Power assisted mountain bikes !! wehey!!

 Goodbye hills!

Giant unvail new 29er power assisted mountain bikes..

The Talon 29 Hybrid and a Roam XR  model aswell.  We'll keep you informed as to launch date and availability, or give us a ring to forward order one,  theses babies will sell out fast. 

Yikes ??!!!

Without a doubt, this is the future of transportable transport !!

How Cool is this thing ??

First ride

Cool first ride , turnout of 6 of the best, even gob fox turned up (lagged behind a bit but hey! the first ride of the year is always a teller). Headed down the coast to gypsies, pointing out to little Jim, on the way, that his rear mech was bent, he could do with some new shorts,and his helmet made him look like Nelson and then was accused of being opportunistic (if there is such a word ?).''Opportunistic'' as in:- forming a club to create new business...i don't think so !!!!!!! how dare you Jim !! anyway as i was saying down to Gypsies Green and then back. Me and Gob fox and woolley backing it up on the way back. Little jim and the leaders decided to take a detour up lizard lane, i sent woolley after them to give information about the forward meeting point ( as i was escorting gob fox) and you'll never guess??!! Jim's rear mech went into his wheel !. Gob fox and i waited a while (while Dr woolly fixed Jim's gears) and then back along the coast into the city centre to the end of a fab first ride..well done guys.. and thanks for the business Jim..Can't wait till next week ..heading inland...up river...ALL WELCOME C'MON!! GET YOURSELVES ALONG.HAVE A LAUGH !!!
Join ''The Foxes''
Fox Leader ''over and out''

Ant trails for cyclists?

Image: Jessi Pervola/Gelardi

Hot contender for this year's daftest bike accessory idea, the concept behind design outfit Gelardi's Contrail Biking Community Tool is actually on the right lines, though it's hard to be certain whether it was chalk or some other powdery substance that got them enthused to the point of prototype... the mechanism is interesting enough: a small amount of chalk from a seattube-mounted container is brushed onto a felt wheel, which then transfers onto the rear tyre leaving a fine line on the road. As well as your chain, derailleur, rims... maybe.

So, er, why exactly would you want to do this? Well, the Big Idea is that getting enough road riders to use the device would make it colourfully clear to motorists that a lot of cyclists also use the roads these days. As more riders use the same route, it becomes a kind of collaborative DIY bike lane, all bonny colours an' that, reinforcing the presence of bikes, encouraging more riders to use the same route and so on, a bit like ant trails. Potentially, it reverses the vicious cycle of more cars present = more perceived danger = less bikes present, claiming the tarmac back for us less conspicuous two-wheelers. It's certainly caught the imagination of the tree huggers, anyway.

So is it a good idea or what? Will it reclaim the roads? Will it be deemed a hazard to other road users and get the rozzers all uptight? Will Top Gear retaliate with a car-based version? Will the roads become a slimy mess of chalk in the rain? More to the point, will it be so cheap people actually buy it in droves and actually use it so we can find out? Ay, there's the rub...

Wacky saddle

This just popped up via The Scotsman. At first glance it looks like a joke, then its pure genius starts to dawn on you...

They're a creative bunch, the Scots, and even though their claims to inventing the rear-wheel-drive bicycle might be a bit dodgy, this one is very much for real and about to go into production after eight years' development.

Edinburgh-based Manta Design (slogan: No Fear for the Rear) reckon that once you try it your conventional saddle is the one that feels weird...

Fun riding down under

Fun rides, Hawera-style... _________ pic: Taranaki Daily News

I've been in New Zealand a few months now and it's already pretty clear that cycling is a bit different here. The biggest deal is not forgetting to wear a helmet, about the only thing you can get fined for while riding a bike. Back home you can get a spot fine for all sorts of nonsense, like running a red light which, depending on whether you're talking to a motorist or a cyclist, is either spot on or as dead wrong as compulsory helmets.

English law is a bit of an ass when it comes to bikes, making it illegal to do all sorts of stuff (like £200 fines for "cycling furiously", believe it or not) but that's probably best left to another post... I only mention it cos it seems the Kiwi cyclists, by contrast, are free to go completely nuts and the rozzers can do next nothing about it.

Yesterday's "Tyres of Fire" bike skidding championships took place on the public highway in North Shore, Auckland, where the world's longest skid of over 250 metres was recorded by some guy on a fixie. Do it in a car and they'd throw away the key, but on a bike? Not a cop in sight. It's like bikes don't count on the roads, which of course has it's downsides but does make for a helluva lot more fun.

Want a few beers and ride home? Another spot fine in most countries, maybe even a spell at Her Majesty's pleasure if you got caught "drunk in charge" in the UK, but not here. It's not illegal to drink & ride in NZ. One way of celebrating the fact might be a pub crawl, get a few other riders involved perhaps... like the 1600 riders that took part in this weekend's Beers On Bikes event down in Hawera. It's marked the start of the crimbo holidays here for over thirty years and is amazingly well-mannered, all things considered. As you'd expect with such a large number of inebriated cyclists in one place, the police were out in force, hoping to catch someone not wearing a helmet...

The cycle world's gone cycle mad!

Try & squeeze into the shop this weekend and it'll be pretty obvious, sales of bikes are through the roof this Christmas. Everyone wants one, and so does his wife & kids.

Schoolies are cycling the equivalent of Santa's yuletide excursion instead of sitting through boring maths lessons about it.

Aussies are thinking of building an amazing bike sky bridge over the Sydney harbour. There's even talk of gritting the cycle paths in Cambridge. Whatever next..? Free lights?

One things for sure, when people are gold-plating an otherwise lightweight mode of transport, the silly season is finally upon us :)

Have a good 'un, but take care on those roads and mind them turkeys!

The sound of the wind and other noises

The year's wackiest accessory idea comes from Korean product designer Joseph Kim: a ceramic kind of bar-mounted version of the 70's spoke card craze. Y'know, where you peg a playing card or two onto your seat stays & get a cheesey motorbike sound. This is the same, in that the faster you ride, the louder it gets, but more musical, with notes controlled by moving your hands on the grips.

Joseph entered it to a Design21 competition called "Power to the Pedal" back in the spring and it's still doing the rounds now. Voted "most popular" entry, despite only coming third, its probably just a tiny bit too off-the-wall (and likely too pricey) to ever become the craze that spoke cards ever was (interestingly, a spoke card variant appears to be all the rage in the States) and besides, if the shop rides are anything to go by, there's never any shortage of wind-assisted musical accompaniment, courtesy of an excess of Greggs Steak Bake pasties, to warrant the loss of bar-top real-estate.

In any event, I'd definitely be changing the tag line first. Have a look though, it's a cool idea.

via Cozy Beehive

You will believe a man can fly...

via Surfarama

Nothing to do with bikes? Maybe so, on the face of it. The way I see it, the buzz you get from any kind of high-speed self-propulsion belongs to the same crazy family as this one, whether it's radical snowboarding, extreme downhill cycling or dressing up like a dayglo flying squirrel and launching yourself off the side of a mountain at over 100mph.

This is easily the best BASE jumping vid I've ever seen. Watch for the bit where he flies past the roadside. Totally amazing.