By David Ponce

Depending on which side of the child love/hate fence you fall on, the above will either be seen as a brilliant idea or a nuisance to be avoided at all costs. The Chalktrail is a simple attachment for bicycles of all sizes (wheels from 12” up to 29”) that holds onto a street chalk at one end and the bike on the other, and lets kids draw on the street just by pedalling around. Its simple wishbone construction means that it can be fitted to pretty much any bike with no tools, so kids can use them without the help of parents.

It’s smart and simple, although we imagine the process of generating anything more than a bunch of illegible squibbles is a far more daunting task. Should you see this in your neighbourhood, there’s a decent likelihood your eyes will be sore a lot, unless you have yourself a little biking artist next door.

Which, let’s face it, is unlikely.

Anyway, it started out as a Kickstarter project, and got fully funded five days ago. Demand was high and it’s apparently sold out for now. But there are talks of distribution with a major toy chain, so you might see these in stores in time for the Holidays.

[ Product Page (warning: auto-playing video)] VIA [ Gizmag ]

By David Ponce

Having a bike light is always a good idea, lest you meet a much larger vehicle at night for a decidedly unpleasant collision. Now, there are those lights that require batteries to operate. And there are those that use contact dynamos to power the light. But the Magnic Light, currently on Kickstarter, does away with contact altogether. And it doesn’t require you to install magnets along the rim (which produces inconsistent light):

Magnic Light works with all kinds of metallic rims (normally aluminum, steel or magnesium). While aluminium and magnesium are not magnetic (but paramagnetic) they are conductive. Relative movements of magnets and neighboured conductive material induce eddy currents in the conductive material – in our case the metallic rim. These eddy currents have their own magnetic fields (see Wikipedia) which are absorbed by the Magnic Light generator kernel and by this way produce electric energy. Although there is no friction the absorption of magnetic fields has a minimal braking effect, so we don’t get energy for free. Magnic Light contains the most efficient LEDs currently available (CREE XM-L T6) to get maximal light from minimal energy.

So, it looks pretty nice, doesn’t touch your bike and lights up your path. What’s not to like? Well, the price for one. The back light is $85 while the front is $130. And… well that’s it really. Maybe if the little bit of innovation were seeing here is your thing, hit the link and pledge away.

[ Product Page ]

By David Ponce

Cycling in an urban environment, it’s not a bad idea to see where you’re going. Lights help but these tend to get stolen quite a bit. That’s why we like the The Defender bike light by Gotham Bicycle Defense. Not only does it look somewhat badass shaped like a gun’s barrel revolver’s cylinder (the reason for the design? “As you know, city biking can be a battle. We captured the struggle of the urban cyclist in our design” says the company) but it’s also pretty darn hard to take off your bike. It’s secured in place with a “security screwdriver”, which you can’t find in a hardware store. It’s the sort of tool an opportunistic thief is unlikely to have on them, making them much more likely to move on to the next target.

The solid aluminum Defender light is also water resistant and waterproof up to 1ft.: heavy downpours will not damage it. Even removing the 3 required AAA batteries requires a small Allen key. The 6 bright LEDs will sip these batteries at a rate that should give you 100 hours before needing a change.

$50 will get you one (down from the expected $70 retail price) and in usual Kickstarter fashion you get more perks with more money down.

[ Product Page ]

By David Ponce

The Overade cycling helmet was designed back in 2010, but it’s going to be made this year. Envisioned by Agency 360, this helmet simply folds into what appears to be half its size when not in use. Easier to store and allegedly has the same protective attributes as the regular non-folding stuff. Strangely, it looks more like a construction hat when unfolded…

Anyway, there’s no word on price or details of its construction.

[ Agency 360 ] VIA [ PC Authority ]

By David Ponce

We’re kind of torn over cycling. It’s fun, good for you, low impact on the joints… but holy balls is it painful in the, uh, taint area. Some people like getting seats with more padding, but what you think you make up for in comfort you actually end up losing through chaffing and rubbing on all the extra seat area. The most efficient cycling seats are like the one you see here, long and narrow. But until now that did equate with pain. With the Fizik Kurve, what you have is the best of both worlds. It has a flexible carbon composite shell, mounted on forged aluminum rails. The seating area is stretched between these rails like a hammock and the amount of flex you have can be adjusted through an integrated bolt. There are three different Kurve models whose shape is meant to accommodate different riders’ body morphology.

Riding properly and perhaps more comfortably doesn’t come cheap. The Fizik Kurve seats are about $300.

[ Product Page ] VIA [ BikeHugger ]

By David Ponce

Riding around in bicycles is fun and green and all that business but when it’s raining or there’s mud around, it’s another story. Sure, you could have a fender on your bike… but it’s not that common in North America. Is it? Fenders in general look a little weird to us, to be honest… Regardless, this particular item by a London based company called Full Windsor, could be an excellent compromise for those wishing to remain fender-free, except when needed. It’s called the Quickfix and is a flat piece of plastic that folds into a fender and attaches via press clips. Describing how this is done is complicated, so just look at the picture above please. It’s just as easily detached and stowed away when the road dries up a bit.

Word is that that the Quickfix is a real product that should hit the market just as soon as Full Windsor is able to find vendors. No word on price either.

[ Product Page ] VIA [ Wired's Gadget Lab ]

By David Ponce

We’ve never come to see the snaking wires on a bicycle as that much of a hassle, yet there is research underway to get rid of them altogether. And unlike existing wireless gear-shifters, reliability is somewhat of an issue when it comes to braking. The worst that happens if your bike doesn’t shift is that it doesn’t shift. Miss out of the brakes and it could be a fast-track to the bottom of a ravine. So researchers at Germany’s Saarland University have developed a prototype wireless braking system with 99.999999999997% reliability. The number of nines on that figure is important: it means it would fail three times out of a trillion braking attempts, which isn’t so bad. There’s no handle either, everything is accomplished through pressure sensors in the handlebar that apply braking force proportional to your grip (past a predetermined threshold). A receiver box interprets the signals and stops the bike “within 250 milliseconds. At that speed, a cyclist traveling at 30 km/h (18.6 mph) would have to react at least two meters (6.6 feet) before the point at which they needed to stop.” It’s not ideal but they’re working on improving this figure.

There is no clear path to marketplace at the moment, although lessons learned in this project could help engineers develop wireless systems with very high degrees of reliability.

[ Press Release ] VIA [ Gizmag ]

By David Ponce

With the advent of Kickstarter, a lot of previously unfeasible ideas(due to lack of capital) are now hitting the marketplace. Kickstarter is a distributed funding platform, and if a product gains enough momentum usually it can get reach its funding goals. Today we look at something that has only a rough prototype in the pipeline (call it a proof-of-concept device) but could have a lot of potential if funded: self-inflating bicycle tires made by a nascent company called Pumptire. This is my understanding of how they’d work. On the outer edge of the tire, there’s a hollow tube called a lumen. As you roll, this tube is compressed, like squeezing toothpaste out of a tube. Ahead of the point of contact with the ground, in the lumen, is compressed air which goes into the tire through a special valve. Behind the point of contact is a vacuum, which draws more air in through another part of this special valve. It is this valve which also senses when the correct inner pressure has been reached and stops drawing in more air. You’ll never need to “top-up” your tires with air again!

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