Hasta La Gadget!

At $1495, the Taga Bike may seem like an expensive proposition, but given the prices of bikes and baby trolleys, I would get one. Also, this thing is bloody awesome: it transforms from bike to trolley in 20 seconds! More »

Believe it or not, I have actually read complaints from people on cycling forums where they whine about having to pump up their tires once a month. Presumably these slobs never wash the dishes, either. Or even get out of bed.

But while I can’t fix their filthy kitchens, I can point them to the PumpTire, the “Self Inflating Bicycle Tire.”

This Kickstarter project is ingenious. The tire has another thin tube running around the outside. As you ride, this tube is squeezed agains the tire and air is squished out. Inventor Benjamin Krempel says it is like squeezing toothpaste from a tube. This air is then passed into the innertube via a specially designed valve assembly, and once the desired (user-selectable) pressure is reached, the valve shuts off.

The tire itself is actually connected to this valve, which is how the air gets from the length of thin pump tube into the innertube itself. You won’t be pumping up a tire from flat this way, but as long as you remain puncture-free, you’ll never need to top up the tires again.

I can’t see myself bothering with this. It’s easier to carry a small pump in my bag along with a spare tube. But I can totally see something like an electric bike coming pre-fitted with these tires. I doubt electric bike riders are the kind to do their won maintenance anyway, so this could be a good fit.

If successfully funded, there will be two tires. A $65, 65psi “City Cruiser PumpTire” and a set of two adjustable-pressure (up to 100psi) 700 x 25c tires for $150. The minimum pledge to get a tire is $45.

PumpTire: Self Inflating Bicycle Tire [Kickstarter via Urban Velo]

See Also:

• Tires
• Pimp Your Ride: Cyglo Bike Tires with Embedded LEDs
• Spring-Loaded Space-Tires Win Award for Goodyear and NASA
• How Zip Ties Can Help You Bike Through a Blizzard
• Stylish Italian Belts Fashioned from Bike Tires

It’s winter, and you’re on your bike. The snow is coming down, the wind is finding its way in through even the tiniest gaps in your clothing, and it is bitterly cold. Thanks to your heated handlebar grips, though, you hands and fingers remain soft and warm.

Then, the batteries fail, and the temperatures plunge as fast as the shrinking current. Your digits begin to ice up…

This is the nightmare scenario only possible if you spent $200 on a pair of A’ME Heated Grips, the bike equivalent of those heated hair-rollers. If only you’d thought to buy waterproof, thermal gloves instead, you might save your now frostbitten fingers.

The kit consists of a pair of temperature-controlled grips, adjustable to any of six heat settings, along with a battery pack (you’ll have to find somewhere to put this), the mounting system, cables and battery charger. Should you have more than one bike, you can just buy an extra pair of grips for $80.

These grips are for a mountain bike, although a set of heated wraps for drop bars is coming in September.

Of course, if you need heated grips, you’re almost certainly wearing gloves too, and there’s nothing less pleasant when riding a bike than frozen fingers. Yes, a good pair of gloves is fine, even in the coldest of Berlin winters. But if you’re up on a mountainside and the correct flick of a brake lever is the difference between staying on the bike and tumbling into a snowy crevasse, then warm, responsive fingers might be essential. Available now.

Heated bike grips [A’ME via Urban Velo]

See Also:

• Luxurious Toilet Cossets Your Canal

Do want. Ryan Callahan’s Tron-inspired kid’s bike was on show at this year’s Trek World

Unsurprisingly, the kids of my bike-polo playing friends are riding two-wheelers before they get to three years old, but for the children of less bike-obsessed parents, the usual path to learning to ride is through the push-bike. These are pedal-less bikes which the kids sit on and scoot along with their feet.

They are also usually dead boring, either fashioned from wood to a design that would make a Scandinavian mother proud (tasteful, but a total snooze for a toddler) or plain old plastic tat. Enter the Light Cycle learning bike, designed for by Ryan Callahan. As you can see, the Tron-themed light cycle is pretty damn awesome, and its long wheelbase also makes it look like an old Harley or even a miniature Honda Goldwing (Kinda. If you squint the right way).

Ryan isn’t just a cool-dad candidate. He’s also a designer at the great Trek bicycle company, and this model was built for this year’s just-ended Trek World trade show. Ryan not only mocked the bike up in CAD software, but built a prototype, too. If I was a kid, I’d think it was totally awesome and take it out for a spin immediately. As a fully-formed human being, I’d probably do exactly the same. Right up until my 90 kilos crushed it into the flat light grid beneath, at least.

Here, at last, is a hubless bike that I can get behind.

Learning Bike Concepts from TrekWorld 2012 [Bicycle Design]

Now you can ride your touring bike to the skatepark, just like you always wanted

I see skateboarders carrying their boards on bike all the time, but usually they’re slung crosswise over the handlebars or the rear rack, which is both aesthetically jarring and potentially dangerous (the handlebar version, at least). A much better solution for this admittedly specialist problem is the Fairdale Pannier Skaterack, a special skateboard carrier which velcroes into place on your existing rack.

The lightweight carrier has a loop into which you hook one truck, and a bungee cord up top to keep the whole thing in place. The board is positioned back behind the bike’s rear axle, so you can’t hit the board with your heel as you pedal.

It’s ingenious, and more flexible than Fairdale’s original design which comprised of a full rack with the skate carrier built in. Price and shipping date are not yet finalized.

Skateboard Rack [Fairdale via Prolly]

See Also:

• Flexible Bike Racks Look Great, Probably Aren't
• Over-Designed Petal-Like Bike-Rack