The Wheelie Good Round-Up

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This week’s selection of some of the best of cycling from the web you may have missed.

Remorseful thief

We’ve had a few stories of bike thieves returning a stolen bike after guilt got to them. In this news story from Portland, USA, the thief returned the bike with a note and $10 dollars attached to help pay for a new lock. The bike was stolen from a stand outside a college and was then returned to the same spot with the note and the money. If only other bike thieves would think of what they are doing before they take bikes that don’t belong to them.

Cam Zink crash

Mountain bike freeride is an insane form of cycle sport. You ride down mountains, drop off cliffs, do tricks such as a double back flips off jumps. The epitome of the sport is Red Bull Rampage. Held in the Utah mountains in Virgin, Utah, some of the action from the riding is breathtaking, given that one mistake could lead to serious injury or possible death. The 2012 edition, which took place last week, was noted for a crash involving US rider Cam Zink. Zink attempted to cross a 60ft canyon gap out on the course and lost control mid air as the videos below show. Miraculously he wasn’t seriously injured and came away with just bruised heels from the incident.

More people biking

It has been a great year for British Cycling with Bradley Wiggins’ Tour de France victory and the cycling success at the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. The news just gets better and better for the governing body with the announcement that one million more people are now cycling more regularly than in 2008. The one million target was set by British Cycling in 2008 when they set up the Sky Ride city rides with Sky. The target has been reached ahead of a 2013 deadline.

Turn your helmet into a hat

The Da Brim is probably the most strangest product we’ve featured on these pages. It is essentially a visor accessory that fits on to a bike helmet to turn your helmet into a sun hat. The makers think it is the ideal protection against strong sun when you’re out on long rides on a sunny day. That rules out sales in the UK them!

Chainless bicycle

The bicycle in its modern day format only came about through reinvention. The Bicymple, featured below, is a prototype bike that features no chain and takes the bike back to the day of the velocipede in a way. Inventor Josh Bechtel believes that by removing the number of moving parts on a bike removes the overall complexity of it. On the Bicymple, a direct-drive, freewheeling hub joins the crank arm axis with the rear-wheel axis. This effectively shortens the wheelbase and minimises the design. It does look odd as a design and as you can see from the video below, the riding experience is akin to a riding a unicycle.