Garmin’s no stranger to the cycling world, which can be attested to by the release of the Edge 500 and 800.  However, both of those options are pricey, costing $250 and 450 respectively.  So the budget minded cyclist, the one that simply can’t justify spending a few thousand on a bike, probably has already negated the aforementioned units since they’re probably the equivalent price of a new frame or all together new bicycle.

So we’re not too surprised to see Garmin introduce a budget minded version, the Edge 200.  When it goes on sale in the next few weeks it will cost just $149.99.  Course, you won’t get a color touchscreen or ANT+ tech that connects it to a heart rate monitor or cadence sensor.  But we feel as though that’s a worthy sacrifice seeing as it still boasts the same ruggedness as the higher end version, enabling riders to expose it to even some of the most harshest of elements, including rain and probably some colder weather.  The high-sensitivity GPS receiver with HotFix satellite prediction should translate into very little wait time to find your location and the ability to track distance, calories burned and distance completed.

Much like most, if not all of Garmin’s products, riders will be able to share their data on Garmin Connects website (they’ve got a massive 70 million users), allowing them to face off against a virtual partner, track their workouts and find new routes no matter where they are in the world.  They just need to plug it into a computer and upload their data.

Toting around the good old bike lock is a pain in the ass, and literally if you resolve to the hipster methodology (they stick it in their back pocket).  So it only makes sense to integrate the lock into the bike’s components.

The Senza Bike Lock makes dual use of the handle bars. They can be removed and locked together to form the equivalent barrier of protection of that of a U-Lock, which is commonly used to deter thieves.  A double whammy is delivered because cutting the lock means damaging the handle bars, which are an integrate part of a bike’s usefulness.  The design, and we have to stress that it’s just a design, also calls for a rear wheel lock that is fixed in place and clamps closed to prevent the spokes from rotating or passing through the would be gap if it were unlocked.

Caveats?  In order for the locks to be sturdy enough to ward of thieves they’d have to be hefty in build, which means unwanted weight.  And despite the fact that it’s convenient to have the lock with you at all times, there are “rides” when you don’t require such an apparatus and thus the weight is unjustified.

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The Camelpak is a brilliant product that distributes the weight of the water over the runner or rider’s back and provides quick and easy access to the liquid via a tube mounted on the shoulder strap.  But the down side, especially on a searingly hot day, is that  your back will cook and the sweat won’t dissipate.  While it won’t lead to little more than discomfort and perhaps even “surfer’s rash”, it’s enough of a distraction that it could hinder your performance.  

The VelEau is designed specifically for bicyclists and places a 42oz container at the rear of the bike, just below the seat, complete with storage for tools.  Tubing, much like the Camelpack, is routed along the frame to the handle bars, where upon the rider can gain quick access to the spout, which is held in place with a set of magnets and a retractable tethering system so no thought has to go into replacing it into a holster, unlike a water bottle.

Word is that it will be available for $79.99 this July.

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Bike garages are nothing new to Japan, as we saw a few years ago, but New York City is still kicking around the good old bike rack.  That is unless one design group, New York’s Manifesto Architecture, has their way.

They’re calling for a bike garage, named the Bike Hanger, that, as the picture details, fits next to a building.   Commuters ride in and hoist up the bike into what is a translucent holding bay.  To avoid the power requirements and significant infrastructure build out, riders will be required to jump on a stationary bike to energize the carousel system.  

We’re just left wondering how you retrieve your bike in an orderly fashion.  Our best guess?  Each bay is tagged with a number which is provided to the rider.  But since it’s a human powered system, the lines to collect your bike at quitting time would probably be horrendous.

Via: Gizmodo

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Why anyone would want a YikeBike over a Segway or a good old fashioned bicycle is beyond us.  Yet, that hasn’t stopped the company from producing the carbon fiber machine, which now sells for $3,595 and ships in about a week’s time.

It has a top speed of about 15mph, a range of just over 6 miles and a set of Hi-vis built in LED lights to keep you safe during after hour commutes.  The weight of the actual machine is 22lbs, which is light enough to carry but enough to feel over encumbered after a short walk.

Those of you that weigh more than 220lbs, measure under 5′ 4″ or over 6′ 4″ can forget about, since YikeBike says it won’t work with your specs.  

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Check out this amazing all wooden – okay, almost all wooden – bicycle. Our friends at Pink Tentacle found it at this year’s Good Design Expo.

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Looking for some comradery on your bike ride?  Sure, you could opt for a tandem bike, but why bother when you can sit with three of your best buds on the BigDog bike.  Unfortunately, this thing isn’t commercially available so that dream of rolling to the bars with three of your best hipster friends with PBRs in hand is gonna have to, well, remain one.

If you happen to live in Detroit the BigBoy will be at the July 31st Maker Faire.

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When I’m on my bicycle I try to minimize my weight, which means leaving behind whatever tools or gear I don’t need.  This U-Lock tool converts any Evolution and Gray Kryptonite lock into a 15mm hex wrench, perfect for cranking your fixie’s axle nut.  Thanks to their forward thinking design it attaches to the lock when the security device is full engaged, meaning no one can meander along and steal it.

The total weight is 100 grams, 20 less than a 15 mm Craftsman wrench.

There’s no word on a price, but you can expect them to ship sometime next week.

[via Wired]

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With raised hipster fists clenching PBR cans above a sacred dive bar, word has hit the streets that Walmart is now selling a fixed gear bike for $150.  Manufactured by 1980′s BMX icons Mongoose, the bike is called the Cachet.  Not quite sure how it’s supposed to be pronounced, the bike has an aluminum frame and is actually more of a single speed than fixed gear, but it’s always more fun to write as if a hipster is being stabbed in the heart.

