The latest cycling innovations of 2012

The increasing popularity of cycling among people is prompting suppliers to make them even more user friendly and safe. Among the many things, most cyclists are acquainted with bike lights, helmets, gear bikes, and more, but the year 2012 in particular came up with some of the most interesting cycling innovations that will not only increase the pleasure of riding, but make it more fun as well as safe.

Innovative Bike Lights

For one we all know there are plenty of LED front and tail lights available in the market, but taking this one step further, companies like Revolights has made unique lights for night riding. The company is out with their bike wheel lights, which consist of hoop like lights made of 8 LEDs that fit onto the exiting wheel rim powered by lithium ion battery. Apart from this, there are the no-dynamo lights powered by wheel motion, or the automatic lights that sprout up on their own when it’s dark outside.

Wireless electronic gear shifting system

Simple electronic gear shifting systems did create a buzz a little time ago, but now it’s time for the next big thing. An Italian firm Tiso recently announced the gear system in which the bar mounted shifters will communicate with the down tube unit wirelessly. Not launched commercially, the product is likely to be more cost effective when compared with the electric counterparts.

Shock absorbing cycle seats

Bumpy roads giving you a tough ride on your bicycle? This can now be dealt with special shock absorbing seats for bicycles. A variant manufactured by BioFloat embodies a mechanism wherein the rail clamp of the seat is cradled in a pair of flexible elastometer inserts that help in separating the seat from the rest of the cycle. It absorbs quite a lot of those clumsy bumps along the road, keeping you in greater comfort.

Cloud integrated bike tracking system

With bikes becoming smarter, thieves too are upgrading themselves with technology to outrun all sort of locking systems you install. But, now there are tracking systems that are installed GPS. The GPS gets activated as soon as there are vibrations in the bike and detect all its movement.  Information about the movements of the bike is updated in the cloud every 20 sec, so you’ll know the exact location of the bike and track it back easily. SpyBike is one of the pioneers of this technology.

A floor pump that doubles as a seat post

Companies like BioLogic recently launched their floor pump that doubles as a seat. Ordinarily, hand pumps are easier to use and carry around, and floor pumps fill air in the tires more rapidly, but BioLogic has come with a solution that combines both these utilities. The PostPump 2.0 serves both as part of the bike and can be used as a seat and for pumping up air in tires.

Torch Helmet

Getting front and tail lights installed is not a bad idea for night bikers, but it’s much easier to have a helmet with lights that can be easily worn over the face. The Torch 1 helmet is one such helmet that features a white LED light in the front and a red one in the back. The lights work both in flash and steady mode. They don’t really light the path ahead of you, but are certainly bright enough to get noticed by others on the road.