Hasta La Gadget!

Bikes and trains are a great mix. A train can get you out into the coutryside for some downhill runs, or let you cycle at a destination too far to get to by bike in a day, saving a car trip. Our own velvet-voiced editor Dylan Tweney throws his taxi-yellow, easy to carry fixed-gear on the commuter train from time to time, and I would travel along with my non-biking friends in Berlin on the bike-friendly U-bahn.

But while San Francisco and Berlin both allow bikes (although I hear the new muni cars have less bike spaces than the old ones), neither is as impressive as the the Stuttgart to Degerloch Zahnradbahn in Germany. The open bike-car has taken bike-commuters along this short two kilometer (one and a quarter mile) stretch since 1983. Two kilometers? Are these people lazy?

Our German speaking readers will have noticed what is going on here: Zahnradbahn is a cog-driven railway, and this train climbs 200 meters (almost 2,200 yards) from station to station, a climb that is guaranteed to get you to work soaked with sweat. We can’t help thinking that the ride home must be a lot of fun, though.

Here in Barcelona, you can take your bikes on trains but unless you get lucky, you won’t find a goods-carriage to put them in (although the city’s trams do have parking inside). Do any of you readers from around the world have bike-friendly public transport where you live? Tell us about it in the comments.

Official page [City of Stuttgart via Cyclelicious]

The Spooklight brings iPhone-style accelerometers to your bike, along with turn-signals for those too lazy to lift an arm. And the lithium-polymer battery-powered setup has a special surprise inside.

The kit consists of two parts: a lamp unit which goes at the back and a handlebar-mounted control unit, used to activate the turn-signals wirelessly. But it’s when you slow down that the magic happens. The accelerometers detect when you slow down and switch on the red light, just like when you brake in a car. And because the lights are all LEDs, they are bright and last for 60 hours (the control panel manages ten).

And here’s the surprise gift. The Spooklight charges via USB (it is detachable from the bike) so you can hook it up to a computer whilst working, but it also lets you charge gadgets while you are out and about, juicing an iPhone to use some GPS software perhaps. Very handy indeed, and alone almost worth the price: £55 ($88).

In fact, the only thing we don’t like about the Spooklight is that indicators are kind of pointless on a bike: As we mentioned above, you can just stick out an arm. And as for a brake-light, motorists just aren’t used to seeing them on bikes.

Product page [50 Cycles via Bicycle Design]

The “Rosie” hip-pouch from Archie’s Grobags might be the most utility-dense bikers’ bag we have yet seen. Archie is a London-based fixed-gear rider as well as a cycle-bag designer (and sewer, we believe). And this bag shows the fixsters’ obsession with hanging nothing from either the frame or the rider’s body – it lets you carry just about everything you’d need for a day out.

Once looped onto your belt, you can load up the inside with cellphone, cash, a spare tube, tire levers, a multi-tool and any other (small and thin) items. On the outside you get a pair of Velcro loops for a pump and another couple of webbing straps on which to hang your lock (although the U-lock in the picture looks like one of those awful, lightweight and easy-to-break aluminum kinds). There’s even a place to clip a rear light, keeping one more thing off the frame.

The bags are £45 (around $70) each. Archie’s site is down right now, but you can check out the full set of photos at Pedal Consumption.

Product page [Archie’s Grobags via Pedal Consumption]

See Also:

• Make It: The $10 Bicycle Saddlebag
• Hands-On With Ortlieb's Bike Panniers
• Rubber Bags Made from Bike Inner Tubes
• Hambone Frame-Bags for Stylish Cyclists
• $220 Messenger Bag Carries Everything, Ever
• Hips-On With Fabric Horse Superhero Utility Belt

This is Bikesuit Guy, standing in his waterproof Bikesuit. And he’s going to need it: That fixed-gear which he is so nonchalantly straddling has no fenders.

The bike suit, like so many sensible things, looks like a joke at first. Or at least, it looks like something you’d never actually consider wearing. The waterproof, breathable all-in-one covers you from the hood to the overshoes. It’s almost like a baby’s romper-suit, only it is breathable, has air intakes to keep you cool, reflective stripes to keep you visible and lacks any kind of rabbit-ear decoration on top. In short, you could ride this in a rainstorm and only your hands and face would get wet.

Designed by the The Smart Products Company in (where else) the Netherlands, the Bikesuit has already won a Eurobike Award, despite not yet being in production. It’s certainly not the only waterproof suit, but it looks like one of the easiest to use: You put it on like a jacket and then zip everything else down into place (the zippers are watertight, too). The price will no doubt be decided by the time this comes to stores, and if I lived in a country where it rained (cough, England, cough) instead of providing a succession of bright, crisp, cold winter days, I’d get one. It might look a little dorky, but it’s not like anyone will be outside to see you anyway.

Product page [Bikesuit]

Award page [EuroBike]

Designer page [WIT]

When a kid learns to ride a bike, it normally goes like this: First, training wheels. These keep you upright, but make it impossible to bank into turns and stop the bike from handling like a lean-able two-wheeler. They do, however, build confidence.

Second, the “dad sessions”. This involves dad running along behind the now training wheel-free bike and holding the saddle. He lets go for increasingly longer moments until the kid doesn’t wobble anymore. Kid rides off down the street, looks back to see dad 100 yards away, kid falls off. Repeat.

But take a look at the Gyrowheel, which promises to let kids learn on their own, and in as little as half an hour. The wheel replaces the front wheel of a tiny child’s’ bike and has a spinning disc inside. Powered for up to three hours by a rechargeable battery, the disk spins fast enough to keep the wheel upright, even when joined to a child-bearing bike. If you have ever taken a standard bike wheel off a bike and spun it fast, you’ll know the effect. It can be balanced by one finger under one side of the axle, and if you try to turn the wheel by the axle with both hands, it twists off in a completely different direction.

As you can see in the demo video shot at this year’s Interbike show, the wheel has an almost spooky ability to resist even kicks and shoves. We are especially creeped out by the bike when it makes its way across the show floor, riderless but upright. And check out the slow-motion fall when the wheel rolls to a halt and ever-so-gently lets itself down.

The speed of the internal disk can be adjusted to alter the gyroscopic effect, letting you turn it down as the kid gets better at riding. And because of the gyroscopic precession, you actually get the stability felt at high speed at the low puttering speeds at which scared kids will actually ride. And did we mention the glowing light inside which, although it is there to indicate charge and power status in the battery, is in fact baby’s first low-rider accessory, giving a whirling rim-light to his her sweet, sweet ride.

We love the idea, especially as the bike stays as a two wheeler and will handle accordingly. The only downside is that the kids can learn to ride in an afternoon, meaning that it might be better to rent these rather than sell them. The 12-inch Gyrowheel should be in US shops on December 1st, with the 16-inch arriving son after. International rollout (ahem) should be complete by the end of 2010. Prices are still a secret. Rumors that the company will be making a hydraulic kit to let the bike jump up and down are completely made up.

Product page [Gyrobike via Bike Commuters]