This week we stumbled upon the Zoot Solana running shoes, the Canadian myFloat inflatable dry bag, the German engineered Tune Spurtreu alignment tool, the WahooTickr heart rate monitor, bananas and a couple accidents - one of which is kind of funny, the other one however certainly is not, because it is sadly too common. Plus reports of a huge theft in Switzerland.
Zoot Solana
The Zoot Solana is a new neutral trainer that will be available in early July, but you can pre-order the shoe now. It features an 8mm offset and comes in two color options for both men and women. There is a blue and white edition, as featured below, and also a green flash - safety yellow offering for men, plus females can choose from lighter blue and white, and light blue and orange versions. There is also a tougher weather Solana ACR edition listed on the Zoot website.
MSRP: $100
Weight: 8.5oz / 240 gr
Available: July 1, 2014
myFloat dry bag
Sometimes when you swim in a lake you worry what happens to your stuff that sits unattended, and at other times it would make sense to be able to cross a body of water and have your stuff with you. That is where the inflatable myFloat dry bag comes in, and in addition to carrying your gear it also serves as a bright beacon in the water and allows you to use it as an emergency flotation device should the need arise. Canadian 2000 Olympic triathlete Sharon Donnelly has been intimately involved with this project and although the company does not have distribution set up outside of Canada, they have shipped products all over the world. You too could have one of these bright yellow myFloat dry bags.
MSRP: $69.99
Available: now
Tune Spurtreu tool
It is not an easy task to align your stem with the front wheel, and so it is not surprising that a German engineer came up with a solution to tackle this problem. Wolfgang Heer in conjunction with German brand Tune came up with a device that sits on a stem and points a red laser dot on the tire so you can easily figure out when to tighten down that stem. Too often folks get on their bike and as the look down on their bars they realize that something is off, and in some cases it takes several attempts to get it right. The German word Spurtreu would be best translated as track correct. This tool however will not work on certain integrated stem solutions, but not everyone just owns a super bike. Is your bike Spurtreu?
MSRP: n/a
Wahoo Tickr heart rate monitor
The Wahoo Tickr heart rate monitor connects to either your smart phone or GPS watch thanks to the dual band technology of ANT+ and Bluetooth Smart and 2 LED lights show the connection to your device and your heart. The Wahoo Tickr also works with third party iPhone apps like Strava, RunKeeper and MapMyRun. The brand also offers a Tickr Run - a product that hasa few more bells and whistles, plus an even more feature rich Tickr X is apparently in the works.
MSRP: $59.99
Going bananas for bananas
Athletes have an overwhelming choice of nutritional products in gel, bar, liquid and tablet form, and not all of them are beneficial, and some of them just do not taste great.
The banana on the other hand is a fantastic gift from earth and a fantastic nutrition item in a clever package. A single banana offers about 100 calories, 29 grams of carbs, 420mg of potassium, 3.1 grams of fiber, 1.3 grams of protein, plus vitamin C and B-6. As they change color from green to yellow to brown, starch turns into sugar, but most of us don't really take brown bananas on a ride, on average though a banana contains about 14 grams of sugar. Bananas contain almost no fat, and no cholesterol, and man, they are so delicious. Eat them on fresh bread, in a crepe with a bit of Nutella, in a yogurt or fruit salad or simply by itself - it is possibly the most perfect fruit.
Another sad accident
Portuguese Pro Sergio Margues was riding home from an afternoon workout when a car pulled out at an intersection in front of him and he t-boned the car. Marques had the right of way, but the driver, who actually had a stop sign, also had a few thousand pounds of steel surrounding her. Marques hit the driver's side face first and ended up with a broken finger and a few stitches. Wearing a helmet prevented him from suffering worse injuries.
Marques has not seen his bike yet and is thus not sure how badly damaged it is. We however are mostly glad that the injuries to his body are not worse, and send him wishes for a speedy recovery.
A lesson learned
Slowtwitch forum member Austin Hardy competed in the Rev3 Rush event in Richmond, VA and in one of the qualifying heats he showboated a bit on his bike, and a show it was indeed. You can likely imagine what happened next, and from what we understand Austin suffered no injuries, except for those to his ego. He did manage to finish 3rd in M35-39, but missed out on making the top 8 Super Final.
He told us that he had a blast and felt that Rev3 did a great job.
Scott thievery
This past weekend thieves broke into the warehouse of the Scott Sports headquarters in Givisiez, Switzerland and stole bikes that were reportedly worth 1,000,000 Swiss Franks or $1,100,000. The thieves also stole a truck from a business nearby, possibly to transport the 200 or so bikes from Scott Sports.
According to Scott Sports, there have been thefts like this that impacted other bike brands and retailers. Road and mountain bikes were grabbed at Scott, and some of the Scott bikes that disappeared were one-of-a-kind 2015 samples and hopefully that will help authorities to catch the brazen thieves.
