the tyreglider

The tyre glider is a new product and is pitched as being revolutionary for changing cycle tyres. Shown below with an SD card adapter for scale

We all know some tyres are easy to remove and fit and some are absolute monsters. The tyreglider is designed to make that process a lot easier.

When removing the tyre it's basically a wide tyre lever with an easy to grasp handle. It's quite easy to use.

1. You get the removal part under the bead.

2. Grasp the tool and pivot it over the rim bringing the tyre bead with it.

3. Still grasping the tyreglider, you basically shove it around the circumference of the rim.

Below is a short clip showing the removal process

Refitting the tyre is a different process.

1. Clip the tool horizontally onto the rim with the pointy end in the direction you want to go.

2. With the bead of the tyre on top of the tyreglider, basically shove it with using the blunt end as a handle. The bead will just zip on.

3. If it's a tight tyre, then it will get harder as you meet resistance. Make sure the bead is as far into the rim well as it will go and shove. It is easier than trying to use one or two levers to get the bead over, and no chance of pinching the tube. The design of the tool allows you to give it a good push though.

There's a short video below showing how to fit a tyre using the Tyre glider

I've tried it with a couple of different tyres on a spare wheel I have.

The nutrak I tried was a doddle but I can just about manage to do that without tools, so not much of a challenge really 

The 20*1.35 Marathon Plus is notoriously tough though, but the Tyreglider made it a lot easier and quicker.

For me the the hardest part was getting the wider lever under the bead for removal.

Whilst this tool makes it easier, I reckon it will most help when you have gloved hands in the winter or possibly if you have reduced dexterity as for the most part you can use it just by grabbing it with the hand.

Whilst there are other tools to make tyre fitting easier, every one I know is larger and bulkier than the Tyreglider. I think it's verging on genius, and could be one of the best innovations I've seen in a long while.

It's definitely earned a place in my on road toolkit, although I haven't removed the tyre levers yet.

The only downside? That I didn't buy a second one for my home toolkit! 

Dynamo lighting. Why and how

A few years ago I wrote a post about dynamo lighting on a budget. A few things have changed, one of which is Brexit, which means that purchasing cheap ready build wheels and lights from Germany is largely no longer an options for people in the UK. So time for an updated post. 

Why run dynamo? what's wrong with battery lights

If you're someone who just nips out on a sunny afternoon, then this probably isn't for you. If you ride all year round and cycle for transport and commuting as well as longer rides then here goes.

• Dynamo lights are always available, either at the flick of a switch or via a built in light sensor that switches them when the light levels drop. This is useful when heading through bridges, tunnels or even on a ride with lots of tree coverage
• You don't need to remember to charge them or worry about batteries dying
• They are bolted to the bike, so you don't have to take them off at end of your trip.
• They generally have a more effective and focussed light spread than a lot of battery lights which just spray light everywhere.
• On longer day rides with the right extras you can charge phones and battery packs

Oh and Dyno lights have a bit of trickery inside which keeps them on for a few minutes after you stop. This is so you still have light if waiting at a junction, and is known as a standlight.

That sounds great. How do I get it?

You need three things. A wheel with a dynamo hub, a front, light, a rear light and some cable to connect them.

For hubs there's 3 options.

• Base Shimano hubs are cheap and reliable but a bit on the heavy side. £30-40 quid
• SP are good, mid range and light. £75-£100
• Son are high end but very well engineered. £250 or so.

Decathlon sometimes have basic ready built wheels. That can be a good option if there's any in stock, otherwise it will be a case of getting an online or local shop to build you a wheel or build it yourself

If you have a Brompton, then there is a dynamo lighting kit you can buy with all the bits.

I have a Shimano hub on one bike, and an SP PV-8 hub on the other. 

A SP PV-8 before building into a wheel

The same hub built into a wheel and on the bike

As for lights. Stick with Busch & Muller. It's the most widely available brand in the UK. Axa and Spanninga are also decent quality lights. Again Son Edelux are fantastic, but expensive.

Dynamo lights are usually measured in Lux which is better than lumens. 

Lumens is the amount of light a lamp produces, but just everywhere (like a house lightbulb). 

Lux though is the light output measured onto a square metre. Most dynamo lights are made to german SvTZO standards and have directed & focussed beams. It is the focussed area of the beam which is measured in Lux

<40 lux is good in urban and lit roads.

High as you can for unlit roads and paths. Mine is 80 lux and it's superb for riding along unlit roads and tracks. 

A basic front light will cost from about £25, and a 60-80 Lux will be around £50.

