I’m about to go for a ride now.Good to be back outdoors
However this bike is old and I might give it to my brother.
Should I cop a Trek bike next or a Giant?
What do y’all recommend?
Official Coli Bike/Cycling thread
However this bike is old and I might give it to my brother.
Should I cop a Trek bike next or a Giant?
What do y’all recommend?
NASA-inspired airless bicycle tires are now available for purchase
Two years ago, we heard how the Ohio-based Smart Tire Company was developing shape memory airless bicycle tires. Well, the resulting Metl tires can now be purchased via – you guessed it – a Kickstarter campaign.newatlas.com
NASA-inspired airless bicycle tires are now available for purchase
By Ben Coxworth
September 13, 2023
The Metl road/gravel tire, pictured here without its replaceable tread
Smart Tire Company
Two years ago, we heard how the Ohio-based Smart Tire Company was developing shape memory airless bicycle tires. Well, the resulting Metl tires can now be purchased via – you guessed it – a Kickstarter campaign.
The never-go-flat tires were created in partnership with NASA, which had already applied the same technology to tires for its planetary rover vehicles ... after all, it would be pretty difficult to fix a flat on the surface of the Moon or Mars. And no, they're not literally airless. They're hollow – so they have air in them – that air just isn't pressurized, nor is it required for the tire to hold its shape.
At the heart of each Metl tire is a Slinky-like spring that runs all the way around the tire. That spring is made of a shape memory nickel-titanium alloy known as NiTinol, which is described as being strong like titanium yet also stretchy like rubber.
Importantly, when NiTinol is placed under pressure, it initially deforms but then goes back to its original shape. This characteristic allows the Metl tire to gently compress and rebound, providing a smooth ride just like a pneumatic tire.
The spring is encased in a poly-rubber material which forms the tire's transparent sidewalls and replaceable tread. According to the company, this setup incorporates only half as much rubber as a regular tire. Additionally, while the tread may have to be replaced roughly every 5,000 to 8,000 miles (8,047 to 12,875 km), the main tire should reportedly last for the life of the bike.
The Metl tire can be mounted on conventional rims Smart Tire Company
For this commercial introduction of the technology, the Smart Tire Company is offering a road/gravel tire in size choices of 700 x 32c, 35c and 38c. The 35c model is claimed to weigh 450 grams (16 oz), which is around the middle of the weight range for comparable pneumatic tires.
And we're told that while this first version of the tire will be of a fixed firmness, future models may allow users to increase the firmness by pumping in more air. So they'll be semi-pneumatic, but they will still never go completely flat.
Assuming the Metl tires reach production, a pledge of US$500 will get you a set of two – getting them retreaded should cost about $10. Complete aluminum or carbon fiber Metl-clad wheelsets are also available for pledges of $1,300 and $2,300, respectively. Potential backers should note, estimated delivery isn't until next June.
Sources: Kickstarter, Smart Tire Company
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24920809/STC_GreenTire1.png)
Bike tires made from NASA’s bizarre shape-shifting metal are now available to buy
No more bicycle flats, forever.www.theverge.com
Bike tires made from NASA’s bizarre shape-shifting metal are now available to buy
/
These airless Metl tires are made from nitinol, a shape-memory alloy that ‘stretches like rubber but is strong like titanium.’ Warning: Kickstarter.
By Thomas Ricker, a deputy editor and Verge co-founder with a passion for human-centric cities, e-bikes, and life as a digital nomad. He’s been a tech journalist for almost 20 years.
Sep 14, 2023, 7:10 AM EDT
If you buy something from a Verge link, Vox Media may earn a commission. See our ethics statement.
:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24920809/STC_GreenTire1.png "A green prototype of the METL tire with the tread applied. You can see the coil of nitinol through the transparent tire.")
A green prototype of the METL tire with the tread applied. You can see the coil of nitinol through the transparent tire. Image: The Smart Tire Company
The Metl bicycle tire is the first consumer product we’re aware of to use nitinol, a NASA-developed shape-memory alloy made of nickel and titanium that can be trained with heat to remember its shape. Compared with traditional bicycle tires, Metl tires will never go flat and will last a lifetime — at least that’s the promise made by The Smart Tire Company, the former Shark Tank contestants now hailing from Akron, Ohio, which is also home to the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company.
