Thomson dropper post – CanooterValve

Something Like High Expectations

Aug 302012

I think I might be looking forward to Interbike. It’s a strange feeling.

Last year, the tradeshow was plenty tolerable because I essentially didn’t have anything to do but wander aimlessly making snarky remarks and spending as long on senseless shit as I wanted. I took pictures and wrote brief little things. Easy.

On paper, this year looks a lot more intimidating. I’ll be in meetings with factory guys, representing a fledgling ecommerce site, and meeting with my manufacturer to go over a bunch of IT research and strategic planning issues.

Overall, I’ll be run pretty ragged, but somewhere in there, I’m sure I’ll still take photos and offer snark. Just a little.

After looking like clowns for not embracing 29ers soon enough, every brand in the world seems ready to charge into 650b, whether they understand the platform or not. Eurobike always provides the warning shot, and then Interbike catches me square between the eyes. Will I see more 650b 150-160mm travel mountain bikes or disc-brake equipped ‘cross bikes? Tough to say, but both will definitely be out in force.

And I love that.

I want to see 650b bikes and disc ‘cross bikes. Maybe it’ll get old sooner rather than later, but probably not.

I’m also looking forward to everything else. The Thomson dropper post (above) looks like the boys from Georgia finally brought a giant can of “what the fuck is wrong with all you people?” to the dropper post market. If it really is the dropper equivalent of a Thomson post–and that early report from Pinkbike sounds promosing–it’ll shake things up in a very good way.

I want to see King’s disc road hubs. There’s no reason to, because I get the idea of an R45 with higher flanges and a six-bolt disc mount, but still.

I would very much like to ride a bike with a Magura fork, and a bike with a Formula fork. Both seem to be bringing some intelligent design and simplicity make to forks, the way Marzocchi punk rocked everybody in the late ’90s by building a crude by effective mini version of a motorcross fork.

RockShox and Fox both seem likely to follow the electronic integration rabbit hole no matter where it leads, and I think options are nice. Having more than two viable fork manufacturers would also be nice. (And yes, I did happen to notice that a Suntour fork won Gold in the Oympics this year.)

I could just be that there are nice products entering the market. I hope so.

Build Your Own Overlord

Gadgets Comments Off

Apr 052012

Within three years, any five year-old will be able to design and make a robot like this, designed specifically to rip the heads off Barbie dolls.

I have a confession to make: I am the Google+ user. You knew it had to be somebody, and thought it might even be someone you knew, and turns out, I’m that guy.

In my defense, I don’t use it in anything like a “social” way (that’d be like talking to yourself on the subway). When I see something of interest on the internets, I send it to my own private stream at Google+, like taking a note. It makes me feel hip because I’m using The Cloud.

But it’s mostly just me on there, along with some snake oil salesmen blathering about how to use Google+ for your business, and Google employees like former CEO and current Chief-“Why the Fuck are You Suing/Investigating Us Now, Too?”-Ambassador of Non-evil, Eric Schmidt.

As I do anyone whose posts I can follow, I consider Eric a close personal friend, and today he let me know about something really interesting.

The end of humanity.

More specifically, the really cool capitalistic side of it. Here’s what Eric sent to me:

An amazing project from MIT, Harvard and Penn aims to make print-on-demand robots a reality for the average person by the end of the decade. This is what the future will look like.”

And then this link to MIT’s site. To summarize, MIT is spearheading a project to develop “a desktop technology that would make it possible for the average person to design, customize and print a specialized robot in a matter of hours.” Project leader and principal investigator MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL), Professor Daniela Rus, is quoted as saying, “We believe that it has the potential to transform manufacturing and to democratize access to robots.” According to the MIT article:

Researchers hope to create a platform that would allow an individual to identify a household problem that needs assistance; then head to a local printing store to select a blueprint, from a library of robotic designs; and then customize an easy-to-use robotic device that could solve the problem. Within 24 hours, the robot would be printed, assembled, fully programmed and ready for action.”

Yes, we’ll be able to “print” our own robots, designed to do what we want them to do.

Of course this means we’re all going to die, but, admit it, this is so much cooler than the Matrix movie bullshit way you thought robots would end up killing us all.

Thomson Titanium Handlebar

In less grim manufacturing news, I hope I get to see more of Thomson’s suddenly expanding line of products. Bikerumor.com mentioned these again today, and what appears to be the reality of some new Thomson components is pretty exciting stuff. Like a lot of people searching for bolt on and forget bike parts, I’ve been a fan of Thomson stuff for a whole bunch of years. It’s sort of wonderful beyond words to see them potentially expanding not only their level of technology (dropper seatposts!), but materials (carbon road bar!). And they’re going to try to keep production in house as completely as possible? This might be the first shots in a revolution of genuine high-quality bike parts that don’t look like they came out of the same factory making Gummi Bears and wall clocks for Wal-Mart.

I just hope the insta-bots let me live long enough to see it.