It was a busy day on the show floor. Here’s the stuff that caught my eye…
First, Hutchinson claims to have solved one of the bike industry’s biggest unsolved mysteries — the flat-proof tire. Their new “Serenity” system looks very promising. It consists of a specially made tire and an “insert” developed by what the Hutchinson rep called a “proprietary solid polymer developed by our aerospace division.”
The result is a tire that weights just 1/2 pound more than a conventional tire/tube combo, but you never have to pump it up and it will never puncture. A company rep said the system was designed to ride like a tire pumped to 50 psi. The tires will last 5-6,000 km and the inserts will last 30,000 km (yes, you can replace the tires). Currently, 20, 24, and 26-inch tires are available and a 700c (road bike) version is due next spring. The Serenity system retails for $70 and they’ll be available in November.
Kryptonite has a new security system dubbed “Modulus.” It consists of cables, a locking mechanism and a separate bracket. The bracket can be strapped to any tube or via water bottle cage bolts. The locking mechanism slides onto the bracket and the cables plug into the lock. What’s cool about this is the versatility. You can buy longer cables if you need to lock up a bunch of bikes, or if you want to loop them around your entire bike. Another benefit is when traveling with your bike on a car roof rack you can mount the lock onto the roof rack cross bars and then loop the cables through your bike. The system retails for $30. Extra brackets are $7.95.
Boogie bikes is a Hood River, OR based brand of compact urban bikes imported from Taiwan. Owner Guntram Jordan traveled to Taiwan where he found that people buy folding bikes for their size — not to actually fold them. The bikes have 20-inch wheels, a step-through frame and a comfortable, upright position. An internal Shimano Nexus 8-speed equipped model is $729 and an external 9-speed goes for $895. There’s also this speedier version…
Guntram’s booth also featured the EVAlution pannier ($60). Made out of EVA foam with 60% recycled materials, he described the bag as “Crocs for your bike.”
hard-shell pannier made
out of EVA foam.
Many of you know I have a soft spot for Dutch city and trekking bikes, so you won’t be surprised that I spent a long time at the Batavus booth today. I’m surprised no Portland shops are selling more of this line. They’ve got a distributor based in Toronto (Fourth Floor Distribution) and Batavus offers everything from the archetypal, classic steel Dutch bikes to updated (lighter) and much sportier versions. Check out my Batavus booth slideshow…
The Raleigh One-Way sure has come a long way since I rode the first incarnation several years ago…
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And then there was the Electra booth. I loved this booth. The bikes were gorgeous of course, but the graphics that adorned the walls were equally eye-catching. See what I mean below:
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Yakkay helmets made quite a stir when they first popped up on the web a few months ago. I tried one on today and checked out a few of their designs. They’re stylish hats, but they’re still big stylish hats…
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That’s it for now. We’ve got one more day at the show, and there’s a lot more to see. Stay tuned for more coverage. You can browse all our Interbike 2010 stories here and check out more photos from Day Two in the slideshow below…