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Keen is launching the Harvest III series this summer, adding to the Harvest series of upcycled bags with a line made from excess, damaged, or obsolete pre-consumer car airbags. The pictured backpack will be available for $120, with a messenger bag, tote bag and wallets also available made from the same repurposed airbag material. Available straight from Keen later this summer.
Author Archive for brad
Recently a reader sent in a link to a story in the San Mateo Patch, Bicycle Licensing in San Mateo, with the note “Is this the beginning?” More like the end—many communities have dated, unenforceable bicycle licensing or registration requirements on the books. I say unenforceable as in the case outlined in this story, in many of the places people have noticed such requirements the authorities themselves are typically ignorant of not only the regulations in the first place, but of any way to meet them even if you want. Financially speaking, running a bicycle registration program requires such an extensive administrative system that cities find them unfeasible to run.
We covered many of the issues around bicycle licensing way back in Urban Velo #6, License to Ride.
The North American Cycle Courier Championships are this weekend in Richmond VA, with people from across the continent fighting it out before the World’s touches down on our shores in August. May 24 – 28, more info at www.naccc2012.com
The League of American Bicyclists has released their 2012 Bicycle Friendly State rankings, with Washington taking the top spot for the fifth year in a row. States are judged on a number of categories including legislation and enforcement, policies and programs, infrastructure and funding, education and encouragement, and evaluation and planning.
The top five: Washington, Minnesota, Massachusetts, Colorado, Oregon
See the complete list at www.bikeleague.org
As part of National Bike Month, The Morning News ran a piece How To Not Kill A Cyclist worth sharing with your driving, non-cycling friends. For most people on the internet, perhaps the last bit of advice is best.
Judge Us Not by Our Jerks
Just as some percentage of drivers are jerks, so too is some percentage of cyclists—I reckon about 15 percent in both cases. And I’m sure 15 percent of Segwayists are jerks, and 15 percent of jetpackists will be jerks at some point in the future. The Jerk Constant is as immutable and universal as π. The point here is to remember that the majority (85 percent!) of cyclists are not that punk you encountered last Tuesday, so don’t let that frustration get the better of you whenever you see a cyclists up ahead.
Antonio Bigarini shot the cover and L’Eroica feature story in Urban Velo #29, and recently sent me a link to his photo gallery site. He has a large gallery of images L’Eroica, black and white work from Rio, the 2012 Paris-Roubaix and more. Great stuff, I love Antonio’s style.
For touring cyclists, or people who just want to be prepared for anything, anytime, a portable cassette removal tool has always been an issue. Break a driveside spoke and you may need to remove the cassette just to extricate the broken spoke, let alone replace it. Carrying a chainwhip and cassette tool is a bit overkill, but a pocket removal tool is not. There have been a few of them over the years, but this one from European tool maker Unior is pretty interesting and very compact. To use it you remove the wheel, engage the tool in the cassette lockring, replace the wheel with the tool’s square edge pressing on the frame, and just turn the pedals forward to loosen the lockring. I wouldn’t use this tool on a delicate carbon or other thin-tubed frame, and you might want to place a piece of plastic or wood between it and the frame to save your paint. An admittedly rarely used tool, but when you need it you need it.
Budnitz Bicycles are made in the USA, and come from an urban riding upbringing. Their latest high end offering in the pictured No. 4, a gloss black finished steel frame featuring large volume 24″ wheels, disc brakes and a belt drive with either a single speed or 11-speed internal drivetrain. The split top tube and swooping lines give it a certain amount of class, the smaller wheels and short wheelbase the ability to fit into smaller city living spaces. Other parts spec is high end—think Chris King, Paul Components and custom Budnitz titanium bars. As shown the bike is $2800, see more at www.budnitzbicycles.com
Knog was one of the first on the scene with soft-bodied blinkie lights, and have been pushing USB rechargeable lights since the technology first came out. Their latest product is the $45 Knog Blinder, a USB rechargeable LED light featuring an anodized aluminum body, single button switch and quick release mount. The pictured Blinder 4 has four LEDs housed in an aluminum and polycarbonate body, with a silicone strap compatible with 22-35 mm bars or seatposts. Hidden under the strap is a fold out USB plug for recharging.
