Miles Wide Industries started out with the humble Sticky Pod, a jersey-pocket sized soft case that keeps the essentials safe and secure while you ride. They also work great stuffed in a hydration pack to keep tools, pumps, etc., from bouncing around or small parts from getting lost.
Since then, founder and Asheville, NC, resident Miles Schwartz has been busy creating a few other storage and protective devices. Like the PanoWraps enduro goggles shown above. Offered in dark smoke, orange and clear lenses, they’re super lightweight wraps that protect your eyes from wind, water and dust. They also have a sweet retro aviator look, and they’re just $30.
Check out lots more from them and others, below…
They’re made to fit under full face helmets, but will work fine with standard lids, too. Despite the angular appearance at the corners, they don’t distort your vision once on.
His Ever Clear laminate comes in a 9×12 sheet that lets you draw and cut whatever shapes you need for your particular frame. It’s a thick, durable material, but is perfectly clear. Use it to prevent cable and heel rub marks, or on the fork lowers and downtube to prevent rock strike damage. $17.99.
The Duck Flap is his take on the flexible fork-mounted mud flap. The key difference from competing items? It comes in colors! Choose from these or black, and mount them on your seat- or chainstays, too, to protect your shock or backside from mud splatter. Up front, the nose is left a little longer to give you better coverage, and the long tail sticks back far enough to catch the spray that’d otherwise hit your face.
Next to it is the Bottle Pod, a new iteration of the Sticky Pod that fits in a water bottle cage. It’s shown open on the top left and far bottom right (with the Clif Bar in it). Inside is a full length zipper mesh pocket on on side and a divider with elastic retention bands on the other. Load it, zip it shut and stick in your spare bottle cage to add a little more storage to your bike. Retail TBD.
Fellow entrepreneur Andy Houston makes Rocky Mountain Holsters, leather cup holders that attach to various points on your bike to make more casual hydration efforts possible.
They’re made from premium 100% vegetable dyed leather and can be customized if you want to gift someone special. He also makes belt-mounted drink holsters and other leather goods.
For holding the bike itself, Trunk Monkey has a very different take on the trunk or tailgate mounted strap-on bike rack. By putting a large inflatable cushion between your bike and the vehicle, everything’s protected from damage and your bike gets to ride on air.
The inflatable core is covered by a durable Cordura/Kevlar shell. It straps to the car like any other non-hitch mount rack, then the bike is strapped to it. It fits virtually any style and size frame and, when not in use, deflates and packs down to fit in a small stuff sack that can be strapped to your seatpost or in a backpack. Or just toss it in the trunk. That makes it easy to bring your own bike rack with you on travels where you rent a car or have friends picking you up. Or Uber.
Trunk Monkey launched this summer via Kickstarter and was successfully funded, but they’ve missed their September deliver date. We’ve reached out to see how things are going and will update if/when we hear back. UPDATE: Brad from Trunk Monkey replied to say they should be shipping in January and retail will be $159.
V-Grip is an Asian bike parts manufacturer that had plenty of stuff on display to show their capabilities. These bolt-on and strap-on fenders with blinky lights seemed like a good combo for commuters,
Zevlin has been offering custom handlebar tape for years alongside their chamois cream and shower-less body wash. Now, they’ve got a new stitched version of their extra wide 40mm (1.5″) bar tape.
It’s a synthetic cushioned tape that comes in gray or black with your choice of blue, green or pink stitching. Retail is $18.95 per set and includes bar end plugs and finishing tape.
Sapo is an Italian bicycle pump manufacturer that uses premium steel for their high pressure floor pumps. The handles are beechwood, the hoses are extra long and use a multi piece head to fit all common valve types.
Depending on model, they’ll pump up to 180psi (12.4bar) to 217psi (15bar) and have a broad base so it stays stable underfoot.
What appeared to be a fancy metal inflator for CO2 cartridges is actually their Buro mini-pump. Measuring just 123mm or 133mm long (60g/66g) depending on model, they’ll inflate up to 100psi (7bar). Sapo’s available in the U.S. through Albabici.
Ryde’s Trace rim lineup debuted at Eurobike 2014 with three widths, from an XC-ready single wall design that measured 21mm internally to the wide, reinforced 23mm and 29mm internal width models. Now, they’ve gone even bigger with the Trace 42. The name refers to the inside width, giving your tire a goooood stretch.
Symmetrical and asymmetrical spoke hole and extrusion designs let you build up the wheels just right regardless of the hub width of drivetrain standard you run (10/11 speed, DH 7-speed or singlespeed).
We saw Woodman’s prototype steel-over-alloy threaded freehub body design at Eurobike (along with some other cool new stuff), and now it’s final. The design threads a hard steel external sleeve with the grooves for cassette placement over a lighter alloy inner section.
The design saves weight over a full steel piece without risking the damage that’s typical when a cassette digs into an alloy freehub body and things get stuck.
