Bicycling Has Moved Into The 21st Century

The mechanics of bicycling have not changed much in the last 50 years. Anyone who saw a bike 50 years ago would look at a bike today and see something that mechanically looks about the same. Materials used in building a bike have definitely kept up with the times because bicyclists always want a lighter bicycle, but the mechanics have largely stayed the same. What has changed dramatically, mostly in the last 15 years, has been the components and accessories. Components are all the parts of the bike that make it possible to ride: brakes, gears, cables, etc. Accessories are all the extra items that riders add-on to make riding better: lights, cyclo-computers, water bottle holders, etc. While components have radically changed over the years to allow for more and bigger gears, lighter materials, and better performance, the first real big change to components in a long time was the introduction of electronic gear shifting. Instead of a lever on the handlebar pushing or pulling a cable and mechanically changing the gears, with electronic gear shifting you can change gears with the push of a button. That functionality comes with a big price tag. When these components debuted, they were only affordable to world class cycling athletes. Over the last couple of years, that has changed and anyone who is serious about their biking can obtain these advanced bicycle components. If you’re willing to pay $2,000 to $3,000 for a bike, you might be willing to pony up the extra and get electronic gear shifting.

For a lot of riders,  the most exciting new technology is in the accessories. Many people who bike are dedicated to biking but not dedicated to emptying their bank account to get a new bike. I include myself in that category. Biking is the only form of exercise I really enjoy, but I never rode to work because I can’t subject myself or anyone else to me not showering after riding 15 miles. That all changed about 16 months ago when my company moved to a building with locker rooms and showers. Now, I have no excuse for not biking to work. I ride 15 miles each way to work two to four times a week and love it. Part of the process of starting to bicycle commute was getting a new bike and outfitting it for commuting, and that’s where I found a lot of changes from the last time I bought a bike 10 years prior. Good bicycle headlights, like the Nite Rider 350, now have mini-USB ports for recharging instead of having to take the batteries out and charge them separately. Cyclo-computers are getting more sophisticated all the time. What surprised me the most though has been what companies are doing with smartphones. There are a number of GPS-based apps that track your ride, post it to their websites, and keep logs of your riding for you. You can also search for other people’s publicly published rides to take advantage of. The one I like the most is MapMyRide, which integrates with mapmyride.com. I also log my rides on NuRide.com, an honor-based system for logging greener rides (i.e. walking, biking, public transit) and you earn points for each that you can redeem for discounts and coupons to local and online merchants.

Of course, if you’re going to ride with a smartphone, you want a good way to protect it. I usually keep my smartphone in my pannier, but that means I don’t see what it’s doing during my ride. This also means I can’t use my smartphone for directions or seeing a map while I ride. Bike accessory dealer BioLogic has released a smartphone handlebar mount for Android phones that’s compatible with several Samsung and HTC models of Android phones. (Full Disclosure: BioLogic has sent me a ReeCharge case and mount for review and I look forward to trying it out and reviewing it soon here on Techcitement.) BioLogic’s handlebar mount is weatherproof and has a hardshell case to protect your Android phone, with a touch-sensitive membrane to give complete access to apps. The company also has several mounts for iPhones, including the ReeCharge case that can recharge your iPhone using a Dynamo system.

So, to everyone who wants to recharge their bodies with human-powered two-wheelers but also wants to remain technology-connected, there are ways to do accomplish both things. Ride on.