In use the Blinder is quite bright—Knog claims 80 Lumens of front white output and 44 Lumens from the rear red LED set. The rear is too bright to comfortably ride behind at night, a good thing as far as I’m concerned for being seen riding solo in traffic. I wouldn’t say you can see on a dark trail with the front or anything, but I may be guilty of doing some urban exploring with the Blinder as my guide though it is certainly a “be seen” type of light. The light itself is fully waterproof—I let mine blink through a complete charge submerged in a glass of water—and gets a claimed 3 hours of runtime on steady, with a claimed up to 40 hours blinking. Even for daily use, most people will find recharging it once or twice per week plenty.
The switch require a 2 second press to turn on, preventing finding it blinking in the bottom of your bag. You can click through a few different blink modes, and turn off the light my holding the button for another 2 seconds. The Blinder even remembers the blink mode you left on, a minor but mentionable nicety. The button also has a small LED indicator—red when the battery is low or charging, green when fully charged. When it comes to charging, just flip out the USB plug and insert into an open computer or charging port. I found that in some circumstances I needed a USB extension cord to easily plug the light in either due to the shape next to a laptop, or because it blocked the USB port next to it.
Color me impressed, the Blinder is my latest go-to blinkie. It’s initially pricey at $45, but add a year or two worth of batteries to a $30 light and you’re at the same final place. See the whole line of Blinder lights at www.knog.com.au
For the past couple of months I’ve been running Kenda Kwick Tendril tires on my polo bike, giving them a pretty abusive run through in the process. I was on the hunt for a larger volume tire with minimal tread and good flat protection that was also available for a 26″ wheel and wasn’t going to break the bank—the $35 Kwick Tendril met the bill. It is not the cheapest tire you can purchase, but one shouldn’t expect a folding bead and effective flat protection for much less. I tend to go through rear tires on my polo bike pretty regularly and these from Kenda were no different as I managed to skid through them in 3 or 4 weeks time on a rough surface heavy on the rear brake. I wouldn’t say the tires were any more prone to wear than usual, just not particularly long lived under the abusive circumstances. More representatively, the front tire has remained unchanged for some time and show no particular signs of premature wear. Even when riding through the ‘hood and on glass strew courts I’ve managed to stay flat-free for months, always a welcome part of a tire review. Overall I’m pleased with them, and would recommend these tires as everyday city tires in a second. They’re not performance tires and neither are they meant to be, I wouldn’t go putting these on your road bike hoping for the next speed record or a supple ride. Available in 26 x 1.5 and 1.75 for mountain bike commuter conversions and 700 x 25-38 from most any shop around, see www.kendausa.com for the complete commuter line.
Ernesto Lube is one of those dedicated small-guys that the bike industry is chock full of. Their only product is the pictured 4 oz bottle of soy-based, biodegradable chain lube. Drip it on, wipe off the excess, and don’t worry about the toxicity of your lube. They jokingly claim on the website that you can fry eggs in it, but I kept my use to my bicycle chain. I’ve been using this lube on my ‘cross bike for six months now and don’t have much to report, which is overall a good thing. It was thin enough to penetrate the links but not so thick to seem sticky and a magnet for dirt. I’ll be the first to admit that as long a lube doesn’t seem to wear out too quickly or attract too much dirt I don’t pay much attention to it, and while completely subjective terms, I’ve not thought much about this lube and plan to keep using it as needed. Each bottle is available for $7.50, with refills available for $3.75 each.
I’m not exactly sure what to make of this short film. I don’t quite get it, but perhaps that is part of what makes it what it is.
A clip from The Last Kilometer, an upcoming film following cycling through five characters and five stories. From what I can see and have read, I’m going to like this film.
It is no secret that the bike world has a large underground of craftspeople cranking out all manner of short run, handmade gear and clothing. It’s only natural that more places specializing in sourcing and reselling these pieces are coming along, such as BikeCraft which just launched. Coming from a line of shows going back to 2005 featuring local bike goods, the business has now grown to a full time site. Cycling caps, messengers bags and panniers, jewelry and art prints, all of it made in the USA. See more at www.bikecraftonline.com
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