Troy's Bike Light- The "Stella"

My boyfriend Troy doesn't share my thrifty bike nature. He's practical, for sure and loves a good deal, but he also makes a lot of money and therefore can afford really nice bike toys. (I'm a mixture of UGLY jealousy! and being happy for him. :)

He decided that he wanted a bike light that could illuminate the road in front of him. It's getting dark at like 4:30 now and there are leaves piled up all over the place getting slippery and hiding branches in their piles of doom. So I don't blame him at all for wanting to shell out the money for a nice light. Hell, I wish I could.

He looked all over the internet and we eventually went to REI and looked at all their wares. They had a good selection and after shining lights all over the store and out the windows to the ground below, we found a winner.

The Light and Motion "Stella" light. Here's a link to a website that talks about this light WAY more intelligently than I could...

The Competitive Cyclist

If that link doesn't work, then cut and paste this address:

http://www.competitivecyclist.com/mountain-bikes/review-lights/Light---Motion-Stella-180-N-Light_222.html




This one is shown in blue but Troy's is gold or silver, I think. Anyway, they're a bright LED with a battery pack and even though it's kinda dorky and big, it's also awesome and functional. It also straps to your helmet if you want.

I can't help myself... More Bike Bells!

Now I'm looking around and I'm finding all these adorable fun bike bells made by Dimension!

There's the "Bell Pepper" that comes in green, red, and yellow...






There's the little soccer ball with foot:












There's the tea pot bell: what a weird idea for a bell... haha. Tea pots? At least they're cute...






It's hamburger time!














Random head of a guy with a hat bell, always a favorite:




















Sexy little analog clock bell which I might totally buy someday because that's a great idea and it's cute:





















The Baseball Bell:





Well, that's all for now. But there are some crazy bells out there. Apparantly bells are the flair of the bike world. They are just so darn quirky!

Oh! Almost forgot! *Jester* bars and bike bells!

What I meant before about the Jester theme is that the bike now has two colors of tape on the handlebars. I just couldn't take the whole thing of glow in the dark bar tape off. I LOVED that idea!

So, I just took one side off. One side is white glowy, and the other is the black. It looks kinda cool actually. I'll post a pic eventually when I find my lost digi camera...lame.

Then, I found this bell at the City Bikes store located one block south of Burnside on Ankeny. They're a worker owned and operated store that has a lot of second hand bike stuff, repairs, and racks that you can fix your own bike on and get some good advice. This place is pretty rad.

City Bikes Workers Cooperative
www.citybikes.coop
Bicycle Repair 1914 SE Ankeny.503-239-0553

Bicycle Sales 734 SE Ankeny.503-239-6951

Open Weekdays 11-7 Weekends 11-5

ANYWAY, I bought a few things from them because I needed reflectors, a bell, and some brake components which I will get to in a later post. They had these cute little Taj Mahal looking bells with gold and black on them and I couldn't help myself. I had to have one. It's called the Dimension Beehive Bell for $6. Not bad.

What the EFF?!!!?? I was looking for a picture of my bike bell online and I ran across this little gem: Chrome Plated Bike Bell. Made with Genuine Swarovski Crystals.

You can take this little bad girl home for $68 bucks. (Uh, not my style but there's SOMEONE out there that wants it.)

Or if you're like me and from Portland, you can have this oh-so-appropriate coffee cup bell. Dimension Coffee Cup Java Mug Bell Bicycle Bike that sells for $4.99 on Amazon.com


Cute!


Next on the Goldie blog: "The Saga of Getting the Fenders On" and "The Eternal Sunshine of the Brakeless Mind"

Theme change!

Okay, so I had the original idea to keep Goldie's color theme white/gold/a little black/ MOSTLY pure white as the driven snow. People at bike stores laughed at me and shook their heads in bemusement and my friends all thought I was turning into a fascist bike snob.

I am NOT, you guys! I don't even own a messenger bag! (yet... heh heh)

I decided to change the theme to black/gold/a little white here and there/JESTER! Haha! Goldie is looking a little mockish right now.

What I mean is that when I changed it to black (thanks to the tiny amount on fenders sold at REI that fit my bike) That made any white details look weird. So, I got some new grip tape from the REI brand Novara, which added up to only $9. Nice.