Being that “whistling fixies” are generally so lacking of components they shouldn’t ever be that expensive, so $150 sounds like a pretty good deal.  Order yours at the link below and let the hipster scalps hit the floor!

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Dynamo powered lights have been around almost as long as the bicycle has had gears.  One problem?  Most if not all of them had to make physical contact with a spinning wheel to be powered, that is until now.  Enter the Magtenlight.  It uses the same dynamo tech, but instead of a physical spinning apparatus it uses 28 magnets attached to the bike’s spokes.  As they pass by the dynamo, power is generated and the included lights are lit.  No physical contact, no friction, no slow down.

Two lights are included and rated at 15 lux a piece, that is assuming you’re traveling at about 9mph.  A small on board capacitor or battery stores additional juice for up to 4 minutes when you pause or brake at stop lights and stop signs.

[via Inhabitat]

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Too bad I’ll probably never ride Sanyo’s Eneloop Bike, but that can probably be said for the majority.  In any event, the company felt it necessary to update the recently announced bicycle.  Now, instead of just capturing power during acceleration and downhill glides, the Eneloop bike will ‘sip’, as in slightly nurse, energy while riders bike on the flats to charge its on board battery system.

Ultimately, this should mean more power for those moments when you need some added momemntum from the electric drivetrain, which is when and only when the on board motor system will kick in (think hill).  Sanyo says the system is self adapting to the riders output and shouldn’t impact or increase the pedal resistance.

The new Sanyo Eneloop bikes (CY-SPL226 and CY-SPL224) will launch in Japan only on April 21st for 157,290 yen.

[via TFTS]

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I’ve been seeing pics of this spokeless rear wheel bicycle all week, and now I’m conceding and posting on it.  That isn’t to say it isn’t cool as shit, though, because it totally is. It reminds me of the Hubless Chopper (as in motorcycle) that we saw last year.

The bike was built by some Yale students for their mechanical design class.  As you can see it has 2 cranks as opposed to one.  The back wheel’s gear attaches to the rear wheel’s inner rim, unlike a conventional bike whose gear attaches to a hub mounted on the center of the rear wheel.

Being a biker I have to question the energy loss that occurs from having two cranks and pushing from the inside of the rim as opposed to the center of the wheel.   Regardless of any riding inefficiencies, it’s a sick looking piece of kit and would surely turn heads at Venice beach.

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Tokyo, Japan has long been a place with a massive population and a small amount of land.  So as you can imagine they’re always inventing new ways to store their worldly positions without displacing their living space.

The multistory computerized bike parking garage is just one of those things you have to see to believe.  The bike slips into the mini freight elevator’s clutches and using an attached electronic tag it drops below the earth’s surface and stores it until the user returns.  To retrieve the bike they simply need to swipe a card and the computer will look up its location and retrieve the bicycle. Cost for storage is about $20/month.

[via Treehugger]

OK, so while this bike looks interesting enough, it also looks really for lack of a better adjective, stupid.  With the last decade seeing rise to the fixed gear bike (much to my disdain), this bike seems to absolutely epitomize that design mindset with a little impracticality thrown in for bad measure.

Looking at the picture of the dude sitting on this I can’t possibly fathom how you could want to ride this for more than a few blocks.  He looks pretty poised to take a dive off the front of the thing as soon as he hits a bump.  The only thing inner city about this bike is how ghetto it is.  What do we think?

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If you’ve ever wondered how you could do more to help save the planet with your morning bicycle commute, then look no more, o ecologically aware one; we’ve got the solution for you!

It’s called the E-Werk, and it’s from Germany.  Those of you hearing Vince from ShamWow declare that the Germans make good stuff are not alone, and I’m laughing too.  But anyway, the E-Werk hooks to your bike and uses your pedal pushing skills to crank a generator on the go, converting your bike into a portable power generation system.  Naturally, there’s not a whole lot of juice that you get out of these, being as you’re just pedalling a bike and all and most of your kinetic energy goes into moving the bike along.

It’s a pretty clever device, make no mistake, and for people who do a lot of biking, then you’re definitely going to want to get your hands on one of these.

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Primarily used in consumer grade batteries, Sanyo’s Enloop battery technology has been applied to a bicycle.  The Enloop bike can assist the rider for up to 100km by providing 70% of the power and tops out at 15km/h.  3 speeds are available as well as 3 assist modes.  I’d assume there’s a power up mode but the linked article is pretty vague.

The Enloop bike will hit the Japanese market for about $1,450 US.

[Akihabranews]

Here in LA there are dedicated bike routes.  Hard to believe I know.  Unfortunately, city planners didn’t take that meaning to heart and failed to include sensors sensitive enough to detect bicyclists at traffic lights.  This often means sitting at a light for up to five minutes, pushing the pedestrian button, or waiting for a vehicle to pull up.

First off it’s important to know that traffic light sensors (called traffic loop sensors) buried just beneath the pavement’s surface aren’t triggered by a car’s weight, but by the magnetic field the vehicle generates.  Ed Richley knew this and says he’s built a device suitable in size for a bicycle that can output a comparable single to ‘trick’ the lights into changing.  Called the Traffic Loop Sensor Activator, it’s currently in prototype form only, but Ed, who already managed to patent the device, is looking for manufacturing partners to take it main stream and hopefully in a much smaller size.

Sign me up Ed.

[Wired]