Bike Hugger 

Another designer bamboo bike made for Paris Design Week. It’s elegant, interesting, and the photos indicate it was actually built. What we want to know is, what’s going on with that leather pillow seat?

It looks like a ravioli stuck a metal fence post.

Bicycle Design noticed this bike in 09.

It was a caterpillar massacre out there on the bike path. Bodies strewn across it like a tank had crashed into a WWI trench throwing little fur balls everywhere. I rescued this one and it curled up in my palm like a scared little soldier. Dropped it off on the other side and said, “carry on.”

Followers on G+ have been critiquing this post, including observations of a pessimistic Mothra allusion and what happens after the cliffhanger.

Should the protagonist meet up with the butterfly and ride together in a transformative nature sort of a Occupy Bike Path theme? Or, as Joe Julian wrote

(it) grew into a beautiful butterfly, flapped its wings, and caused a hurricane that wiped out the eastern seaboard

Some weird European thing going on here at Cyclocamp, but considering Mark’s homage to booth babes earlier today and sexism in the industry, we’ll offer some equal time with a naked man on a bike. One in boxer shorts too.

Uploaded by Funny Cyclist | more from the Bike Hugger Photostream.

It’s that time of the year the rains are back in the Pacific Northwest. I see new product, shrug, and think, “these people don’t ride in the rain.” A power meter pickup on the top of your shoe? They’ve not spent 4.5 hours in a Seattle squall at race pace and had their equipment covered with road grime. It’s not the water alone, but the debris, brake dust, and slime that destroys equipment.

Riding in the rain is like putting your bike into a fatigue lab and the test protocol is, “worst possible conditions.” Cyclist that don’t spend their weekend hours in the wet, also don’t have rain bikes with permanent fenders. A rain bike is a B bike and is usually equipped with parts from your older bikes that you no longer care about. Why? Cause they’re going to get destroyed. By what? The rain.

Included in a rain set up is a second and third pair of shoes. Like the drivetrain, these are older shoes that have moved down the queue to the rain slot. Older shoes like Lemond’s lasted for years, newer shoes from China? One season and they’ll rot out. I’ve got multiple sets of booties and use them in different combinations, depending on the conditions. Cold, wet feet makes for the most miserable of rides. I don’t mean miserable like your suffering up a climb imagining your favorite Pro. This is call your wife, get on a bus, or limp home miserable. Look at the photos from DC Rainmaker’s post and see the cable underneath the strap that goes under the shoe? How’s that going to fare with soaking wet booties?

Italy’s Elite SRL introduces the Realaxiom trainer which for me was hands down the coolest training aid of the show. Realaxiom has all the features you typically see on advanced trainers, but you can use GPS data from devices you rode with to replicate climbing profiles on the trainer. Even more, you can go to Google Maps and ride the roads of any road in the data base, using the video feed to enhance the virtual experience. So you could pre-ride a race course as many times as you want before a big event. Not enough? You can race against other riders via an online connection! So badass. Retail is about $1250.

My all-time favourite Interbike booth bunny Hilary Crowley talks about the features in the video above. Don’t get fooled by the smile…Hilary is all killer, no filler: she’s the newly crowned Masters National Road champ!