Here are the grip tapes that I bought. What I like about them was the fact that they don't have adhesive tape on the backs to stick to the bar, they have a thin layer of gel. So, they can be reused without falling apart and getting ripped up when you take them off. Cool! (mine are black with little brown flecks in them, they came with black end plugs.




Here are the fenders: SKS brand. Only mine are in a different color. Mine are a dark cloudy grey with hardly there stripes down the back. Only $32 bucks. Sweet.



It also had to do with the fact that all the ladies seats with the cut outs had price tags that made my toes curl. I just couldn't afford to buy that super spendy seat. So, I started looking lower down the $$$ levels. What I found was that the lower the price, the harder it was to find a seat in white that was also girl friendly.

So, I ended up with this seat that cost $44 and has been working alright. I haven't given it a good hard ride yet, so we'll see. But thanks to me being a member at REI, I can return the seat at any time. AWESOME! It's the Look In ATH Bike Saddle for Women at a 30 degree angle. (They have choices in this apparantly...)

Made for road or mountain bike riders, the A1 3Density™ saddle enhances padding in the front of the saddle.

• Features more Royalgel™ in the front to accommodate a bent over, athletic riding position
• Royalgel adapts to your anatomy by moving vertically, horizontally and diagonally in order to reduce pressure peaks on the sit bones and genital area
• Royalgel also absorbs shock for further comfort; does not break, harden or leak with age
• 3Density saddles are padded with three layers of material with different densities and visco-elastic properties
• This allows the Royalgel more space to move and distribute pressure uniformly, increasing its shock absorbency
• Innovative saddle cover fabric keeps saddle cool in the sun

Anyway, it gets her done and doesn't make me go broke. Good enough. I'm sad that I can't afford my original dream of my sexy little white and gold bike. Oh well, she'll look good in black too.

Frogs!

I found this little light set at the Bike Gallery today while driving home. I got a wild itch to polish all the chrome on my bike and stopped to pick up some shine-in-a-bottle.

Then, while I was in there, I saw these cute little wrap around bike lights that work great and wrap around almost anything! The plastic is kind of soft and stretchy and the light is powerful enough to get some attention. The best part is that they save your life and look really cute doing it. They're also easy to take on and off if you're worried about stuff getting stolen (like I am).



I got a red one for the back light and a white one for the front. They have a steady beam setting and a blinky setting too. I feel like they look a lot cuter than the normal black screw-down type that have Velcro or something equally as dumb.

These were $11.95 each at the Bike Gallery, or www.bikegallery.com and they're called the Knog light, and this model is the frog.

Bike Helmets!

Protect your noggin!

Bicycle helmets are usually ugly as sin, but I found some super cute ones a few years ago and received one as a gift.

The typical helmet: UGLY.





Nutcase Helmets: SO cute!
I have the one with the rainbow dots all over it. 3rd row down, 2nd from the left. I love mine. I was paranoid after I got hit by a drunk driver and wanted a helmet that really stood out. Be prepared to have everyone stare at you though. That gets a little annoying after a while.


www.nutcasehelmets.com

And they're a Portland company! Cool! Support local!

Night time safety!

Safety is a big thing for me. I hate it when bicyclists break traffic laws. I think that when people run red lights (and act like all cars should move out of their way and get bad attitudes about sharing the road) they are asking for trouble. We all have a right to the road equally. Also, we should all be aware and look around at all times.

In order to better do that, we should all take healthy safety precautions and make it easier for others to see where we are and predict what we are going to do based on a common set of traffic rules that we all follow.

Lights on your bike are a MUST. They're cheap, easy to install on your bike, and COULD SAVE YOUR LIFE!!! I had these on my old bike and loved them:

Planet Bike Blinky Safety Light Set

They were strong, noticeable, and I never once changed the batteries even though I used them every night when I rode home from work. AND, they're only $11. Nice.

Here's something so rad I might just have to go buy myself some RIGHT NOW:

Cinelli Lumen Glowing Synthetic Road Bicycle Handlebar Tape - White

O.M.G!!!! They are white and GLOW IN THE DARK!!!!! How awesome is that?! $23 ish