A Brilliant Idea Los Angeles’s chaotic La Brea Boulevard. The street has six lanes for cars, but none for bikes, and the tiny lights he saw other cyclists using did little to make them more visible to drivers. The tinkerer in him saw a better way—why not add lights to the helmet, where they’d be easier to see? At home he cobbled together a prototype with rows of integrated LED lights and promoted it on Kickstarter. It turns out that Wills wasn’t the only one who thought that adding lights to a helmet was a good idea—within weeks the first Torch model had received nearly 800 orders. Sales haven’t slowed, either; since launching in 2013, Wills has sold more than 2,000 units. It’s easy to see why. The Torch is more than an ingenious idea; it’s smartly designed, highly functional, and nearly elegant. It’s not the first helmet with integrated lights, but it’s the most successful so far. Clusters of five LED bulbs are embedded cleanly into the front and back, casting off beams of red and white light that shine 360 degrees. The lights’ twin rechargeable batteries weigh so little that you won’t notice them. What you—and drivers—will notice are bright lights pouring forth. The Torch is the rare helmet that does more than protect you in a crash; by making you more visible to drivers, it can prevent an accident from ever happening. DON’T Take a photo at 45mph on a screaming descent DON’T Take a selfie midpack DO Capture your friend riding in a beautiful setting THE RIGHT WAY SNAP A SELFIE U ploading ride pics on Instagram and Facebook is a fun way to share your love of cycling. But what to post? Did you discover a rustic bistro with rhubarb pie and bike racks? Share it. Your friend ripping down scenic singletrack? For sure. Snapping a shot of your own mug as you scream down Pike’s Peak? Not so fast, Ansel Adams. As we witnessed during this year’s Tour de France, our obsession with selfies can put us (and other cyclists) in dangerous situations. No amount of social-media adoration is worth a broken collarbone. If you snap a photo on your next group ride, make sure the road is free of traffic and then move ahead of or behind the pack— swerving can create a major pileup. One more thing: Make your photos worthwhile. Think interesting people, exciting action, and cool places. Snap a few, choose the best, and crop out boring parts. Then play with Instagram’s filters and use photo-editing apps such as Fontgram, which lets you add text to your images. For unique angles, try a selfie-stick—but only when the road is clear.—Molly Hurford Hot or Not? BICYCLING’S totally indefensible list of what’s trending this month ascending Powerful women, powerful stories: Shannon Galpin and Kathryn Bertine publish new books. Avocados: It’s prime season for this superfood; try the lighter, but savory-sounding Bacon variety. Retro-cool, lace-up shoes: We love Bontrager’s Classique and the slick new model from Sommerville Sports. Skratch Lab’s apple-cinnamon recovery drink: Enjoy it warm. Stylish hi-vis winter gear: POC’s bright orange Essential Rain Jacket will get you noticed. Fans support cash-strapped pro teams through crowd-funding sites. descending Boise, Idaho, removes buffered bike lanes despite a reduction in congestion. Calorie counting: It’s the offseason. Mandatory fun at bike races: Costumes are cool; forced pub crawls are not. Candy corn as recovery food Cash-strapped race teams resort to crowd-funding. Illustrations: Colin McSherry 30 BICYCLING.COM • NOVEMBER 2014
MORE THAN JUST A BIKE COMPUTER GPS TRACK NAVI Now with a customizable training screen www.sigma-rox.com COMPATIBLE BAROMETRIC TRAINING ANALYSIS NEW DATA CENTER 4.0 Now available on computers, tablets, and phones. Training software that can MOVE with you. The new cloud service synchronizes your training data on all of your devices. BUTLER GPS Out-in-Front Mount Team Europcar Training Video
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