few people who are really making an effort to resolve any technical issues users might have (firewalls, formatting). So give her, him, them a break. It is free. Good effort. Thank you for not crashing my machine and for letting me listen at 1 am to monster truck pull event announcer voices talking in Italian between trance tracks.

So far, Raima Radio is an easy way to grab some rapid tunes for those of us who pedal better when we are listening to senseless, crazy fast, club, techno, trance, rock, house, funk music stew. (Record some Charlie Parker or Glenn Gould tearing it up for your recovery ride.)

http://www.raimasoftware.com/

http://www.redferret.net/?p=9361

Your Back Fixed Wheel is Making a Funny Noise?

There could be a number of reasons that a track wheel is making a noise. But if you don't see a broken spoke or some other obviously wrong and bad thing, like part of your tire, hub, chain, or frame is not where it used to be, take a look at your cog. You may be pleasure riding a crazy number of miles on your fixed joy toy, and the new noise is coming from your chain trying to mesh with your worn out rear cog.

If you are not making a living on your bike or race training, you may not have a sense of how much fixed riding you do each week. These photos of Jeff's cog will give you an idea of a very worn cog versus a new cog. See the shark fin points that make it pretty like the sun? This means it is time to replace the worn cog. Don't be sad. Make yourself or someone you love a necklace.

The worn cog in the photo is a Dura Ace 15T. The new cog is a Dura Ace 14T msrp approx. $23. Dura Ace cogs are fine for racing and riding. But they are not as tough as a triple heat-treated hardened silver stainless steel Phil Wood track cogs (msrp approx. $45 depending on tooth number) or Euro Asia's best cog, a hardened stainless steel silver Kieran cog, the one that comes in an orange pouch (msrp approx $60).

If you are a mile monster, buy yourself something pretty when you wear out a Phil or EAI Keiran cog. You will deserve it.

Photos by Wheelgirl, lovely worn cog shape made by Jeff on his Felt TK2

You Love Books, and You Think You're Detail Oriented?

Brian Dettmer uses surgical tools and tweezers to remove parts of book pages. Yeah, you used to be the most detail-oriented person you ever knew. Not anymore, sweetie pie.

http://www.joshspear.com/item/brian-dettmer/

Solio H1000 & Solio Mg, Freeloader, Fenix Lights with CREE LEDs

Suzanne from Solio stopped by for a visit today. She brought with her 1 of the 4 Solio H1000s available until the panels are released to retail shops in a week. I did a bit of a photo shoot with a Wheelgirl mug and my Chrome Dually backpack, so you could get a sense of the size of the panel.

The H1000 can be clipped to a backpack or bag, and you can charge your iPod, phone, camera, GPS while you are riding around. The cord that attaches the panel to you device is attached to the panel, so you don't really have anything extra to carry. It weighs 5.6 ounces (156 grams),which is about two candy bars. If you hang it off the back of your pack, you don't even notice it. It has been developed for search and rescue off-the-grid recharging. But it is expected to work just fine for those who are never more than 2 miles from a latte. I should be riding around with one soon.

I will carry Solio chargers in the shop as soon as they are available. The MSRP is $79.95. According to the Solio ad, the internal battery stores power for up to a year. If it is not sunny, you can charge it by plugging it into the wall. One fully charged H1000 will charge your cell phone or give you 10 hours of mp3 listening happiness. One hour of decent sun exposure give you 15 minutes of talk time or 40 minutes of mp3 music.

Speedy Markus "Hercules" Stoeck Breaks 130.7 mph on A Bike

If you are someone who shows your friends your max speed on your bike computer after you cheat death and break 55 mph, think of the jack-o-lantern smile Speedy Markus Stoeck will sport when he shows his friends his new world record speed of 130.7 mph. Markus bombed down a Chilean Alp on an Intense M6 downhill bike for 40 seconds in the freezing cold during a 2000 meter, 45 degree run.

Watch Speedy Markus Hercules You Tube

Spanish post http://bicivilizate.cl/2007/09/20/210-kph/

English Translation http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2007/09/bike-hits-1307-.html