Just be careful: the tires are being sold via a crowdfunded campaign on Kickstarter and that brings along risk, which I’d rate as high for something as cutting edge as this from a small startup.
You’re also looking at a pledge of $500 for a pair of blue or clear Metl tires (weighing 450g with an equivalent size of 700x35c) that are “DIY easy install” onto most common road or gravel bike rims. That’s about 10x the price of good bicycle tires, with prices exceeding $1,300 when opting for a pre-assembled bundle that includes aluminum rims, or $2,300 if you prefer carbon rims.
Here’s a Verge video that provides a deeper dive into nitinol and its NASA origins (and future):
Despite their memory-metal construction, the tires do provide grip thanks to an integrated all-weather tread that offers “medium low” rolling resistance, according to the campaign. The tread is rated for up to 8,000 miles with retreads priced at $10 per tire. The Metl bicycle tires are said to offer a “lightweight, smooth ride, with superior handling and durability” that can also “increase traction” compared to typical air-filled tires.
Estimated delivery of the Metl bicycle tires is listed as June 2024. As of right now, the campaign already has 128 backers, earning triple its goal with 28 days still to go. Stretch goals (if the campaign earns enough) include making wider Metl tires for e-bikes and mountain bikes, and more road/gravel sizes and tread patterns.
Thats so cool
I love renting e bikes in DC or down by the beaches and riding around the state parks.
Hijo de luna
Superstar
Trek, Giant, Specialized are good brands that you can buy locally and have bike shop support. I have a Canyon. They are direct-to-consumer, no local support, but offer the best value.I’m about to go for a ride now.
However this bike is old and I might give it to my brother.
Should I cop a Trek bike next or a Giant?
What do y’all recommend?
French Revolution: Cyclists Now Outnumber Motorists In Paris
Official measurements have found that Paris is rapidly becoming a city of cyclists.
www.forbes.com
French Revolution: Cyclists Now Outnumber Motorists In Paris
Carlton ReidSenior Contributor
I have been writing about transport for 30 years.
French Revolution: Cyclists Now Outnumber Motorists In Paris
Apr 6, 2024,10:06am EDT
Parisians rides their bicycles near the Eiffel Tower. (Photo by Chesnot/Getty Images)
GETTY IMAGES
Official measurements have found that Paris is rapidly becoming a city of transportation cyclists. The survey of how people now move in Paris was conducted with GPS trackers by academics from L’Institut Paris Région, the largest urban planning and environmental agency in Europe.
The institute’s transportation report was published on April 4. It found that the way Parisians are now traveling from the suburbs to the city center, especially during peak periods, has undergone a revolution thanks in part to the building of many miles of cycleways.
Those cyclists now on the streets and roads of central Paris are not Spandex-clad professionals as seen on the Tour de France but everyday transportation cyclists.
L’Institut Paris Région carried out the survey for a consortium of fourteen public and private partners, including local government and rail companies.
Reporting on the institute’s survey, French TV channel 20 Minutes told viewers that the “capital’s cycle paths are always full.”
Between October 2022 and April 2023, 3,337 Parisians aged 16 to 80 years old were equipped with GPS trackers to record their journeys for seven consecutive days. In the suburbs, where public transit is less dense, transport by car was found to be the main form of mobility. But for journeys from the outskirts of Paris to the center, the number of cyclists now far exceeds the number of motorists, a huge change from just five years ago. Most of the journeys recorded were commuter trips.
The city’s socialist mayor Anne Hidalgo has pushed through a great many anti-motoring measures during her two administrations—such as reducing the number of parking places, restricting access by SUVs, and closing some major roads to motorists—and the latest survey will be validation for her policies, none of which have caused the kind of protests that the French capital has long been famous for.
In short, culling cars has been far more popular than her petrolhead critics predicted, with Paris becoming cleaner and healthier to boot.
Notably, and without the spread of conspiracy theories common outside of France, Paris is also putting into practice the home-grown concept of the “15-minute city,” creating urban areas where access to amenities is close and hence there’s less need to drive.