My front light is a B+M Cyo Senso

For rear lights, again you won't go wrong with Busch & Muller, Axa or Spanninga .

You can get lights to fit a rear rack, seatpost, or even mudguards and stays. £20 will get you a decent light.

My rear light. A Spanninga Elips

And it on the bike and illuminated

Putting it all together

It's very simple to put all this together and make it work. the front lights are pre-wired.

You'll need some 2 core speaker/auto cable & some 2.8mm male spade connectors (Halfords calls them audio connectors) and a crimping tool if you want to make your own wiring to the rear light, or you could buy a ready made cable with connectors. Crimpers & connectors are cheap though.

1. Fit a rim tape (velox cloth is best) and tyre/tube to the wheel and fit to the bike.
2. Fit the front light to the bike.
3. The hub comes with a plug in connector remove it & push the wires in from the front light into it and plug into the hub.
4. Spin the wheel & turn on the light and bingo!
5. Measure a length of cable, and crimp male spade connectors to each core at each end ( 4 in total)
6. Connect the cable to the short tails on the front light, and to the rear light, carefully making sure you keep the polarity (+ to +. - to - )
7. Spin the front wheel, and both the front and back light should light. If the rear doesn't, then carefully check to make sure you haven't crossed the connections.
8. Once it's working fit the rear light to the bike, and secure the cable with cable ties. Electrical insulating tape will do a fine job of weatherproofing the connections.

Link to the Shimano generator fitting & wiring instruction (PDF)

This is a really comprehensive guide to dyno lights with shots of the lights in action

Review: Teentok rear cycle camera and light

I'm a big advocate for onboard cycle cameras. They're useful in capturing unusual sights as well as being useful evidence in the unpleasant event of a collision. 

They can also be used to "grass" up poor and dangerous drivers if your force acts on submissions. Drivers take notice of fixed penalties and fines. They'll have to declare any on insurance for 4 to 5 years and will likely incur an extra premium as a reminder. 

I've used a £40 Aldi rear light and camera combo (a gen 1 fly 6 clone) for over three years. It is only 720p resolution and can be a bit grainy, so I replaced it with a Teentok from eBay although Amazon have them too. If you're careful you can get them for about £110 currently.

It comes with a basic mount and a usb cable (not shown). It has a decent sized camera lens above 5 very bright red leds

On the left hand edge from the top there is a mic hole. Power button, light mode button, and a photo button. You can also see the go too mount moulding on the rear.

Right side has the microsd (not supplied) slot and a micro USB socket hidden under a snug fitting rubber flap

the supplied mount will fit a seatpost or other thick tube but is a little basic. On my bike the rackpack obscures a fair bit of the image so I purchased a saddle rail mount for a fiver from eBay. At 26g it's less than half the weight of the supplied mount 

Once fitted the camera nestles snuggly under the saddle. The fixing seem to be stainless steel. I'd recommend using unlock nuts and or threadlock. From a security perspective, it's an improvement over the Aldi cam which was secured.using a velcro strap. 

Operation is pretty straightforward. 

Press the power button to turn on. The camera will bleep twice and LEDs start flashing. Recording starts automatically and the unit will bleep a third time when it starts, but unlike the Aldi (which has a circulating led) there's no dedicated indicator.

Press the middle button to change led mode. If LEDs are off then the middle led will briefly flash every 3 minutes as a reminder that unit is on and recording.

Press and hold the bottom button to turn on the wireless network. The unit will bleep twice when it starts You can then connect computer to the camera to view and download videos and change settings. One nice touch is that you can change the ssid and the passphrase for the wireless network rather than it being hard coded into the camera.

I bought the camera at the end of January and at the time of writing hadn't had chance for more than a few short local trips, but I have done some run time testing

1. Runtime with steady light - 4 hrs

2. Runtime with no light - 6 hours 45

3. Charge time from flat - 3 hours

Sample video below

The app is called Ricam and is installable from the play store.

It's a little tough around the edges but it does work. Once connected to the camera's wireless network, set the app and click the big button on screen to connect to it.

Once connected there is a battery indicator and the usual settings gear for cog. Theres only one page. Date and time are synced from the app host 

you can also manage and download video and photos from the camera

I found that the camera was locking files so they could not be overwritten automatically. This seemed to be the collision detection being over sensitive. A quick email with the support contact included with camera and I received a new firmware file within 24 hours which has resolved the issue.

Since installing the updated firmware the app will occasionally report that the camera is not authorised. The only solution is to powecycle the camera whilst clearing the app data within Android. The app will also occasionally report that the camera is busy. The short term fix is to exit and reconnect.

