Best cycling "gadgets" « CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum

CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Debate!

Best cycling "gadgets"

(43 posts)

Started 13 years ago by Smudge
Latest reply from Charterhall

No tags yet.

12 Next »

Smudge
Member

Following on from Mr Fry's programme last night, (which I only saw parts of, three hours is way too long for that sort of programme!), I wondered what the forummers top cycling gadgets might be?

I'll kick off with;

The cycle clip, what a perfect engineering solution! A sprung steel loop which hasn't changed or been significantly improved in what, 100 years? Yes you can get stretchy velcro alternatives, but velcro gets clogged and elastic breaks down, Grandads old cycle clip works as well now as when h bought it.
Genius.

Scotchlite (tm), probably everybody on the forum has some, and imho it's probably done more for safety on bicycles than pretty much anything but brakes. It comes on stickers, cloth and is amazingly effective. Introduce me to the person/team who invented it and I'll buy them a beer or three, simply brilliant.

So there's a couple for openers, what are yours? :)

Posted 13 years ago #
chdot
Admin

Perhaps not quite a "gadget", but the most crucial development was the chain.

Before that, gear size (just the one) was fixed by the length of a rider's legs - and how big a front wheel they could manage.

Posted 13 years ago #
splitshift
Member

lightweight helmets ! I know its a moot point for some, but after offing at speed, and landing hard, on my own miles from anyone. my helmet broke ! My head didnt !

Posted 13 years ago #
DaveC
Member

Go on then, The modern Bicycle. I brilliant gadget, which has not really been bettered (some may argue for the bent...).

Posted 13 years ago #
Instography
Member

The light emitting diode. Along with Scotchlite it vastly improved preventative safety for cyclists.

Posted 13 years ago #
SRD
Moderator

Grandads old cycle clip works as well now as when h bought it.

Only if you have Grandad-sized legs.

Posted 13 years ago #
chdot
Admin

"The modern Bicycle"

Easy to agree with that. SF's approach was suitably eclectic but bound to be full of omissions and contradictions.

The 'folding bike' is perhaps more 'interesting' than just a bicycle.

He did have the typewriter and computer/word processor with Apple bringing screen and keyboard together as a 'product'/gadget.

Posted 13 years ago #
DaveC
Member

Hmm not sure Apple were the first to produce the PC as we see a desktop now. Hewlett-Pakard had the Alto in 1973 and Wang had the Wang2000 in May 1973. Woz and Jobs were friends at that time but it wasn't until 1976 that they formed the company. Indeed from Wiki, Woz left HP to startup Apple with Jobs. Sorry to be all specific, and I am only taking my info from Wiki.

Posted 13 years ago #
kaputnik
Moderator

I thought it was Xerox (not HP) who came up with the idea of a GUI at PARC? They just sat on the idea and never commercially developed it. Or something. Xerox were great at coming up with groundbreaking ideas and not capitalising on them. Apple on the other hand do seem to be good at capitalising on ideas, even if they are not their own. Indeed when Apple tried to sue Microsoft for "copying" the look and feel of the Macintosh interface, Xerox counter-sued Apple for the same.

Back OT, I think John Boyd Dunlop's pneumatic tyre has got to be up there. I don't think bicycles would have been quite so popular so fast without it.

Posted 13 years ago #
chdot
Admin

"Hmm not sure Apple were the first to produce the PC"

I'm sure that's true - SF is No.1 Apple fan.

K is correct about Xerox/PARC. Apple developed what they had more or less abandoned.

The SF programme was basically 'consumerist' - so, in context, mentioning Apple is understandable.

He also showed a Newton as one item in the PDA category + iPod and iPad...

Posted 13 years ago #
kaputnik
Moderator

So he picked the Apple based on it being the first commercialy successful GUI computer, but also put in the Newton which was a commercial (and technical flop) when he could have put in a Palm or any one of a myriad of successful non-apple PDAs?

Successful MP3 players have also been around for a lot longer than since the iPod caught on. Unless the iPod is in there as a different gadget from the MP3 player.

Sounds a bit like "Stephen Fry's Top 100 gadgets by Apple!"

Posted 13 years ago #
chdot
Admin

I said -

"Newton as one item in the PDA category"

You said -

"Unless the iPod is in there as a different gadget from the MP3 player"

Can't remember if there was a generic 'portable music player' category.

iPod is a valid separate category in a consumerist gadgets selection.

iPad more borderline.

Posted 13 years ago #
DaveC
Member

Of course you're right. I had just clicked away from Xerox's page onto HP's which is why I got it wrong...

