App of the Day: 529 Garage

Bike thieves are scum! They are the lowest of the low, Deserving of ire normally reserved for current presidents and other politicians.

I've show videos before of potential thieves getting their comeuppance in some very painful if not funny ways, but all of the groin-meets-stem videos does nothing to help recover bikes.

Project 529 is an app-based service that hopefully will help you recover your bike if it is ever stolen. How it works, is you register your bike on the service, record your serial number, and include as many pictures and details of your bike, including a picture of you with your bike, that along with the serial number will help prove ownership if it is recovered.

Probably not a picture like this, but who am I to judge?

Forward to that fateful day when you go out to get your bike, and discover that it isn't there. A few taps on the app will get the word out to the community and authorities that your bike is missing. The app will also help you create a missing bike poster to hang up in your local coffee shop.

Does it work? I can't say. I fortunately haven't had a bicycle stolen from me yet. I've read in several places that these registries don't work, since there are numerous registries out there, and in most cases, the police don't check any of them when a "stolen" bike is recovered. Either way, It can't hurt because the information is out there, and hopefully someone will see it.

You can find the app for both iPhone and Android based phones

Checking Back In: Bike Shops USA App for the iPhone

Apps come and apps go,

I first wrote about the Bike Shops USA app for the iPhone over four years ago, and it is still one that I still keep on my phone, and use on a regular basis. 

The features are the same - they still don't have the websites for the shops listed - but what it does it still does admirably. 

And one of the things that still works is the report button. 

I just returned from a vacation in the nice little seaside community of Brookings, Oregon. To my knowledge (which included looking on the afore mentioned app, and checking RideOregonRide.com), there were no bike shops within 2 hours of Brookings. One evening, we went to eat at Superfly (I highly recommend this place, stellar food!), and across the street I noticed... a bike shop! Well, more of a catch-all sporting goods store, but they do have a full bike shop complete with bike mechanic. 

Thanks to the fact that they still update the database, Escape Hatch Sports is now listed on the app.

The app is still free, and it is so worth it! 

App of the Day: BroccoliBike

I spied this game as I was looking through the app store today, and the sheer WTF factor was so high that I couldn't help but share it with you, dear readers.

The game is called BroccoliBike. The objective is to replace bicycle seats with bunches of broccoli, without getting caught.

Seriously.

I'm sure you have a look of confusion and disbelief on your face right now. It's okay, I do too.

Apparently, its based on an anime called Nochijō, and has also spawned a real-life copycat incident at the University of Tokyo.

Those crazy Japanese college students!

Seriously.

I don't get it.

The game play is simple, you alternate pressing the seat and broccoli buttons, if someone appears at the window, press the "run away" button.

Both Apple and Android users have been equally "blessed" to have this game available to them (just do a search, you'll find it).  I love that the instructions on how to play include the warning "do this in game only".

The best thing about this game is that you don't have to pay for it - well, aside from the time you'll never get back.

App of the Day: SpotCycle

Yesterday I talked about Salt Lake City’s new bike share, GreenBikeSLC.

Today, for the App of the Day, I want to introduce you to SpotCycle.

SpotCycle is a handy little app to have if you use a bike share system – and I mean almost any bike share system around the world. SpotCycle currently tracks bike share systems in 7 countries, and 23 US cities.

What do I mean by tracking? Well, imagine a scenario: You walk down to your nearest bike share station, only to find out that all the bikes are checked out from that station, or the station is currently off-line. To make matters worse, you don’t know where the next nearest station is, and you are already running late...

When you select a city, SpotCycle will tell you where the bike share stations are located, how many bikes are currently racked and how many docks are free. You can list the 10 nearest stations by distance, number of bikes, free docks, or alphabetical. You can also view a GPS based map showing the stations with the number of bikes available at each one. You can set the refresh data rate from 15 seconds to manual.

Another nice feature of the app is a rental timer. Since most bike shares work on a 30 minute rental timer, you can set the timer on the app (it defaults to 25 minutes) so you can make sure you’re to a station before your time’s up.

You can also create a route, tag points of interest along your route, and share routes with others.

SpotCycle is available for the iPhone, Android and Blackberry mobile devices. Best of all, it's free!

Definitely a must-have if you use a bike share system.