Verdict

This camera seems to be good value for money and works well considering you can get one for nearly half the price of a Fly6.

It's neater than a lot of the go pro clones hand has a light built in.  If you don't want the light, then I'd recommend a Drift Ghost X for an extra £15 or so which has similar runtime and a more polished app. 

The app has a rough unfinished feel and some bugs, but I'll probably only use it occasionally for managing settings as if extracting video for submission, I'll copy to my file server for safe keeping. 

Make a difference in 2021

It's 2021, and we are once again forced into lockdown because of the pandemic and have to stay close to home. 

We should all make the most of this by exploring our local areas and doing what we can to make a difference in 2021.

Three easy and simple ways we can make a difference are

1. Report problems
2. Upload photos to online mapping sites
3. Update those online maps ourselves

1. Report problems.

When you venture out on your rides, keep an eye out for things like potholes, fly tipping. even overhanging bushes or incorrect or damaged signage, and report to local authority using fixmystreet.com

Fix my street allows you to easily take a photo and make a report online to the council. It is available as an app for your phone. You can even use it to see other issues reported.

It uses your location to know which authority to email, and take no time at all to do so. I've had responses back even on a weekend. I've used it to get;

• Abandoned vehicles moved
• Bushes cut back
• Glass swept up
• flytipping tackled

2. Upload photos to mapping sites

We're all now used to Google Streetview and Satellite mapping which can be great resources for route planning, but for most of us they, especially streetview are very road/vehicle oriented. 

As we all know cycle routes in UK vary enormously in quality and sometimes even have better, less obvious alternatives. 

cyclestreets.net has a very neat feature called photomap where you can upload photos and tag them which then appear on the map, and help others. You can give meaningful descriptions and some of the uses could be:

• Highlight busy junctions or crossings
• Signage and route guidance
• Path surface quality
• Cycle parking.

Again like Fixmystreet, there's an app which lets you browse and view as well as upload.

If you use the excellent routing and navigation from cyclestreets to plan a route, then in the desktop web browser, it inserts photos on the route into the directions.

3. Update those online maps ourselves

A lot of cycling sites which include mapping use OpenStreetMap as the base map. These include Cyclestreets, Komoot, Strava to name just 3 popular ones.

It is possible to edit those maps and add in new links as they are built.

Or add or correct existing links where maybe a path doesn't connect to the adjacent road which messes the navigation.

Enhance the data, by adding things like the surface type, path width and if it's lit or not. Certainly Cyclestreets can use that information to create better and safer routes to follow.

It's very easy to do. all you need is a web browser and to sign up to OpenStreetMap.

Cyclestreets produced a really great howto which is here

My Cycle Camera - The Drift Ghost X/XL

It's slightly sad that we are at the point where having a camera whilst cycling is recommended.

I personally think a camera is valuable for the following reasons, but of course it's a personal choice.

• If a driver hits you whilst you, or performs other dangerous manouveres such as passing closely or attempting to overtake whilst turning (Left hooking), then you have the video as a record for evidence purposes and can report to the local force. It can often be hard getting any action without witness or video as it's all too often the case that the stories differ.
• Equally when riding on traffic free paths I have had close encounters with dogs and owners. Again if anything such as a collision occurs you have the video as evidence. Vet bills can be high and we are now in a shameless sue first culture sadly
• It may be useful to record sections of the trip as part of a video blog.
• Also a video can be useful to capture stills for reporting things like fly tipping and other issues

Really cheap action cameras are often poor to control, have a short battery life and quality can be variable. I tried the cheap bullet cams, the go-pro clones and gave up, and in the end I bought a Drift Innovations Ghost X. Why?

• Good battery life of 5 hours+ which is replaceable with a long life module for 8 hours
• Full high res 1080P recording which is very good for picking out details
• Can connect to a phone app for setup, video review and even live streaming
• Stealthy rugged design which feels very robust
• At about £130 it was by far the best bang for the money

They have now released the Ghost XL which has a 9 hour battery life, much improved waterproofing and an optional remote control for an extra 20 quid. the XL would my choice now.

Mounting the camera

The Drift has a standard tripod socket on the underside and has a QR bracket that clips into one of 2 self adhesive quick release mounts supplied. One with a flat base and one slightly curved for a motorbike or cycle helmet). You can buy additional mounting adaptors to fit Go-pro mounts, handlebar mounts.

I went a bit Heath-Robinson and stuck the mount to a flat piece of plastic which is then cable tied to stem and handlebars which actually works well. 