I liked the bit where Gadet Show presenter Jason Bradbury said children would buy a computer mag for a new game which was actually code, which had to be typed in by hand. He went on to say imagine getting Call of Duty' (or some other game..) in a mag nowadays, it would be this big [opens arms to full extent] as big as the Encyclopaedia Britannica.. :D

I recall doing something similar with my dad's Spectrum ZX+. I wrote a simple Space invaders game, copied it to tape cassette, then went into Leeds to the local Department Stores and loaded it up, before standing well back and watching passers by stop for a play. What a Geek I was back then.... & why am I so crap at programming now???

Posted 13 years ago #
kaputnik
Moderator

iPad more borderline.

The company that my old man worked for developed "the" (or "a") touch-screen tablet computer concept in the late nineties but couldn't commercially exploit it at the time (they were a small Scottish microelectronics player, without the research or manufacturing budgets to take such a massive commercial leap/gamble). He used to bring some of the prototypes home and I can remember being told not to touch the thing as it was worth many thousands of pounds. It was similar shape and size to an Ipad, just about 4 inches thick (more of a Biblical tablet, than the stuff granny makes)

The technology did make its way into the first touch-screen terminals for the pub and restaurant business though.

He has since taken to claiming he invented the iPad.

Posted 13 years ago #
chdot
Admin

"The technology did make its way into the first touch-screen terminals for the pub and restaurant business though."

Zonal? - an Edinbugh company.

Not forgetting that Wolfson had a lot to do with the iPod.

Posted 13 years ago #
kaputnik
Moderator

Not Zonal - MESL, who are still out at Newbridge and still quietly living the "Silicon Glen" dream on a small scale.

Posted 13 years ago #
primalgeek
Member

The pneumatic tyre. Invented by Dunlop to help his son ride his tricycle on the cobbled streets of Belfast.

It's amazing what general knowledge you get from reading your son's P4 research project :-)

Posted 13 years ago #
chdot
Admin

Or -

"
The name of Robert William Thomson may not be well-known even in his native land, but his gift for invention and the utterly prolific nature of his patenting rank him as one of the greatest of Scottish inventors. From steam tractors to self-filling fountain pens, his output was breathtaking and eclectic, but he is most celebrated as being the first inventor of pneumatic tyres. Fifty years before John Boyd Dunlop is credited with its invention, Thomson had submitted a patent for the very same article

"

http://www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/whereilive/coast/stages.shtml?walk=northeast&stage=4

Posted 13 years ago #
kaputnik
Moderator

Robert William Xerox to John Boyd Apple?

Posted 13 years ago #
primalgeek
Member

@chdot: Thomson's version never caught on (although he had the patent) and it's Dunlop's version that proved the more enduring.

Also Thomson's pneumatic tyre was first used in horse drawn carriages and not bicycles.

Posted 13 years ago #
chdot
Admin

@kaputnik, @primalgeek - yes the relationship between innovation and implementation is always interesting.

Money and marketing are often involved.

Posted 13 years ago #
LaidBack
Member

Zip-ties?
Not just a cycling invention but some bike shops would be lost without them!.

Somone I knew had a Psion organiser way before anyone. He had trouble writing with his hands and it really was a brilliant thing for him as he could store all his data.

Think it used Symbian(?) operating system - used by Nokia

Posted 13 years ago #
Smudge
Member

@chdot, indeed, witness Alfred Vail and Samuel Morse (amongst others)

Posted 13 years ago #
Wilmington's Cow
Member

Hmm, there's a Top Ten video in this a la Stephen Fry...

I'm going to nominate 'gears' - gadgetry at its best that makes cycling accessible to so many more people.

Hmm, I think once ten good candidates are on here there will have to be a poll for the best, and that'll form the basis of the video.

Posted 13 years ago #
chdot
Admin

Just thought I'd revive this thread - there seem to be even more gadgets two years on!

Also -

"Hmm, I think once ten good candidates are on here there will have to be a poll for the best, and that'll form the basis of the video."

Posted 11 years ago #
Baldcyclist
Member

Wheel.

Posted 11 years ago #
steveo
Member

It'll never catch on.

Posted 11 years ago #
Uberuce
Member

I will nominate the humble V-brake, for bringing reasonable stopping power to the bargain bin.

Posted 11 years ago #
amir
Member

Bike stand. Enuff said.

Posted 11 years ago #
SRD
Moderator

I have just today finally sent my clie organiser - which I loved - to the dump :(

Posted 11 years ago #

RSS feed for this topic

12 Next »

Reply »

You must log in to post.

// CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum

About This Forum

CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Debate!

Best cycling "gadgets"

Reply »

RSS Feeds

Links