Hasta La Gadget!

The Boot Bag in rich Argentinian leather

Problem: You want a bag that will also fit on your bike, but all bike-mounting bags are ugly. Solution: Hebie’s Boot Bag.

The Boot Bag is semi-stiff, open-top shopping bag for your bike. With a wide shoulder strap, you can carry it around the market as you shop. Then, back at the bike, it clips directly to the top of a front or rear luggage rack, ready to roll.

The Boot Bag comes in plastic or leather, and the lop-sided shape means that it stays away from either your butt (rear rack) or your various gear and brake cables (front rack). I’m not quite sure where the name comes from, but my guess is that it’s named after a car “boot”, which is the UK English word for “trunk.” That Hebie is a German company suggests that it could also mean “boat,” but I doubt it.

The price difference between leather and plastic bags is almost comically huge. The multi-colored plastic Boots go for around €28 ($39), and the “handmade Argentinian leather” version costs €260, or $360. You’ll also need an adapter for your carrier (Hebie or universal) for another €15 ($21) and a shoulder strap, for €11 ($15).

The Boot Bag is available now.

Boot Bag product page [Hebie]

Two arms, two legs, two wheels and one diabolical, merciless robot brain

It would seem that putting a robot onto a bike would be a pointless exercise akin to putting gas-powered horses before a carriage. But the impracticalities of this little Japanese bike-bots are easily outweighed by its charm.

Lest you think that this is just a remote controlled bike with a dummy perched on top, watch until the 45-second mark. Here you’ll see the little fellow take his hand off the bars to wave, and put both feet down on the floor.

The robot is called PRIMER-V2, and was built by Dr. Guero of the website AI & Robot. He pedals to move forwards, and he balances like a human rider, by turning into any falls. The balance in this case is provided by a PID (proportional integral derivative) controller which uses feedback loops to adjust for error.

However the PRIMER manages to stay upright, Dr. Guero has given us a valuable insight into how the robot apocalypse will inevitably unfold. It will come from Japan, and it will come — unstoppably — on two wheels.

Biped robot riding a bicycle [AI2000 via Kottke]

See Also:

• Old Hard Drives Get Sculpted Into Cars, Bikes, Robots … – Wired
• Choose Your Gift: A Bike Blender Or a Robot Maid?
• Terrifying Robot Bicycle Shed Can Eat Over 9000 Bikes

SE Bikes’ Draft Coaster offers fixed-gear style with beach-cruiser control

The coaster brake, found on beach cruisers and Dutch-style city bikes, has come to the track bike in the form of the Draft Coaster from SE bikes.

Or should I say “track bike style“? For the Draft Coaster is anything but track ready. It is heavy (26 pounds or 12 kilos), has a hi-ten steel frame and comes with a riser bar, not drops. But no matter, as this is really about having a simple, clean looking bike to get around town.

When thought about like this, the design makes more sense. There are no visible brakes, and no cables, but there are fender mounts and platform pedals (or “peddles” as it says in the product blurb). The crankset is steel, the seat has a built-in bottle opener, and with the coaster brake you just push back on the pedals to stop.

At just $330, it’s hard to argue with this as a cheap beater for city riding. And despite that hi-ten frame, its still a lot lighter than a fully-specced commuter bike.

Draft Coaster product page [SE Bikes via Urban Velo]

See Also:

• Create Bikes v2.0: The Cheap Fixed-Gear Grows Up
• Felt Track Bike is Unashamedly Retro
• Second Walmart Fixed-Gear Bike Looks Pretty Sweet
• 5 Inexplicable Fixie Fashions

Who needs water? The Bottle Lock puts a cable in your cage.

Carrying junk in your bike’s water bottle cage instead of filling it with delicious cool, refreshing water is probably as old as the bottle cage itself. Tools, keys and snacks can all be stowed either on an actual water bottle, or a water-bottle sized container. Now, you can so the same with a lock.

The Bottle Lock comes from rack makers Küat, and slides snugly into a standard cage. Inside, coiled like a low-security steel snake is a five-foot long, 8mm-thick cable (1/3 inch). Borrowing design cues from vacuum cleaner power cords, the cable unwinds to wrap around the nearest immovable street furniture before plugging back into itself.

A small compartment underneath opens up for stowing keys and other small items.

For anything longer than popping into a convenience store, you might want a stronger lock

It’s ingenious, and handy if you live in a very low-crime area. If your only worry about bike thieves is that the local yahoos might spot your ride and use it to get home drunk on a Saturday night, it’ll be fine. In a city, you may as well just leave the keys in the lock.

The Bottle Lock comes in black, white and pink. It costs $34, and will ship November 1st.

[Küat Bottle Lock](http://www.shopatron.com/products/productdetail/K%26%23252%3Bat+Bottle+Lock/part_number=BL0/10064.0.1.1.2352.59201.0.0.0?pp=12&amp) [Küat via [Urban Velo](http://urbanvelo.org/kuat-racks-bottle-lock/)]

See Also:

• The $150 Bottle Cage for Cycling Samurai
• Waxed Canvas Tool Roll Worthy of Your Fancy Bike
• Danger: Handlebar Mounted Cup-Holders
• Bicycle Boombox from IHome

The Day Bag is made from old, popped car airbags

After you crash your car, but before you decide you’d be better off getting around by bike, you might consider ripping out the now-spent airbags and making them into a tough and light duffel bag.

Or you could skip the whole crashing business altogether (although you should still ditch the car) and just buy one of E13’s SRS Day Bags.

The bags are made from “upcycled” airbags which have popped their last. The resulting Day Bag looks like a skinny duffel, and has a detachable shoulder strap which gets its own pocket to stow it when you don’t need it. In fact, pretty much every part comes from a dead car: The outer layer is a driver-side airbag, the lining is from the passenger-side bag, and the handle and strap are recycled seat belts.

Capacity is six liters, the length 17.5 inches and the diameter 6.25 inches. There’s also an 8 x 5-inch pocket inside.

For a recycled bag, it’s pricey at $120, but then again, think about what you’re now saving on gas since you swapped your car for a bike.

Day Bag product page [E13 via Core77]

See Also:

• Rickshaw Bagworks Lightweight iPad 2 Messenger Bag
• Timbuk2 Hidden Messenger Bag
• Money for Old Rubber: Tread Gadget Bags Made from Old Tires …