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Bike-sharing in the 21st century

I love riding a bicycle. I started riding again about 10 years ago and spent a lot of time riding in the town I used to live in. In 2013, we moved to a place that is a little more remote, and the roads around the house are a little more car-oriented than those where we previously lived. Recently, though, the city has started issuing permits to companies that do Dockless Bike share. This is a system that allows anyone to download an app on your smartphone, scan a code for the bike, pay whatever fee is involved, and be able to ride pretty much anywhere, and then lock the bike up and remove your responsibility for it. Docked bike share means you have to get and return the bike to/from a dedicated place – an installed rack that the company or municipality installs. “Dockless” means the bike itself has a lock, GPS, and power elements to allow it to report it’s position and to respond to a connected smartphone that is seeking to rent it out.

Here in Durham, NC, there are currently two companies that have permits from the city and started placing bikes around town last week: Spin Bike and Lime Bike. I have tried them both, and they are pretty similar. You download the app, create an account with the company, scan the individual bike’s registration number, and ride off into the sunset. Both have similar pricing – $1 for 30 minutes. I have been using Spin Bike more because they accept ApplePay, which made the initial few rides absolutely seamless. LimeBike gives you a free first ride, but then wants a credit card entered into the app directly.

I park about a 10-minute walk away from my office, but it’s much more fun to grab a bike and take a bit longer route. At $1 a day, I can ride from garage to office, take a spin at lunch, then ride back to the parking deck at the end of my shift. Since both deck and office are in places where there are a lot of folks leave bikes, I have yet to walk out and not find one when I’m wanting one.

If you live in a town where dockless bike sharing has or may become a service, I encourage you to try it out.

You might not win the next Tour de France, but this DIY bike will turn heads

Gadgeteers love tinkering and building their own gear, so why not a kit to build a wooden bike? The Sandwichbike is a DIY kit that will let you build a cool wooden framed road bike in about an hour.

The Sandwichbike frame is made of weather resistant Beech wood. The bikes are available in single speed or two-speed models and are priced between €899.00 – €1399.00 ($1074.39 – $1671.94). That’s right, they ship from Europe, which means those of us here in the US will have to pay €150.00 ($179.27) to ship a Sandwichbike “across the pond”. Ouch.

If the price of these kits doesn’t make you immediately click the back button on your browser, head over to Sandwichbikes.com for more info.

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You might not win the next Tour de France, but this DIY bike will turn heads originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on September 23, 2017 at 5:30 pm.

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Your bicycle mini pump just got a tech upgrade

Serious bicycle riders include a mini pump in their ERC (Every-Ride-Carry). The TATTICO Bluetooth Pump from SILCA is a 120psi pump that is accurate to within +/- 2%. But what sets it apart from other mini pumps is that it uses a Bluetooth pressure sensor to relay the tire pressure reading through an app on your phone called iGauge.

When you start using the pump, it powers up a CR2032 battery which causes the built-in Bluetooth pressure sensor to transmit the pressure data to the iGauge app on your phone.

You can order the TATTICO Bluetooth Pump for $120.00 and it will start shipping on 8/31/17. Visit silca.cc for more info.

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Your bicycle mini pump just got a tech upgrade originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on August 23, 2017 at 9:00 am.

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Lopifit is a treadmill on two wheels

When I was a kid, I loved riding my Schwinn bicycle up and down the rural roads where I lived. When I became an adult, I traded my bike for a car. I bought a new bike about 10 years ago with the hopes I’d get back into riding but after only one outing, the bike has been in the garage gathering dust. Bad knees and uncomfortable seats have been my excuse. When I recently saw the Lopifit bicycle linked on a friend’s Facebook page, I thought it was a genius idea.

At first glance, Lopifit bikes look like a regular bicycle. They have two wheels and a set of handlebars. But that’s where the similarities end. Look closer at the image above and you’ll notice that there’s no seat or pedals. In their place is a flat treadmill surface that you walk on. As you do, the built-in battery propels the bike up to speeds 4 to 17 MPH. I bet the sensation of riding a Lopifit bike is like walking on the people-movers at the airport, only more fun because you determine the destination.

Lopifit electric walking bikes look like it could be a lot of fun. The price, on the other hand, is pretty ouchy at $2495 per bike. On the bright side, you can get one in ANY color you like for an extra $255. Want to know more? Head over to www.lopifitus.com for all the details.

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Lopifit is a treadmill on two wheels originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on August 22, 2017 at 9:00 am.

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Soon you’ll be able to use air-free tires for you bicycle

Bridgestone Corporation and Bridgestone Cycle Co., Ltd., are working on bringing us new air-free bicycle tires in the near future. According to Bridgestone, the spoke system is made from a thermoplastic resin and has rubber in the tread portion of the tire. This design is ideal for bicycles because they are lightweight (when considering weight distribution versus automobiles which are much heavier thus making this design more challenging).

No more worries about having to check and periodically fill your tires with air or puncturing your tires while riding! In addition to being low maintenance, when these air-free tires wear out, they can be recycled into new tires. Sounds pretty ideal, eh? The Bridgestone companies “will advance feasibility studies seeking to make this new tire available in market by 2019” (Bridgestone).

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Soon you’ll be able to use air-free tires for you bicycle originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on July 31, 2017 at 8:00 am.

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