Cycling

Kids love creating art almost as much as they love getting out on their bikes, but with this approach choosing what to do doesn't have to be an either/or decision. The Chalktrail is an add-on which turns any bike or scooter into an artistic tool by holding a stick of chalk which is pressed to the ground behind you as you ride, leaving a colorful trail showing where you've been.  Read More

Like a lot of other factors involved in mountain biking, setting the air pressure of the tires is a matter of compromise. Keep them too soft, and you can’t go as fast as you’d like on smooth stretches of the trail – keep them too hard, and they’ll just bounce off of roots and rocks instead of gripping them. As it stands, most bikers go for a “Jack of all trades, master of none” setting, that allows for some traction and some speed. The folks at ADAPTRAC, however, apparently think that such a compromise shouldn’t have to be made. Their new system allows riders to inflate or deflate their tires as conditions dictate, while they’re riding.  Read More

While it can be nice to listen to motivating music while riding your bike, riding on the streets while wearing earbuds is ... well, crazy. In many places, it’s also illegal. One option is to wear non-sealing earHero earphones, which are claimed to allow both outside noise and music into the user’s ear canal. Another, however, is to attach some Otus Mini-Speakers to your helmet.  Read More

If you take a recumbent tricycle and enclose it in an aerodynamic fuselage, what you end up with is known as a velomobile. The vehicles are significantly faster than bicycles on the flats and downhills, plus they offer more weather protection, but they do tend to be heavy – this can make hill-climbing quite an ordeal. Some manufacturers compensate for this limitation by offering electric assist motors as optional extras, although these just add even more weight, along with boosting what is already often a pretty high price tag. Toronto-based BlueVelo, however, has taken an interesting approach with its new Hornet velomobile. It was designed around its electric assist motor, which is included in the vehicle’s relatively low price.  Read More

The Midget Bushtrekka from Kamp-Rite is a really rather handy-looking tow-along tent-cum-bicycle trailer for extended cycling trips. And as large as it is - 56 pounds (25.4 kg) in weight packing in 180 liters (48 US gallons) of storage - Kamp-Rite does not intend that the Bushtrekka be confined to sedate cycle paths. Rather, it sounds as though Bushtrekka is designed for fairly serious off-roading. But is it up to the job?  Read More

BMW has rolled out its 2012 line of bikes. With a new component here and a new paint job there, the collection provides largely cosmetic differences to last year’s models with the Mountainbike Enduro appearing to have received the most attention.  Read More

Cardo Systems, Inc. has long specialized in radio communications systems for motorcycles. Now the company has turned to the bike market in building what it calls the "world's first Bluetooth communications and entertainment system for bicycle helmets."  Read More

For people who wouldn’t otherwise ride a bike, or who don’t want to arrive at work all hot and sweaty, electric-assist bicycles are a neat idea. Commonly referred to as pedelecs (for “pedal-electric”), they use an electric motor to augment the rider’s own body strength while pedaling, yet that motor can usually be switched off when they don’t need it. The only problem with that setup ... even when the motor isn’t being used, it and its battery are still there, weighing the bike down. For his prototype Velocity pedelec, however, Taiwanese designer Larry Chen came up with a creative solution – an easily-removable motor/battery unit. It was enough to win him a gold award at the latest International Bicycle Design Competition in Taiwan.  Read More

People who commute by bicycle don't have to remove their pedals, racks or fenders when they park in public ... so why should their lights be any different? Well, because most battery-operated bike lights come off with the simple flick of a quick-release, or the turning of a single bolt. Massachusetts-based Gotham Bicycle Defense Industries, however, is attempting to address that problem with its Defender bike light. Not only is it theft-resistant, but it's also waterproof, and it looks like the light Dirty Harry would use - if he rode a bike.  Read More