Gear Roundup: Custom body armor, workstands, cool locks, lights & best bicycle bell ever

The Rockingtor AirCobra is designed to be the first clear, floating shin guard, but that’s just the beginning of their tech story. The multi-part design lets your piece together the protection you need. Modular sleeves, need pads and cushioning join together, and all parts are highly perforated for awesome breathability. The shin guards are held above the skin, letting air flow between them and your skin. Check out closeups and a lot of other neat (and completely random) bike bits below…

Rockingtor’s stretchy knee warmer skins can be used on cooler days, or go with soft, grippy straps on warmer days. Both have adjustable snap straps to attach the memory foam backed plastic shells that pass EN1621-Level 1 protection standards.

The pBike GPS trackers and safety systems come from a company called PlanetUs, but for the life of me I can’t fine a legit website for them (even the one listed in Eurobike’s exhibitor list doesn’t work. So, I’ll keep it short: It hides a GPS and cellular system in the light or that stealth box under the saddle that’ll let you know where your bike is if it gets stolen and notify an emergency contact if it detects a crash.

Herman’s is a better known brand of high end lights and accessories, and their new 200 lumen Black Pro headlamp comes in both e-bike and dynamo versions, pulling power from either the bike’s battery or the hub. The latter promises to be flicker free.

Side markers help others see you from the side, and the beam pattern is optimized for seeing where you’re going with a broad flood that flattens out at the top so as not to blind oncoming traffic.

They also had this nifty tail light that fits flush under their rear bike rack, and a fender with what they call a truly premium reflector integrated into it.

Quad Lock is our favorite iPhone case because they also make mounts for your dash, desk, bike, armband and anything else you want to stick your phone to. And it’s ultra secure. Now, their out-front handlebar mount gets a secondary lower mount for lights or an action cam.

Or you could mount the latest version of the PowerPod universal power meter. They’ve continued to refine the product, helping it become more and more accurate (they say it’s on par with PowerTap in numerous side by side tests). Recently, they’d found that gravel roads’ vibrations could diminish accuracy slightly, so they tweaked the algorithms to account for it, bringing it back in line on virtually any surface. Check out this post for more tech details on why this could be the only power meter you need.

Vulcan Sports showed off this cable lock that secures the cable into a hard locking case that connects around your seatpost. So, wheels, frame and post are all safe.

AXA had two different takes on folding locks. The Foldable Series 600 (above) gets a soft cover to hide the articulating arms that bend in multiple planes to make it easier to wiggle around your bike. They also offer an 800 and 1000 series version for higher levels of security.

The AXA Toucan only folds in a single plane, but it clamshells itself neatly into the covered case so it doesn’t look like a lock when riding.

Buzz Rack is a European brand of ball-hitch mount bike racks and roof trays, but what caught our eye at their booth this year was this simple bike workstand concept. The design lets you easily put the bike in with one hand and keeps it from rotating as you’re working on it thanks to the nub that rests between the saddle’s rails.

Around our office, it’s hard to find kid’s cycling gloves, either in stores or online. That makes the offerings from Crazy Safety (above) and Kiddimoto (below) all the more refreshing because they’re designed to match up with other bits, too.

General Bikes is a distributor that carries a large collection of basic bike bells wrapped with famous works of art to  dress up your bike. The best one, though, was this Hotel Fiets Bell, which awesomely mimics the design of a front desk bell.