Stuff Geeks Want

This weird looking thing is the 1.2kW electric motor powered YikeBike. It’s made of carbon fiber and it’s foldable in 15 seconds. It only takes up 6 x 23 x 23 inches of space and weighs just 22 pounds, so it can be easily carried around.

Unlike the standard bike you learned to ride as a kid, you sit on a seat but the handles are behind you. You lean left or right to steer, and it even comes with electronic antiskid brakes. It zooms around at a top speed of 12mph on a lithium phosphate battery that can be charged to 80 perceny capacity in 20 minutes.

The first 100 YikeBikes will be road-ready by mid-2010 in New Zealand as well as the U.K. and selected other countries in Europe. The YikeBike…a controllable, rideable urban bike.

Buy for $4900 from YikeBike

Bikes don’t have to be complex to be functional and cool. Take the 2009 Specialized Langster. It’s a more subdued-looking bike, but far classier and cheaper than a lot of others.

It’s an aluminum, single-speed that’s got a combination chainring and sprocket. What this means for the novice cyclist out there is (1) less to break down, (2) easy maintenance and (3) fewer pieces means less weight. Yea, it might not be so great for grinding up long hills, but at least you don’t have to worry about changing speeds and gears.

It’s got a carbon-legged fork (so it’s light), a super comfortable Body Geometry Toupe 143 saddle, a carbon-wrapped seatpost to mute vibration, drop bar handles, Alex Race 32 rims on generic track hubs, and a long head tube that gives a comfortable, fairly upright position when you’re riding. All this and it weighs just 18.9 pounds!

This is a fab commuter bike at a great price. New to cycling and just want to ride flat areas around town to get in shape? This is your bike that won’t break the bank.

Buy for $550 from Safety Cycle

When you look at daypacks, you immediately notice the ones that are built well and have attention to detail. This one – the Men’s Network Pack from Dakine – fits the bill on both fronts.

Its got 25 pockets and Dakine designed the bag around them all. For instance, there’s a fleece-lined sunglass pouch up top, keeping your fragile specs safe and at the ready. There is a variety of other pockets perfectly sized for toiletries and snacks, two padded gadget pockets, sleeves for a laptop and water-bottle holders on each side.

Available in black, herringbone, and brown tweed, the Network Pack is well thought out.

Buy for $90 from Amazon

We’ve seen a plethora of great iPhone accessories for the car, but few for cycling lovers. Well, Dahon (the makers of great folding bicycles) has come up with an iPhone mount that uses your pedal power to charge the iPhone as you go.

It’s the iPhone Bike Mount with ReeCharge. The company’s new BioLogic bike mount for iPhone and iPod touch completely encases the phone in a waterproof shell. Unlike most traditional waterproof enclosures the BioLogic has a welded touch-sensitive membrane for a front panel, which allows the phone to be used even when encased. The mount allows the case to be pivoted 360-degrees for use in either portrait or landscape mode.

Coolest feature: The ReeCharge system (formerly FreeCharge), which pulls power from a bike’s generator hub to charge not only the iPhone, but other electronic devices.

It’ll be out next January (bad timing to miss the holiday buying season) for $59.

Commutes are getting rough and expensive. It’s time to look at a simpler form of transportation that improves your aerobic fitness. Here comes the Dahon Mu One. It’s been updated for 2009 and it’s Dahon’s most affordable fold away with an improved ride and comfort that even a standard bike rider will be impressed with.

What changed? Cleaner cable routing, better stem height and adjustment for folding, grease ports on hinges and better handle bar catches.

Dropping the brakes, gears, and cables, the Mu Uno weighs in at only 22 pounds. The hand brakes have been replaced with a rear coaster brake, so practice your skidding! The Mu Uno folds easily in 10 seconds. In its folded form, it is held together with magnets and can be carried effortlessly to fit under a desk or in a tight closet. Which means you don’t have to lug around chainage.

For maximum power and minimum add-ons, you can’t beat this bike.

Buy for $522 from Amazon

Gas-guzzling leaf blowers are old hat, not to mention the exhaust they spew and the mess of having to formulate two-stroke mixtures. With improvements to lithium-ion batteries, the Worx WG540.5 Leaf Blower is competitive with their gas-powered peers: 120 mph blower speed; exceptionally lightweight at less than 5 pounds; charges in about 30 minutes.

Some reviews we’ve seen are reporting exceptional battery life of six-hours plus and happy neighbors who aren’t complaining about the noise.

Buy for $130 from Amazon

When I look at the Paracord Bracelet Parachute Cord Survival 550 I can’t help but think of James Bond in GoldenEye…he’s in a jam, he shoots a high-tension cable out of his watch at the ceiling and he’s all of a sudden free of the bad guys. The Survival Strap is much the same thing.

It’s made of up to 26 feet of military-grade parachute rope that can support 550 pounds and unwind in seconds. You simply unravel it and you’ve got a strong rope for any number of uses. It’s got either a stainless steel shackle or an optional plastic buckle and comes in a variety of colors.

Neat feature: If you end up having to save your girlfriend from rushing waters, just send your story to Tough Gear and they’ll replace it for free.

Buy for $19 from Amazon

You’ve probably wished for it: You open a cooler after dusk and you’re fumbling around in cold ice fishing for a drink. That’s the idea behind the Cooler Light from Coghlan’s. Just think of it as your refrigerator light on the go.

It’s a single LED light that secures to the underside of the cooler lid with double side adhesive tape. Lift the lid and on it comes. But unlike the typical refrigerator, the Cooler Light will shut off automatically after 20 seconds regardless of whether the lid is shut completely. So grab that soda fast.

Buy for $10 from Amazon

It’s the best time of the year to bring your laptop outside to work. Why not bring your music with you without wires? The OutCast Junior from Soundcast is ready for the job. It’s a weather-resistant, fireproof speaker with beautifully rich sound that cranks music for about seven hours (in our tests).

It’s got an in-built, digital, 50-watt amplifier, down-firing 8-inch woofer, and four, three-inch, omni-directional drivers. You can plug it in with the 240V power cord, or use the rechargeable 12V NiMh battery and external charging kit.

My brother-in-law has two of these on his outdoor deck. You can set one up to feed both channels, or like him, have one for left and one for right. It receives its signal from up to 350 feet away via one of two different transmitters – the ICT-111 with a iPod dock (as shown in the photo), or the brand new UAT250US that connects to your standard DVD player, AV receiver and CD changer as well as to your PC via USB. You can then transmit music from iTunes, RealPlayer, MusicMatch, Windows MediaPlayer and many more. The only bummer on this speaker is the transmitter comes separately.

The Outcast Junior is made from UV stabilized, ABS plastic and can stand some pretty harsh elements. We were impressed by the sound, despite it not having a dedicated tweeter, as well as its design and battery life.

Buy for $500 from Amazon

If you’re surviving in the woods on smores and Budweiser, it’s time for an upgrade. The MSR Flex 4 Cooking System is a complete cook set for four or more. It includes a 3.2-liter nonstick DuraLite DX pot, a 5.3-liter hard-anodized pot, 2 strainer lids, 4 polypropylene DeepDish plates, 4 insulated mugs and a pot handle. What’s neat about them is they all fit into each other in a compact nested design. An extra bonus: It includes two lids plus insulated mugs and DeepDish plates for four. All that’s missing now is you and the grub.

Buy for $160 from Amazon