The All-City brand out of Minneapolis has been quick to make their name in well thought out parts on the affordable side of the higher end spectrum. I’ve been running the Cecil Pro track pedals and Standard Doubles toe straps on and off for two complete spring/summer seasons, coming up on a third. For someone that has decided that traditional cages are for them, these $50 sealed bearing low-profile pedals are a good choice with a finish quality and overall feel far superior to the common entry level pedals out there. I find the pedal platform small for my liking, but my US size 12/13 feet aren’t exactly what the pedals are designed around. The cages each have a small tooth to help flip it over, certainly enough for me to find them easy to flip and get into. Get them in white, gold, red or black.
While the pedals are meant for single straps, I’ve run them with doubles for most of their use. They work well enough, even if the forward strap doesn’t have anything holding it in place. Double straps themselves are pretty great, adding a more comfortable and secure hold as compared to singles. The pictured roughly $40 All-City Standard Doubles are simple double leather straps, with the double layered, laminated and stitched $55 Deluxe Doubles promising a longer life under hard use, especially in year round, all weather conditions that tend to split and crack standard leather straps. That said, my Standard Doubles have been going strong for enough time to not make me feel slighted if they were to give up the ghost tomorrow, not that I expect them to. Each version is available in white, brown or black with the less expensive Standard Doubles also having blue and red options available.
With automobile traffic on the rise in the historic capital of China (they’ve gone from two million cars to four million cars since 2009) a small group of friends decided to start STC, a website dedicated to promoting bicycle transport in Beijing.
STC points out that it’s ironic that Beijing should even need such a site, since it was once one of the world’s best cities to cycle in. They say that a huge amount of bicycle infrastructure still exists, however.
KEEN has created the Santiago Collection of both lace-up and slip-on stye shoes, all with an eye towards raising a million dollars of Kiva.org micro loans. The shoes are named after where they are made, Santiago de loa Caballeros in the Dominican Republic, a country with a long history of making footwear. These shoes are made from natural cotton canvas and locally produced rubber and held together through direct vulcanization and no adhesives for a cleaner overall product. Each style is available in a number of colors, and for $50 in adult men’s and women’s sizes and $30 for youth and kids.
With the proliferation of bikes as transportation in cities, it’s a boom time for the people that make the things that government buys and we lock to. Cyclehoop is a UK based company that designs and manufactures a number of bike rack solutions, including ones that clamp or bolt onto existing infrastructure and others that replace car parking spaces with a series of racks. Limited access shelters and public-duty pumps are some of their more forward interesting, forward thinking products addressing urban planner needs. Check out the whole lineup on their products page.
According to a press release from the London Cycling Campaign: The London Cycling Campaign is holding a Day of Action on London’s streets on Wednesday 30 March 2011 to highlight the problem of lorry-related cyclist fatalities, and to collect signatures for its No More Lethal Lorries petition.
LCC volunteers will gather at nine locations during morning and evening rush hours with megaphones, placards and petition forms to highlight the problem of preventable lorry-related deaths.
The Chrome Yalta is a commuter sized roll top backpack. It features an integrated laptop sleeve (sized to hold up to a 17″ laptop), a Tarpaulin outer shell and an 18 ounce truck tarp floating liner. It’s got an EVA foam back panel and padded shoulder straps.
The bag measures 14″ x 21″ x 6″ and has a capacity of about 29 liters, which in layman’s terms means it’s big enough to do a little grocery shopping, or hold a complete change of clothes for most people, including shoes. The nice thing about roll top bags is they allow for additional stowage options, even to the point where you could leave it unrolled and fill it with tall objects—an armload of baseball bats, perhaps.
At 3.5 pounds, the Yalta is neither a featherweight or a pig. But lighter bags don’t really inspire the same level of confidence that the Yalta does. It’s built to take abuse, and anyone who’s owned a Chrome bag for a number of years can attest to that. The Yalta’s industrial strength is further bolstered by the use of real metal parts, including a stainless steel closure and steel adjustment clasps on the shoulder straps.
