Puncturing in Brooklyn and Parking in Wellington

It’s late on Sunday evening and you’re riding along when you are disturbed by the disappointing feeling of your back wheel squirming and you have to face up to the fact that you have a puncture. Obviously you came out with no spare tubes on this occasion and you’re staring down the barrel of a long awkward walk home. All the shops are closed so you can’t even limp to the nearest one. Luckily if you’re in Brooklyn, New York, you are in luck, as an enterprising shop owner has installed a bike part vending machine that can supply you with all your bike-part needs at any time of day. I guess you’ll just have to hope you remembered a pump at least.

The vending machine seems to be aiming for the trendy fixed-gear market in New York, who are the most likely to be out at night cruising the artfully decrepit bars and puncturing in Brooklyn. Something that’s sure to interest them is the possibility to buy a (definitely, definitely not one-off) track bike as ridden by the British cycling team. The UCI are enforcing their rules about the bikes that can be ridden in sanctioned events with a distinct aim of targeting the British and Australian teams that have invested heavily in technology to help their cyclists along. As the bikes will soon be restricted to only those available commercially, there is a plan to possibly put one of the bikes they’re using already up for sale. It sounds like the bike may have to be priced at around £200000, but for a gritty fixed gear rider sitting on a trust-fund, that’s peanuts.

Once you’ve bought your bike for the price of a house you won’t want it getting scratched by any sharp edged bike racks when you leave it locked up outside a trendy bar. You’ll probably be best parking it in Wellington, New Zealand where a new design of rack is starting to appear. The Bikerakk protects the bike frame by coating the rack in rubber reclaimed from old car tyres. Admittedly this is turning into a world wide search for the best bike, the best place to buy inner tubes from a vending machine, and the best bike rack, but it’s worth going the extra mile for quality, right?

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