The cycling revolution in Paris continues: Bicycle use now exceeds car use
A study indicates that 11.2% of trips in the French capital are made on two wheels, compared to 4.3% in four-wheel vehicles
english.elpais.com
The cycling revolution in Paris continues: Bicycle use now exceeds car use
A study indicates that 11.2% of trips in the French capital are made on two wheels, compared to 4.3% in four-wheel vehicles
SARA GONZÁLEZ
Paris - APR 24, 2024 - 19:53CEST
It’s rush hour on Rue de Rivoli, one of the main arteries of the French capital. The bicycles pass one after another in quick succession, ringing their bell when a pedestrian crosses without looking. Five years ago, it was cars that monopolized this three-kilometer axis that runs in front of Paris City Hall and the Louvre Museum. Not anymore. Two-wheel transportation has prevailed, favored by a paradigm shift in urban mobility. The cycling revolution, promoted by local authorities, is beginning to bear fruit: according to a recent study by the Paris Région Institute, a public agency, bicycles already surpass cars as a means of transportation in the interior of Paris, accounting for 11.2% of trips compared to 4.3%. A similar trend is seen in trips between the suburbs and the city center: 14% are made by bicycle and 11.8% by car.
Rue de Rivoli, with its two-way cycle lanes and its dedicated lane for buses and taxis, is perhaps one of the most emblematic examples of the change that the city has experienced in recent years. But it’s not the only one. The perpendicular Boulevard de Sébastopol has become the route most frequented by cyclists, with figures that usually exceed 10,000 daily trips, according to the count kept by the association Paris en Selle.
When it is sunny, the density can be so high that traffic jams sometimes occur, and the narrowness of the lane causes friction between bikes, creating moments of tension. City officials led by Mayor Anne Hidalgo, a Socialist, have tried to remedy this situation by building other bike lanes on parallel streets.
From north to south and east to west, the map of the capital has been filled with infrastructure that gives the bicycle a privileged place. Paris has more than 1,000 kilometers (621 miles) of facilities adapted for cyclists, including more than 300 km (186 m) of bike lanes and 52 km (32 m) of provisional lanes, according to the latest available municipal data, from 2021. The rest are lanes shared with cars or lanes only marked with paint on the ground.
By 2026, local officials want the entire city to be suitable for two-wheel transportation. To this end, it has set aside $250 million, $100 million more than in Hidalgo’s first term. This summer’s Olympic Games will serve as an accelerator of this new “bike plan,” with routes that will allow access to the Olympic venues.
But there is still some way to go. The Paris en Selle association warns that only 27% of the “bike plan” has been carried out despite the fact that 62% of Hidalgo’s second term in office has already elapsed. The Deputy Mayor of Paris for Transportation, David Belliard, acknowledges that there are delays, but does not lose hope. Progress is noticeable.
In some thoroughfares, the number of bikes already surpasses vehicles. Between 2022 and 2023, the use of bike lanes doubled at peak times, according to data collected by the capital’s 128 counters. The goal is to create a network of cycling paths that run along the busiest metro lines, to unclog public transit and offer an equally fast and safe alternative for commuters.
The number of people who travel by bicycle has increased exponentially. Vélib, the municipal urban bicycle rental service, has increased its fleet with 3,000 new bikes since March. Edmée Doroszlai, a 62-year-old Parisian, still remembers the first time she started riding on two wheels in the early 1980s. “It was monstrous, almost impossible and very dangerous,” she says from the center of Paris, with her bike at her side.
“There is also a big change in how men behave when they see a woman on a bike,” she adds, alluding to the normalization of its use. The presence of adapted infrastructure, she confirms, has encouraged her to use it more, as have many families who travel on cycle paths with small children.
“We still have to go further,” Belliard insisted in an interview with BFMTV earlier this month. The councilor was reacting to the study by the Paris Région Institute, the regional urban planning and environment agency, which indicated that 11.2% of trips in Paris were made by bike between 2022 and 2023, compared to 4.3% by car. The change in trend is clear. In 2021, two wheels still represented 5.6% of trips, while cars were 9%, according to Belliard.
