Friday links

It has been an extremely busy week and I still am still pressed for time. I do, however have a good collection of links to share, so I will pass as many as I can along in this quick post to close out the week.

Tout Terrain has some really nice touring and commuter bikes in their line (like the Boulevard model pictured here). I especially like the way the steel rear racks are welded on as an integrated part of the frame. I spent some time looking at their website earlier this week after spotting an ad for the bikes in VeloVision.

I received the latest issue of ID Magazine this week- the 2008 New and Notable issue. Four bikes were recognized in the “Move” category; the Taga hybrid trike/stroller, the Plus Bike by Fabio Bortolani and Ermanno Righi, the Freeman Transport fixie with S and S couplings, and the Schwinn Tailwind electric. I wasn’t so sure about the form of the Plus Bike; it just doesn’t appeal to me. Still, I am always glad to see different bikes and cycling products in design magazines. More style variety in the market means that the product category has potential to appeal to a greater audience, right?

Treehugger posted a couple of bike related designs recently, a cable lock with an exploding dye pack inside and a seatpost mounted generator that harnesses its power from bumps in the road. While I am mentioning Treehugger posts, I should add that they also had a good post not too long ago about small wheeled folding bikes. Finally, I will mention that Treehugger recently posted about a bike design competition that you are probably already familiar with (yeah that last link is blatant self promotion, but I couldn’t help it).

Core 77 posted about a device for a bike that can trigger traffic light sensors. It is big and crude at this point, but seems like an interesting idea.

MocoLoco, the self-proclaimed modern & contemporary design blog, posted a couple of bike designs this week

Gizmodo thinks that Japanese scientists missed the point with this one.

Cyclelicious mentioned the “Light Up Your Ride” competition on Instructables.

Road Bike Action posted a tech feature about Lance Armstrong transforming his time trial position in the wind tunnel. It is a short feature on the web, but I enjoyed checking out the photos. You can see video of the same thing here. It must be nice to have Steve Hed around as an aerodynamics consultant.

Lastly, I will leave you with a link that is pretty much the opposite of that last one. The picnic table bike appears to be designed for comfort over speed. The integrated cooler and grill are a nice touch. No wonder those two guys seem to be having so much fun riding it around town. Thanks to Rrrick for the tip on that one.


Posted

in

by

Comments

4 responses to “Friday links”

  1. GhostRider Avatar
    GhostRider

    A much simpler and unobtrusive version of the induction-loop “trigger” is to simply glue a salvaged hard-drive magnet to the bottom bracket shell of your bike (or the sole of a shoe) Those magnets are pretty powerful and this trick really works!

    Having tried both methods, I prefer the shoe-mounted one — I carved some lugs out from the center of the sole (with a Dremel-type tool) so the magnet sits flush and doesn’t interfere with pedaling. The advantage to this method is that you can put the magnet directly on the buried loop strip, triggering the stoplight cycle.

  2. James Avatar
    James

    Thanks ghostrider, that is a great tip! I am definitely going to try that out.

  3. -p Avatar
    -p

    That is a fantastic idea (with the hard drive magnet). Would a rare earth magnet be strong enough?

  4. Charlie Avatar
    Charlie

    The magnet idea does not work. Here’s what the article this links to says about it:

    “A popular myth is that a strong permanent magnet will do the trick. This is complete nonsense, since a magnet produces a constant (D.C.) field and can not change the inductance of the sensor loop, nor can it in any way pull the frequency of the sensor’s oscillator. One must inject a signal at or near the operating frequency of the loop in order to cause the sensor to notice a change. Although some will swear that their magnet is effective, it is possible that they have found a sensitive sensor, or that (more likely) another vehicle is present on an adjacent or opposite sensor and is activating the light sequence. “

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *