Bike stuff I use and give a thumbs-up to
Chain link: SRAM Power Link (and similar designs by other brands). Makes removing and putting on your chain a breeze (for cleaning, lubrication or even untangling it from your frame when you drop your chain and it jams in your cranks). You no longer need a chain-breaker tool.
Frame pump: Topeak Road Morph – works like a mini floor pump. T-handle, fold-out foot-peg and thumb-lock head let you pump up to 100 psi (7 atm, 700 milliBar) without a struggle or risk of bending your Presta valve stem (also adapts to Schrader valves). It’s been called “the smug pump” by cyclists who don’t have one (and wish they did).
Fender (rear): Supergo Aireon MTB – inexpensive, also fits road bikes (650C & 700C) and Air Fridays (20”) too. [Performance Bike, the parent company, has retired the SuperGo brand as of early 2006.]
Hydration packs: (CamelBak, Hydrabak, Platypus, etc.) I drink more consistently and regularly than when I carried water bottles in frame mounted bottle cages and had to reach down between my legs to get at them. Many packs are also well-suited to carrying tools, inner tubes, energy bars, route sheets and extra clothing that would otherwise require a saddle- or handlebar bag. I even carry my frame pump in my hydration pack instead of on the bike.
Pedals: Bebop pedals have 20° of float, two-sided entry, lifetime sealed bearings requiring no maintenance, and long-wearing metal cleats. The cleats work with both road and MTB shoes, although on MTB shoes you’ll probably have to cut away the outsole near the pedal axle for clearance.
Prevent dropped chain: The Third Eye Chain Watcher mounts on the down tube, sits near the inner chainring to prevent the chain from falling (and jamming) between it and the frame. Another choice (I’ve only heard about) is the N-Gear Jump Stop.
Tire lever: Crank Brothers Speed Lever – a portable, lightweight, collapsible version of a shop tire lever, faster & easier to use than the typical 2–3 stubby plastic or metal levers.
Heat-shrink tubing: great for keeping cable ends from fraying. Lighter than traditional metal crimp-on caps for cables, easy to remove when you want to, requires less skill to install than soldering cable ends or crimping metal caps.
Bike stuff I’ve used and give a thumbs-DOWN to
Performance Century gel shorts – the gel pad fails by being too thick and retaining heat.
Italian jerseys – many brands tend to be cut too long for their girth (and I’m not a big guy). Consequently, they bunch up at the waist and things get pushed out of the back pockets.
Italian cycling socks – tend to lose their shape faster and wear out sooner than, for example, DeFeet socks.
Polypropylene as a base layer fabric – feels greasy after many washings, retains odors. Thermax costs the same and performs better. Merino wool is even better: not scratchy, warm when wet, doesn’t smell.
Rain jackets without “pit zips” – no matter how “breatheable” a fabric is (even GoreTex), it won’t fully cope with the heat and perspiration you generate from cycling. Underarm zippers and vents on the back help tremendously.
My Curious Bikes
Packable full-size bike: S&S Machine Bicycle Torque Couplers (BTC™) – allow a full-size frame to disassemble and fit into a 26”x 26”x 10” case for long-distance transport. Rigorous tests demonstrate that BTC equipped tubes are stronger and stiffer than the unmodified tubes. My regular road bike has BTCs on it and feels and performs just like a normal bike.
Folding travel bike: Air Friday – made-to-measure high-performance bike, fits into a standard hard suitcase. Quickly folds in half around a pivot near the bottom-bracket to fit inside subcompact cars. Its titanium cantilever beam top tube acts as a suspension system to cushion its rider from road shocks.
- Inexpensive rear fenders are SuperGo’s Aireon MTB versions.
Commuter bike: 
GPS Navigation
Garmin Forerunner 201. Designed for runners, but works for cycling too. See my
After many years of steady service, my ForeRunner 201’s display began to fail intermittently. I’ve replaced it with a Garmin Edge 705.
LoadMyTracks is freeware from ClueTrust.com for Mac OS X which transfers data between GPS devices and Macs. It can save GPS data in GPX and KML format. TrackRunner, donationware from Laniesoftware works with LoadMyTracks to display tracks on
Google Maps (without using a web browser), as well as graph and keep a log of your performance.
GPS Visualizer is website which will map uploaded GPS data onto satellite/aerial photos, as well as produce elevation profile graphs, for free. It can also convert GPX files into KML/KMZ to display in Google Earth and Google Maps.
BikeRouteToaster, RideWithGPS,
MapMyRide and Bikely let you create routes by clicking on a Google Map.