In addition to surpassing the car as a means of travel within Paris, the research indicates that residents of the nearest suburbs also prefer to use the bike, with 14% of trips compared to 11.8% for cars. The figures are even better during rush hour, when 18.9% of trips are made by bike and only 6.6% by car. Travel on foot, however, continues to lead mobility within the municipality with 53%, followed by those made on public transit, with 30%. The study was carried out with 3,337 residents of the capital region who agreed to be fitted with a GPS tracker.
The bike gradually gained popularity during the public transist strike that paralyzed the capital in December 2019, in protest of President Emmanuel Macron’s pension reform. But it was also prominent after the Covid confinement in 2020, when the city tested the so-called “coronapistes,” temporary cycling lanes that progressively became permanent. Like Rivoli’s.
Better connections with neighborhoods
“The network is very good,” says Arnaud Faure, 31, co-owner of the Bivouac Cycles bicycle repair shop in Saint Ouen, a banlieue (suburb) in the north of the city. He has been in the French capital for two years and every day he travels 13 km (8 miles) to get to work and again the same to get back home. He says that almost all of his journey is along bike paths. But he cites two drawbacks. On one hand, the lack of safe parking, a determining factor for bicycle use. On the other hand, the fact that “just like in big cities, traffic is dense and can sometimes be dangerous.”In 12 years, car traffic has decreased by 40% in Paris, according to City Hall. “But these rapid changes in habits have been accompanied by tension” in the streets, the mayor has admitted. “It takes time for everyone to find their place and feel safe,” she added, following road regulations that seek to raise awareness about the shared use of public space. Last summer, posters appeared throughout the city reminding everyone that pedestrians have the priority and that the speed limit for cars is 30 km/h (18 mph).
The city’s plan includes increasing the number of parking spaces for bicycles. The goal is to build more than 130,000 new spots. “Parking at train stations must be developed on a massive scale,” stresses Aymeric Cotard, 29, a member of the association Mieux se déplacer à bicyclette [Better to get around by bike]. One of the large projects that should be completed this year, with 1,200 spaces, is located just behind the Gare du Nord, one of the busiest stations in France. For Cotard, however, it will be insufficient. In the Dutch city of Utrecht, the station has 12,500 spaces for bikes.
The idea is that people who live in the suburbs and take the train daily to work will also use the bicycle once they arrive in Paris. It is one of the main challenges of the coming years, along with facilitating continuous journeys between the capital and its suburbs. “This requires the banlieue cities to do their job and the city of Paris to also improve its entrances, which are inhospitable and unpleasant by bike,” warns Cotard. In addition, it is necessary to provide infrastructure for a flow of cyclists that will be even greater in the future.
The process takes time and has encountered some opposition. But the morphology of the city is changing, adapting to the bike. And, with it, its resilience to the effects of climate change.
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Introducing the CityShuttle cargo bike, tailored for businesses tackling logistical hurdles
Discover its cutting-edge features and leasing advantages, optimizing urban #delivery operations
by
@CityshuttleLtd
#Mobility #Sustainability #Innovation #ebike
@CurieuxExplorer @Hana_ElSayyed @anand_narang @Khulood_Almani @enilev @Fabriziobustama @BetaMoroney @KanezaDiane @sonu_monika @NevilleGaunt @kalydeoo @RagusoSergio @fogle_shane @baski_LA
To post tweets in this format, more info here: https://www.thecoli.com/threads/tips-and-tricks-for-posting-the-coli-megathread.984734/post-52211196
Introducing the CityShuttle cargo bike, tailored for businesses tackling logistical hurdles
Discover its cutting-edge features and leasing advantages, optimizing urban #delivery operations
by
@CityshuttleLtd
#Mobility #Sustainability #Innovation #ebike
@CurieuxExplorer @Hana_ElSayyed @anand_narang @Khulood_Almani @enilev @Fabriziobustama @BetaMoroney @KanezaDiane @sonu_monika @NevilleGaunt @kalydeoo @RagusoSergio @fogle_shane @baski_LA
To post tweets in this format, more info here: https://www.thecoli.com/threads/tips-and-tricks-for-posting-the-coli-megathread.984734/post-52211196
Just picked up a Swagman XTC2 Tilt hitch rack, ready for the season now.
