Product Review: Outdoor Tech Buckshot Pro

It's winter.

I'm telling you this because some people live in warmer climates and they may have missed the google calendar notification.

Up here, winter means dark, cold, and... well, that about sums it up.

because of the fact it is winter, the majority of product reviews that will be forthcoming will be of use in either dark or cold. Sometimes both.

Today's product review won't do much to keep you warm - unless you break out some bike-dance moves.

The Outdoor Tech Buckshot Pro is truly a jack of all trades, a veritable Swiss Army knife of bike lights. Not only is it a light for your bike, but it is also a powerbank - to recharge your phone, etc... a lantern for off-bike lighting needs, and last but not least, a speaker.

The flashlight - which plugs into the powerbank output USB port - has three settings, torch, strobe, and lamp (high and low lamp, so technically four settings),

Speaking of the powerbank, it has a 2600 mAh rechargable battery in it, so you'll be able to easily recharge your phone, GPS, or whatever electronic device you have with you.

Finally the speaker. On one end is the light, which obviously you want pointing at the road. The other end is the bluetooth speaker, conviently pointing back at you so you can listen to your music, make calls, what have you while riding.

How does it work? Pretty dang well! The light is bright, almost annoyingly so. I've used the high lamp while camping and it does a good job of illuminating the surrounding area, while the low lamp is dim enough not to wake your sleeping significant other while you fumble around. The speaker, while not excessively loud is loud enough to hear while riding in all but the noisiest environments.

Battery life is good. you can expect 10+ hours from the speaker on a full charge. Adding the light will drop that number, of course. I've had the light and speaker running for several hours before I've needed to recharge.

The Buckshot Pro retails for $79.95, and is available in 5 colors. More information can be found here.

Pondering About the Cost of Bicycle Parts is a Really Boring Title, but Accurate.

As I was reading a recent Yehuda Moon strip, I felt a strange resonance.

Not the resonance that I drive anywhere in a $40k SUV, because I don't, but the comparison in costs.

For those of us who commute regularly by bicycle, we have minimal maintenance costs, but they do occasionally pop up. Tires, tubes (I direct you to a recent rant), lube, chains, cables etc.. do wear out or break, and need replacing. 

When that would happen, I would feel a pang of guilt and anxiety about needing to spend money on my bicycle to replace whatever needed replacing. But if the car needed an oil change, new tires, engine work, or more frequently, gas, there would be less guilt and anxiety because we of course need the car to get around!

I don't know why I had the disconnect in thinking that my maintenance costs and repairs were superfluous, but for the car they were not. Yes, my commute could be done by a car, but that would increase maintenance costs for the car, and other intangible costs, such as pollution and my waistline. 

Yesterday, I took the folding bike (review forthcoming) out for the commute. It was lightly snowing, and the roads were wet. Needless to say, I arrived to work with a soggy bum. A quick visit to the river in South America, and a pair of fenders are swiftly making their way to me. This time, I didn't think of the purchase as a frivolous whim, but instead as a necessity, and guess what? The guilt wasn't there.

Product Review: Cycloc Wrap

Today's commute was cold. Not the coldest that I've experienced during my time commuting in winter, but still cold.

Not wanting to roll up my pant legs to expose my bare skin to the bitter wind, I grabbed a product I received at Interbike for just such a purpose.

The Cycloc Wrap is a surprisingly simple device. One of those things that make you think "Why didn't I think of this."

Basically, It is a wide rubber strap with a hole at one end, and a plastic button at the other. There are some other holes so you can adjust the size of the wrap. 

What can you do with it? What do you need to do? It can be used to cuff your pant leg to keep it out of the sprocket, which is what I used it for this morning. 

It can be used to secure a load to your rack, You can use it to secure the front tire to the frame while your bike is in a workstand or on a rack, If it is not long enough, you can hook multiple Wraps together, etc... 

To further the functionality to their form, the holes are large enough to fit a U-lock, so if you don't want to stuff them in a pocket when you arrive at your destination (not like they are bulky or anything), you can lock them up. 

They retail for $14.99. More information can be found at www.cycloc.com

Cyclists are Awesome

I just lost my wallet.

Seriously. I left my office and grabbed a city bike to ride up to the local 7-Eleven to top off my caffeine reserves when my wallet apparently fell out of my back pocket. I only found this out when I was unable to pay for my Big Gulp.

A ride back down to the docking station, and a walk back up and down the street turned up nothing. Giving up hope, I was just about to start canceling EVERYTHING, when I recieved a text.

Thank you so very, very much to the guy on the red Bridgestone MB-1 for finding and returning my wallet. He said that he saw the wallet, googled my name, found my LinkedIN profile (which I haven't maintained for a few years now), saw that I worked with the Tour de Cure, called them, and they told him my cell phone # which they still had. He wouldn't even accept a reward for returning it. 

People who ride bikes are awesome!

Update: He left a voicemail that I didn't notice before, so I can now thank him by name. Thank you, Mike!

Tales from the Commute - The Non-Rant Edition

What?!? I'm not ranting about my commute? I actually have something nice to say about cars today? Has Hell frozen over?

It indeed seems that when it comes to motorized vehicular traffic, my heart isn't as cold and dead as I thought, and there are still a few cockles in there to be warmed.

Yesterday, on my commute home, I encountered something that gave me a small bout of the warm fuzzies.  I was riding down one of the roads in my town which has a bike lane. Ahead of me, blocking the lane was a UPS delivery truck. Not an uncommon sight, and anymore not one that I bother myself with getting worked up over. The driver returned to his truck before I reached him, moved about 20 feet further up the road, around some cars, pulled closer to the curb as to be more out of the lane, and then did something that I was actually impressed by. I had to stop and take a picture of it after I passed. 

I give you exhibit A. 

Sorry, wrong Xzibit, I meant this one.

Can't see it? Well, it can't be because of my photographic skills. Still, let me help out.

Before he went into the back of his truck to retrieve whatever packages he was delivering, he folded in his driver-side mirror. I don't know if this is standard practice, or if he saw me coming up the bike lane and was just being a nice guy. Today, I tend to believe it was the latter.