Topeak’s Prep Station is a nesting, stackable tool box with expanding trays and telescoping stand/handle (standle?). The trays stack on top of each other, most with foam cutouts to keep tools organized and protected during transport. The top tray has small parts bins for your own collection of nuts and bolts, and the bottom is open for storage of larger items.
When closed, a large, lockable latch flips up and keeps them from opening. Open it by flipping up the walkabout handle and grabbing the handle on the top tray. Squeeze the yellow lever to lift the top tray and the others follow it up. Then, you just rotate them around to access each level. When it’s time to leave, just line them up and drop ’em back down by reversing the process. The wheels slide backward to provide additional stability when it’s opened.
More pics and details and some other cool new stuff you can throw in it after the break…
The trays can be unbolted from the PrepStation and clipped to Topeak’s bike workstand, too.
Retail is $899 and includes all tools – most standard allen keys, torx wrenches, premium cable cutters, tire levers, BB tools, chain whip and cassette tools, steerer tube cutting guide, mallet, chain breaker, mechanical torque wrench and much more. Weight with all tools is around 35lbs. Add the optional neoprene cover and Topeak’s rep Eddie O’Dea says it’s tough enough to be checked as luggage when covered. Should be available at the end of the year.
The MiniRocket iGlow bike pump has a clear plastic barrel with a reflective tube that bounces and LED light through it like a big light. Mount it to the back of your seatpost and you have a blinky light that’s also a high pressure (160psi max) pump.
The PanoBike App is their new app and pulls info from their new heartrate monitor and speed/cadence sensor. What’s special about it? They transmit using the new Bluetooth Smart standard, which draws very little power. The iPhone 4S and 5 have Smart BT built in, so you won’t need any dongle or adapter, which also saves power. The free app should be available October 15 from the iTunes App Store.
The hardware, though, is not free…we’ll update with pricing soon. Both sensors/transmittors claim a massive 1,800 hour runtime before needing to change the batteries. That’s five years of daily one hour workouts, all thanks to the super low power consumption of BT Smart. Even better, the speed/cadence sensor is that it’ll store your ride info even without being in range of your smartphone, then sync up later if you forget to bring the phone on the ride.
The HR monitor has a 15m (49ft) max range and the S/C sensor pushes it to 20m (60ft). Both will work with any BT Smart/4.0 app and device, so as things develop, you could have your computer or tablet on a desk running a bigger screen while on the trainer.
As for the PanoBike app, it’ll access your music and camera from within the app, record and show your ride with GPS and Google maps (assuming there’ll be an update to make it play nice with Apple’s maps in iOS6…fingers crossed), and display the usual performance metrics.
Topeak’s top cap-mounted Smartphone case offerings have expanded to work with several Android phones (not just the iPhone anymore!), and they’ll have one for the new iPhone 5 ’round about end of year. (the cable shown here was only to transmit the screen’s image to a HDTV)
