Tag: tires

Categories
Cycling

SteadyRack bike rack keeps bikes orderly, powered

Bike racks can make or break the space their in depending on how exactly they tackle the challenge of storing the two-wheeled transport. Some can be cumbersome, and some can be almost too minimal as to threaten damage to the bike or the space around it. In addition, bikes are near and dear for most, so their storage is incredibly important.

The SteadyRack is a versatile solution that offers users lots of options. The product attaches to a wall and steel arms hold your bike up at a right angle, offering users the option to swivel the bike to the left or the right to save space. The sleek rack also sports three USB ports to charge biking equipment or even smartphones, recognizing that enthusiasts need that functionality to keep their gadgets topped up. A SteadyRack goes for $60 AUD (~$49) and is expected to ship in April 2015. The campaign is looking for $35,000 AUD (~$28,800).

Categories
Cycling

CycleSNAP is a simple plastic wall dock for your bike

BxRCvAlCYAA2mUeStoring bicycles in the home can be an overly complicated affair or, in CycleSNAP’s case, an incredibly simple one. Built as a high-strength, durable clamp, it allows you to store bikes either horizontally or vertically simply by inserting a tire into it — just make sure not to miss, dirtying up the wall in the process. It currently supports widths between 1.75″ to 2.25″, and installation involves only a drill. Sporting multiple color options and a highly accessible $14 price point, CycleSNAP will clamp down on some wallets even if the product is ultimately very simple. Inventor Joey King is looking for a cool $15,000 with his campaign.

Categories
Automotive Cycling

Five Questions for RightPSI

Backerjack asked John Milanovich a few questions about his crowdfunded tire pressure indicator, RightPSI

What does RightPSI do and how does it do it?

RightPSI is a tire cap that turns orange when your tire is low, black when not, and yellow if overfilled. You unscrew the cap to your valve stem and screw ours on. You then fill through ours and it changes color when you fill it so you can use it as a gauge. Low tire pressure impacts how a car, motorcycle or bike handles and breaks which directly affects safety. For bikes and motorcycles, it impacts fuel efficiency and pollutants.

There seem to be a number of inexpensive color-coded tire pressure monitor valve caps on the market. What makes RightPSI different

RightPSI is the only cap that you can fill through and acts as a gauge. Also, you can see ours from 20 feet away.

The product won a Popular Science award in 2011. Why has it taken so long to get to the crowdfunding stage?

RightPSI

While I knew about Kickstarter and Indiegogo, we were working on our manufacturing process.  We had a two-year time there where we were working to find the right person to supply our plastic parts. I had explored Chinese and European suppliers for these parts, but ended up with a US supplier and consultant. I started seriously reviewing Kickstarter a year ago and we launched a failed Kickstarter in December. We learned a lot from it, and relaunched Feb 15.

Colors are nice and all, but why not have some kind of Bluetooth alert that lets your smartphone know when your pressure is low?

We may have a version 2.0 that does that! We have some initial design work for it. However, our current version is getting a lot of interest and we think in some instances it is preferable. We have had a lot of response from locations where they say we don’t want anything with a battery. We think there is a market for both and we are excited to get this first analog version out.

What have been some of the best product suggestions you’ve gotten from the crowdfunding community?

A lot of people have mentioned the smartphone idea. One suggested that it could light up upon touching so you could check your tires in the dark. Also, people have suggested markets I did not explore prior. A guy emailed me saying, I love your product; I am in a wheelchair and this would make my life easier. I had not thought about that before, but since then I have had other people in wheelchairs e-mail me. That is very exciting to me.