Bicycle Safety Tips

It's simple! Follow the "rules of the road". With few exceptions, when operating a bicycle on the streets and highways you must comply with the motor vehicle traffic regulations of your state and locality. Yes, you have all the rights of a motor vehicle driver, but you also have the same responsibilities they do. That means you must drive on the right side of a two way street, except when overtaking or passing. You must obey traffic lights and signs. At uncontrolled intersections, remember the vehicle on the left yields the right-of-way to the vehicle on the right.

Where bike paths or lanes are available, use them. When traveling with a group, it is best to ride single file and never more than two abreast.

Signals are important. Turning right? Extend your right hand and arm in a horizontal position straight from and level with your shoulder beyond the right side of your bicycle. Turning left? Extend your left arm straight and level to the left side of your bike. For slowing down or stopping, extend your arm downward to your side. By following the regulations applicable to motor vehicles (which the law requires you to do, like it or not), you make it less likely a motor vehicle driver will misunderstand what you are doing and where you are going. Such misunderstandings cause accidents.

MONOWALKER hiking/cycling trailer

The MONOWALKER, designed by Kai Fuchs, is a great looking wooden and aluminum bike trailer, but as you might guess from the name it is more than that. The product is primarily a single wheeled hiking trailer, but by adding another wheel and a bike drawbar, you can convert it into a cycling trailer. Watch the video on the MONOWALKER site to see it used as both a hiking and biking trailer (as well as a backpack). It looks like a pretty nice product, and the video definitely made me want to try one.

Kai points out that the trailer is ideal for:

• Hikers – who want to hike without weight on shoulders and who appreciate adventures in nature.
• Climbers - who want to bring equipment to the base camp, in order to start the tour from there
• Photographers that want to carry the equipment for outdoor purposes/ or a tent
• Parents/ Dads that want to camp with their kids but who would have too much to carry for 2-4 people- even a child carrier for kids that is usually carried on the back can be connected with the use of the hip belt
• Women that cannot carry much weight on their back.
• Youth group leader – who need to carry their personal things plus group equipment
• Disaster Control which needs to carry heavy equipment on impassable trails, and where vehicles are of no good use
• Scientists in nature who need to carry equipment on narrow trails
• Hunters that need to pull animals out of the woods

To that list I would add touring cyclists, who might want to convert the trailer and use it in hiking mode at times (as the video illustrates). It would be nice to have a way to carry all of your stuff (off the bike) on a long cycle tour.

A hubless wheel from the past: The Black Hole

As I mentioned in a recent post, hubless wheel concept bikes have been appearing on the web in droves lately. Fast Company recently featured a few of those recent concept bikes (and one really old one) in their “Almost Genius” category, reserved for designs that don’t quite work. On the Core77 discussion boards, slippyfish recently started, “The Official Hubless Wheel Hater Thread”. One of the posts on that thread even points a pretty entertaining gallery of late 19th century hubless monocycles. Of course, BSNYC’s “save the hubs” campaign gets a mention too. All in all, it seems that everyone is kind of tired of seeing new hubless wheel concepts on the web every week.

What better time to revisit a couple of old posts about a hubless wheel, which (I believe) actually went into production for a short time in the mid 90s. The picture you see above is an early prototype of the Black Hole hubless wheel system from “Wear and Tear”. According to the company, this assembly weighed about a pound less than a conventional fork and wheel. Sounds great…why didn’t it catch on?

To the left, you can see a later prototype of the Black Hole. Obviously, the designers were a little too optimistic with that large opening in the previous prototype. I am not sure what happened to Wear and Tear, but I have my doubts that this later prototype was lighter than the average conventional fork and wheel that was available at the time.

On an unrelated note, the Taipei International Cycle Show opens tomorrow. As he did last year, Eric Stoddard will be writing a guest post or two from the show. I’m looking forward to reading what he has to say.

Fuel EX 9.9

Trail Performance, Patented

The Fuel EX 9.9 is the pinnacle Fuel EX model, with the highest-performance shocks, wheels and drivetrain, and the lightest weight. Also available as a frame only.

Frameset
Sizes	15.5, 17.5, 18.5, 19.5, 21.5"
Frame	OCLV Black Carbon w/ABP Race, Full Floater, E2 tapered head tube, magnesium EVO Link, oversized pivot bearings, replaceable derailleur hanger, 120mm travel
Front Suspension	Fox 32 F-Series Fit RLC w/air spring, compression, lockout, rebound, alloy E2 tapered steerer, 15QR thru axle, 120mm
Rear Suspension	Fox Float RP-23 w/proprietary Trek DRCV, boost valve, Pro Pedal, rebound; 7.25x2.0"
Wheels
Wheels	Bontrager Rhythm Pro Disc wheel system, 6 bolt, tubeless ready
Tires	Bontrager XDX, 26x2.2"
Drivetrain
Shifters	SRAM X.0 trigger
Front Derailleur	Shimano XTR
Rear Derailleur	SRAM X.0
Crank	SRAM Noir 44/32/22
Cassette	Shimano XTR 11-32, 9 speed
Pedals	n/a
Components
Saddle	Bontrager Race X Lite
Seat Post	Bontrager Race XXX Lite, 31.6mm, 5mm offset
Handlebars	Bontrager Race X Lite, carbon, 40mm rise
Stem	Bontrager Race XXX Lite, 7 degree
Headset	Cane Creek Frustum SE Light Edition, E2
Brakeset	Avid Elixir CR MAG, hydraulic disc
Accessories
Extras	Trek fork and shock sag meter

MSRP $6,819.99 *