The Yalta’s laptop compartment is actually a separate section accessed via a side zipper. This makes for easy access to documents and such, while the laptop is housed in a secure sleeve with a Velcro closure. This feature is especially nice for airline travel, when constantly accessing the main roll top compartment would become tiresome.
Perhaps the most important thing about the Yalta is its water resistance. The main roll top compartment is really the only part that’s intended to be used in a downpour, and it works as well as you might hope it does. So if and when it’s raining, you will want to adjust your bag’s contents accordingly. The laptop compartment doesn’t seem to let much water in, but I wouldn’t trust my precious computer in there during a thunderstorm. The rear outer pocket definitely lets water in, even during a light shower, so I really don’t recommend using that pocket for anything that’s easily damaged by moisture. In fact, I pretty much just keep my u-lock in there.
The Yalta is made in Guangzhou, China and retails for $120. Visit www.chromebagsstore.com for more info.
I left Mother Howlett’s and went to the Grammar School, with a leather satchel and a black cap with yellow stripes, and got my first bicycle and a long time afterward my first long trousers. My first bike was a fixed-wheel—free-wheel bikes were very expensive then. When you went downhill you put your feet up on the front rests and let the pedals go whizzing round. That was one of the characteristic sights of the early nineteen hundreds—a boy sailing downhill with his head back and his feet up in the air.
Blaq Design has just announced their new lineup for spring 2011, with a number of updates and additions to their selections. Roll-top backpacks join in the bag fray, along with messenger bag inspired panniers, bringing waterproof and customizable bags to commuters and touring cyclists alike.
Blaq has also introduced two different sized tool rolls to carry just about everything you could need, handy for the road tripping cyclist. The popular Blaq Straps and hip pouches remain available, both seeing changes to make them more functional and more durable than before.
Save some coin if you order soon—everything in their online store is marked down 20% until March 30th.
The FlashBak is a rear blinking light built around a 6×9in rectangle of nylon webbing with 10 bright yellow/orange LEDs (think flashing pedestrian crossing lights) sewn inside. Each corner of the rectangle has an alligator clip on it to attach the light to a bag or jacket. At first sight the light seems like quite a contraption when compared to your standard rear blinkie, but its complexity comes with advantages.
I ended up attaching the $35 FlashBak to panniers, jackets, t-shirts, and various bike bags with only the alligator clips which are sewn to each corner of the rectangle. The only real problem with the light is that the switch and the battery pack (which also has a switch?) are on two separate wires and you have to find places for each of them. This isn’t an issue for the biker who always carries the same bag or always wears the same jacket and never wears a bag (just leave the light attached all the time), but for everyone else who is a little less regular you might become annoyed with finding places for 4 alligator clips and 2 accessories every time you put the light on something new.
Once the light is attached you’ll quickly start to appreciate the tethered switch, which is lit with an eleventh LED at the end of a 1.5 ft wire. This is very handy for a number of reasons: it allows you turn the light off and on without removing the light or reaching blindly behind you for a switch, it tells you at all times that your light is on, and if the separate on/off switch on the battery pack has jiggled to “off” in your pocket (Tip: tape or glue the battery pack switch to “on”). Also, 10 LEDs with 180º visibility leads to a really well lit bike and bike rider. The flexibility of the nylon web allows each of the LEDs to point in a slightly different direction increasing your range of visibility, and they’re spread over an area of 6×9in making it harder for something to completely block the light. Overall the light is great for the regular among us, and even for those who like to mix up your accessories you could make it work.
Review written by Mark Rawlings, see phot.ography.org for a glimpse of his photography work.
Walter Rütt was an early track racer, entering his first race in the late 1890’s and racing throughout the early 20th century. During his career he dominated six-days and held the title of World Champion, eventually financing the Rütt-Arena once professionally retired in 1926. Fire consumed the structure in 1931 as shown in the old news footage above.
