Bike Hugger 

akiko, by Yohei Morita.

From the bikes in pop culture file, I did a spit take when Earl was riding his bike in the Rob a Stoner Blind episode, towing his brother, and Joy says, ” … bikes give ya nut cancer!”

The Whiteboard | You Have Reached Your Destination

The guys over at Synthesis Studios point out that bikers don’t have to settle for bicycle GPS solutions, as discussed last week.

They went full-bling with a Pioneer AVIC-S1, a Windows CE GPS unit with Bluetooth, 320 x 240 resolution, and 2 gigs of map storage.

Take 1 GPS window-mount, add a handful of zip-ties and an empty stem, and you’ve got a pretty effective, sano install.

Can you use it on the roll?

Oooooh yeah :) It’s a hell of a lot of fun, too. The touchscreen is clear and easily visible in daylight, and the interface is forgiving enough that clumsy fingers on the ride are still adequate to navigate the menu system. The voice directions are easily loud enough for use in traffic, and it’s a great conversation starter when I’m drafting someone and my bike announces Please-turn-left-in-500-feet. Now, turn left. It’s also great to take the ETA as a challenge and work to beat it. And for that extra pinch of unnecessary, the bluetooth/handsfree integration works great with my phone, so I can take calls with my phone safely stuck in my backpack.

Handsfree and no-hands at the same time. Sweet.

Mark V wrote for us during Interbike and offered his perspective on the culture of the event and the bikes he dug - he’s back writing for us almost daily and starts his hugger tenure with Heart of Bonkness.

Have you ever bonked really bad on ride? Not like you’re in a race and suddenly you realize you can’t chase the break. I mean, you’re on a long training ride in the middle of nowhere and your blood-sugar level falls through the floor, you start sweating weird and get light-headed. You only brought 2 gels with you, and you consumed the second one an hour ago.

Suddenly you start thinking that the wet pile of leaves next to the road might be a good place to lie down and sleep.

On the front page of the NYTimes Style Section are members of the Black Label Bike Club preparing for a tall bike joust. The article is about the “5,000 Burners, as festival-goers are known, gathered Oct. 14 for a decompression party, part reunion and part fund-raiser for the Burning Man organization.” The Black Label Bike Club has as WikiPedia entry that credits them with contributing to the tall bike culture.

NYTimes has now covered one bike niche to another. From Campy Record owners to tall bike jousters.

Messengers on break near Market Street in San Fran.

We’re rush ordered another run of Bike Hugger shirts to meet demand and we’re currently sold out of the mediums! Wow. And the others come in waves from Amazon, with a rush just this week.

Our friends at REI sent a link to Novara Flicks, an action-packed video of their 07 product line, including behind-the-scenes with the designers.

Of note is their updated brand and it’s focus on “freedom” and grabbing yourself some. I’ve talked a lot with Novara about brand and they’re very passionate about cycling. Also, having ridden with them during their legendary lunch rides, I also learned that they can take pulls, and ride you mercilessly into the ground.

Coffee and cycling go together, always have, and I travel with my own grind and french press to make sure wherever I am, I’m fully caffeinated. I use a Bodum travel press and it works great.

Now, I just discovered the Aerobie AeroPress and it looks a little big for travel (would work in the Scicon bag), but I bet makes one mean cuppa joe. It’s a french press with a filter and air pressure.