In case the camera ever falls off, I have attached a thin steel lanyard to the QR bracket screwed to the camera and have a small carabiner clip which attaches to a brake cable or similar

Basic setup

The Drift has three big rubber buttons on one side (which are easy to use even with winter gloves)

• Power <| turns camera on and off, and is also record/shutter button
• Left/Right - Menu navigation
• Wifi |> - Sets wifi on or off (long press) and cycles between the camera modes below 

On the other side are rubber flaps covering the microSD slot and the mini-USB which is for charging and data. The box also contains a mini-USB to 3.5mm jack adaptor for connecting an external microphone

there are 3 main modes for the camera which are cycled through using the Wifi button and they are as below:

• Green        Video mode
• Yellow       Photo
• Purple        Timelapse
• Light blue  Photoburst
• Dark Blue  Settings 

Recording modes

• Dashcam where it records in segments of a few minutes and just loops, overwriting oldest files
• Manual, where once you record it runs until you stop, power off or the card fills.
• Instant On where it starts to record as soon you power it on until you stop, power off or the card fills.
• Tagged where it continuously records, but only saves a 1 minute segment when you press the play button which is 30 seconds either side.
• App control, so you can control and view the live video on a smartphone via the Drift Life app.

The camera also has a nifty clone mode. If you have multiple cameras you can connect them together so the settings are synced and you can control from the master camera. This would be useful if you had front and rear Ghost cameras for example

Settings

My settings are shown below, and although you can use the menu and buttons on the camera it is much easier to use the app. Using the app also synchronizes the camera's time with the phone

To use the app with the camera -

1. First power the camera on. 
2. Once it's on hold the rear button in for a few seconds until the rear indicator turns to flashing and then a steady green. 
3. On the phone or tablet, connect to the camera's wireless (network name will start with DRIFT-).
4. Open the app and click "Connect to Camera"

Using the camera

As I have my camera setup in Dashcam mode, using the thing is as easy as:

• Hold the power button until it beeps
• After a few moments, press the power button briefly and it will beep. the indicator flashes red and the rear screen turns to red and it's now recording
• To power off, hold the power button until camera shuts down

Getting video files

There are several methods to transfer video files.

• Use the app and copy video files to the local device
• Connect the camera via USB to a computer. This will mount the camera as a drive and you can find and copy the files across
• Remove the SD card (with camera powered off), and insert into a computer

Cycling cape - a forgotten wonder or best forgotten?

I've never been a fan of waterproof coats when it's raining. Apart from the old goretex coat I used to wear, they always end up being a sauna suit for me.

It's with this in mind that I decided to splash out on a carradice duxback cape at the end of the summer, and I finally wore it in the rain.

Aesthetics

Like all things I've owned from carradice, it has a very well made and quality feel. It's a waxed cotton fabric and has a built in hood and a chunky brass zip and press stud for the neck opening. It's a dark green with a reflective strip along the small of the back.

Inside it has a waist cloth tie. To be honest this really needs to have one of those click buckles so you can pre adjust and then just click close rather than faffing about tying the ends together.
There's also a couple of loops to pop your hands through. These work and are functional

The cape has a very barbour-esque look and feel overall. I was slightly disappointed that unlike my cotton duck bag it doesn't have a tag with the name of the person who made it.

Just riding along

So I rode in it for the first time following storm Callum and the weather was patchy with varying rain and a brisk wind of about 17-19mph. Temp was about 16-18°c.

It kept me dry, which should be a given, but i didn't sweat like a sweaty thing.
There was a nice cool breeze coming from under the cape and circulating around. As it's waxed cotton where it was touching my bare arms it felt ok and didn't have that cold clammy feel you get from plastic or even a waterproof jacket. I also didn't overheat like I would have done in a jacket. The legs also stayed dry.

It was only a short (8 mile) circular ride but it didn't feel like the cape was acting as a serious windbreak although as it gives me the same aerodynamic profile of a canvas tent there obviously is some drag. The weight of the  cotton meant it hardly flapped though.

It's probably not a thing for city centre riding, or for quick hops to the shops, with lots of indications needed. You'd probably look a little odd walking around the local supermarket wearing it though.

For longer stretches of just pedalling along like my commute though its fine. It's also more of a touring thing than for head down out and out speed.

Lezyne Macro GPS review

After 6 years of trusted reliable service, I've finally decided to give my Garmin Edge 200 the boot and update to a new GPS cycle computer.

Why? The Garmin still works and records the data I need.

