Month: August 2011
-
Eurobike 2011 and a new cargo/utility e-bike
It’s hard to believe that it is already the last day of August, but Eurobike is now underway in Friedrichshafen, Germany. The show, now in its 20th year, kicked off with a demo day yesterday that broke the previous attendance record. Bike Biz reports that 350+ new products will be debuted at Eurobike this year.…
-
PumpTire- a self inflating bicycle tire
A couple days ago, I received an email about the “worlds first self-inflating bicycle tire.” My initial reaction was, “first…no way,” but technically that might be a true statement (assuming that inventions like this one never actually worked or were produced). Unlike the 2008 PumpHub or the older Nakano Air Hub, the PumpTire has a…
-
Bontrager commuter helmet and casual apparel
Quite a few things have been distracting me from the blog lately- a heavy workload, my kid’s ‘back to school’ activities, and a couple of pressing local bike advocacy issues. On top of all that, I am trying to follow that new race in Colorado, which I can never seem to remember the official name…
-
Catching up with links
If you have seen the carbon/titanium Exogrid frames from Holland Cycles, you already know that they are works of art. Filmaker and photographer Jeff Katz recently documented the Holland Cycles framebuilding process starting with selection of the tubes and ending with a ride on the complete bike. The laser cutting of the titanium outer tube…
-
Bontrager computer/stem integration concept
Another concept design fresh from Trek World 2012 is this Bontrager stem concept by Ryan Hahn, an industrial designer in Trek’s road group. The concept, which has a removable computer integrated into the magnesium stem, has been dubbed “Computermatron Stemigration” by Ryan. Let’s just hope that name sticks if this stem moves forward into production.…
-
Learning bike concepts from TrekWorld 2012
Every August, TrekWorld provides an opportunity for dealers to travel to Wisconsin and check out new bikes from the company. The show is also is an opportunity to for the industrial designers at Trek to show those same dealers a bunch of cool concept bikes (like this one from last year). TrekWorld 2012 wrapped up…
-
NuVinci Harmony automatic shifting for e-bikes
Automatic transmissions for bicycles are not a new idea. One that many of you may remember is the Browning transmission, which was licensed by Suntour in the 80’s. More recently, Shimano’s Coasting group featured automatic 3-speed shifting, but like the Browning transmission, it was not really a commercial success. Those are just two of many…
-
Project Aura wheel lighting system
According to the Core 77 blog, “Project Aura is a bicycle lighting system designed to address the issue of nighttime urban bike commuting.” The design, by Ethan Frier and Jonathan Ota of Carnegie Mellon University, was recently chosen as the student winner in the Transportation category of this year’s Core77 Design Awards. You can read…
-
A few bike links from Google +
If you follow me on Twitter, you may have noticed a slight decline in activity lately. I am definitely not giving up on Twitter, but I have been playing around with Google Plus for the last couple of weeks (add me to your circles if you are using it too). So far, I have discovered…