Biden’s new import rules will hit e-bike batteries too
The tariffs’ effects on the bike industry are still up in the air.
arstechnica.com
Biden’s new import rules will hit e-bike batteries too
The tariffs’ effects on the bike industry are still up in the air.
AARIAN MARSHALL, WIRED.COM - 5/24/2024, 1:40 PM
Enlarge
RyanLJane via Getty
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Last week, the Biden administration announced it would levy dramatic new tariffs on electric vehicles, electric vehicle batteries, and battery components imported into the United States from China. The move kicked off another round of global debate on how best to push the transportation industry toward an emissions-free future, and how global automotive manufacturers outside of China should compete with the Asian country’s well-engineered and low-cost car options.
But what is an electric vehicle exactly? China has dominated bicycle manufacturing, too; it was responsible for some 80 percent of US bicycle imports in 2021, according to one report. In cycling circles, the US’s new trade policies have raised questions about how much bicycle companies will have to pay to get Chinese-made bicycles and components into the US, and whether any new costs will get passed on to US customers.
On Wednesday, the Office of the United States Trade Representative—the US agency that creates trade policy—clarified that ebike batteries would be affected by the new policy, too.
In a written statement, Angela Perez, a spokesperson for the USTR, said that e-bike batteries imported from China on their own will be subject to new tariffs of 25 percent in 2026, up from 7.5 percent.
But it’s unclear whether imported complete e-bikes, as well as other cycling products including children’s bicycles and bicycle trailers, might be affected by new US trade policies. These products have technically been subject to 25 percent tariffs since the Trump administration. But US trade officials have consistently used exclusions to waive tariffs for many of those cycling products. The latest round of exclusions are set to expire at the end of this month.
Perez, the USTR spokesperson, said the future of tariff exclusions related to bicycles would be “addressed in the coming days.”
If the administration does not extend tariff exclusions for some Chinese-made bicycle products, “it will not help adoption” of e-bikes, says Matt Moore, the head of policy at the bicycle advocacy group PeopleForBikes. Following the announcement of additional tariffs on Chinese products earlier this month, PeopleForBikes urged its members to contact local representatives and advocate for an extension of the tariff exclusions. The group estimates tariff exclusions have saved the bike industry more than $130 million since 2018. It’s hard to pinpoint how much this has saved bicycle buyers, but in general, Moore says, companies that pay higher “landed costs”—that is, the cost of the product to get from the factory floor to an owner’s home—raise prices to cover their margins.
The tariff tussle comes as the US is in the midst of an extended electric bicycle boom. US sales of e-bikes peaked in 2022 at $903 million, up from $240 million in 2019, according to Circana’s Retail Tracking Service. Sales spiked as Americans looked for ways to get active and take advantage of the pandemic era’s empty streets. E-bike sales fell last year, but have ticked up by 4 percent since the start of 2024, according to Circana.
In the US, climate-conscious state and local governments have started to think more seriously about subsidizing electric bicycles in the way they have electric autos. States including Colorado and Hawaii give rebates to income-qualified residents. E-bike rebate programs in Denver and Connecticut were so popular among cyclists that they ran out of funding in days.
A paper published last year by researchers with the University of California, Davis, suggests these sorts of programs might work. It found that people who used local and state rebate programs to buy e-bikes reported bicycling more after their purchases. Almost 40 percent of respondents said they replaced at least one weekly car trip with their e-bike in the long-term—the kind of shift that could put a noticeable dent in carbon emissions.
This story originally appeared on wired.com
Luke Bornheimer (@lukebornheimer) on Threads
Bike Bus is in The @WashingtonPost 👏 Bike Bus’s positive benefits — environmental, social, health, transportation — are critically needed, and government should do more to enable Bike Bus, including through funding and the installation of protected bike lanes and modal filters.
www.threads.net
London's e-bike boom is frustrating local councils over parking issues, as Lime and Forest expand; Lime trips during peak hours have grown 91% YoY in 2024
By Joshua Gabert-Doyon / Financial Times. View the full context on Techmeme.
www.techmeme.com