Brianna Lane is playing at the first Tiny Bike Shop Concert, and unlike many of the events we post about even those outside of Minneapolis home can tune in via live webcast. If you live in the area, it’s free to attend at Calhoun Cycle.
Look for the live webcast at Indieload March 31, 6-8pm.
Consider it an organized coffee break in Melbourn, from noon-1pm take a leisurely ride and bit of coffee via a blue bike share bike and have the chance to make friends and even win some prizes. En Masse is Thursday March 31st, hosted by Fyxomatosis, so you know it will be good.
From March 26th through April 26th, the SomaFab Shop is supporting recovery efforts in Japan by donating 10% of net sales of all Japanese-made product purchased by you.
This includes all Dia-Compe, Nitto, Sugino, MKS, Crane & Osaka Bells, Honjo fenders,Tanaka fenders, Tange-Seiki headsets, Kashimax saddles, Soyo and Strong grips, Palmy locks, Izumi and DID chains as well as US-branded products made in Japan – including all Soma tires, Rivendell tires, and IRD Techno-Glide headsets and bottom brackets.
According to FarEastFilms.com: The trailer has been released for Juk Ka Lan (AKA Jak Ka Len), a new Thai action comedy directed by Petchtai Wongkamlao (director of The Bodyguard). The film stars Jeeja Yanin (star of Chocolate) as a bike messenger who becomes the target of a gang of goofy gangsters after she accidentally damages their goods. Juk Ka Lan is due for release across Thailand on the 28th April, 2011.
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The All-City brand out of Minneapolis has been quick to make their name in well thought out parts on the affordable side of the higher end spectrum. I’ve been running the Cecil Pro track pedals and Standard Doubles toe straps on and off for two complete spring/summer seasons, coming up on a third. For someone that has decided that traditional cages are for them, these $50 sealed bearing low-profile pedals are a good choice with a finish quality and overall feel far superior to the common entry level pedals out there. I find the pedal platform small for my liking, but my US size 12/13 feet aren’t exactly what the pedals are designed around. The cages each have a small tooth to help flip it over, certainly enough for me to find them easy to flip and get into. Get them in white, gold, red or black. 
While the pedals are meant for single straps, I’ve run them with doubles for most of their use. They work well enough, even if the forward strap doesn’t have anything holding it in place. Double straps themselves are pretty great, adding a more comfortable and secure hold as compared to singles. The pictured roughly $40 All-City Standard Doubles are simple double leather straps, with the double layered, laminated and stitched $55 Deluxe Doubles promising a longer life under hard use, especially in year round, all weather conditions that tend to split and crack standard leather straps. That said, my Standard Doubles have been going strong for enough time to not make me feel slighted if they were to give up the ghost tomorrow, not that I expect them to. Each version is available in white, brown or black with the less expensive Standard Doubles also having blue and red options available. 
Once the light is attached you’ll quickly start to appreciate the tethered switch, which is lit with an eleventh LED at the end of a 1.5 ft wire. This is very handy for a number of reasons: it allows you turn the light off and on without removing the light or reaching blindly behind you for a switch, it tells you at all times that your light is on, and if the separate on/off switch on the battery pack has jiggled to “off” in your pocket (Tip: tape or glue the battery pack switch to “on”). Also, 10 LEDs with 180º visibility leads to a really well lit bike and bike rider. The flexibility of the nylon web allows each of the LEDs to point in a slightly different direction increasing your range of visibility, and they’re spread over an area of 6×9in making it harder for something to completely block the light. Overall the light is great for the regular among us, and even for those who like to mix up your accessories you could make it work.
Consider it an organized coffee break in Melbourn, from noon-1pm take a leisurely ride and bit of coffee via a blue bike share bike and have the chance to make friends and even win some prizes. 
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