• It has no connectivity, so I need to connect to a computer to upload rides.
• The USB cover fell out several years ago, and the port itself is feeling slack, so possibly only a matter of time before it pulls out.
• The USB itself is a fairly old mini-USB and those leads aren't as common as I found recently when I wanted to upload a ride and could not locate a cable
• The Garmin doesn't give me notifications or texts on the device, and the phone is a huge brick when tied to the handlebars. I often get texts on the ride home from work telling me to divert which I don;t see until I get home which kinda defeats the object.

I was tempted by the Garmin 25 which does all I need, but has a silly specific cradle rather than a standard micro-USB lead. The new garmin 130 fits the bill but is north of £150.
Various people have recommended Wahoo Elemnt computers, but again they're north of what I wanted to pay.

The Lezyne GPS devices are keenly priced and do all that I want. There are a few models and Lezyne have a good comparision chart here.

Cos I'm an old bugger now, with dodgy eyesight I quickly ruled out the micro range as too small so it boiled down to a Macro or a Super GPS. The Super adds Glonass (russian GPS), a barometric altimeter, and ANT+ all for an extra £30 or so. It does have Bluetooth so will connect to phones and HRs (I have one so may have a play again). Lezyne do BT speed and cadence sensors too if that floats yer boat.

A bit of shopping and a Macro GPS was soon winging it's way from Germany (ahh, the benefits of being in a single market). With delivery it was still cheaper than buying from UK.

It's about the same size as the old Edge 200, but a bit deeper, and a slightly more functional industrial design. It's not very aero, but then I'm not.

It's a GPS cycle computer so it does all you would expect with no surprises. It records speed, distance, time, elevation. If you have the sensors connected it will show all that info too. It'll upload to Strava cos doesn't everything now?

The startup status screen has GPS signal, and other info like battery life for both Lezyne and phone. It will also pull in similar data from Shimano Di2 and other sensors if you have them

Unlike the garmin which has a set 4 fields with the bottom one rotating, the Lezyne has a max of 5 data pages, each with a selection of layouts offering up to 8 items per page to satisfy the hardcore data geeks. It can auto scroll through the pages.

After only a couple of rides, I'm still playing with all of that, but I've already found I don't like the auto-scroll, and have distilled down to 3 pages

              

• A page mimicking the Garmin layout (speed, distance, elapsed time, avg speed)
• A second page with additional data (clock, temperature, ascent, and calories burnt) 
• A third page with most data on a single page (Elapsed time, speed, distance, avg speed and temp)

The lezyne has some other cool stuff as well such as email and text notifications, and will display when a call comes in. It would be great if the unit could have an option to flash or similar rather than just display, but that's just me

It uses the bluetooth via the phone to auto-upload to Strava if you have the feature enabled as soon as you save the ride. You'll then have to go in to strava and rename the ride and flag as a commute etc if you need to. It will display live strava segments if you're competitive that way (which I am not) and chase KOMs like video game high scores, but you'll need a Strava Premium for that. It doesn't do it for cheapskates on the free plan. All of this also depends on the phone having internet connectivity via wireless or mobile data

There's a companion phone app (Lezyne Ally, and website ). You can create routes in either, or if you have routes in Strava or other platforms you can export as TCX and import in. There is a tease of a menu for direct strava route import but it's still "coming soon". You can then instruct the head unit to follow the route via the app.

Another cool thing the app can do is live navigation. It allows you to select a destination via a search or tapping the screen. It will then route sat nav style on the head unit giving you detailed directions rather than just a breadcrumb like Garmins. I'm not sure what mapping back end they're using but the generated routes do seem to be bike specific so that's good

There is also a live tracking feature, where you specify email contacts and when you start a ride it will automatically squirt off an email with a link for live tracking you when you start a ride. Which is nice

Included in the box is a micro-USB cable. There's also a standard mount for fitting to bars or stem with O rings. Additional bar and forward mounts can be purchased. Sadly the mounting is not compatible with Garmins, which is a shame. A standardised mount across brands would be very useful.

Whilst we're mentioning micro-USB the device's port has a rubber cover, that has a lip on each side to keep it in place, which is a lot better than the edge's press in and hope effort (although that's an old design now). I found it was so snug it was fiddle getting cable to plugin to charge.

As hinted above, Lezyne do seem to be active in adding new software features to the devices and the website and app.

The Macro GPS (and the other Lezyne units) offer a wealth of features that are useful to commuting and transport focused cyclists as well as for the more sport orientated KOM chasers. And for the features they are dirt cheap compared to the competition.