By John Marsh, Editor & Publisher
New Whimsical Bike Storage Solution Looks Promising
If you’re a regular RBR reader, you know that we have a history of not often discussing crowd-funded cycling gear. The exceptions we make are when it’s a product that has already reached its funding goal – which makes it much more likely to come to market – or when it’s from a “known entity” (a company or person we know has produced worthy products before), or is just a cool product we want to make you aware of.
This one pretty much ticks off all three. It’s the new bike-hanging solution from former pro MTB downhill world champion Jürgen Beneke. It’s simple, and whimsical, and looks like a cool solution to easily hanging up to three medium-sized bikes, one over the other, on a U.S. standard 8-foot wall.
The product is called DaHÄNGER Dan (Jürgen’s German influence, mated with his Americanization). It’s a powder-coated steel figure of a man (Dan) with his legs splayed and angled down, and feet up, to hold a bike by the pedal, which forces the tires to angle down toward the wall, where they rest on two flat pieces of steel also mounted to the wall. You simply hook the bike up by the pedal and then rest the tires in their holders. Voila! (See the photos below; the replica Schwinn goes 60 pounds, according to the Kickstarter page.)
Dan is currently available through Kickstarter for $49 and the MSRP for production versions is projected to be $59. Dan is made both in the U.S. and Germany (for tax and shipping purposes). The DaHÄNGER Dan Kickstarter campaign launched March 7th and had well exceeded Beneke’s initial goal of $15,000 by the 20th, when this article was written.
GIVEAWAY NOTE: In the process of discussing the product with him, Jürgen asked if RBR would like to give away one DaHÄNGER Dan and one of its predecessor, a robust single-bike storage unit that doubles as a storage shelf, called DaHÄNGER (click for details; value: $149). Why not? We’ll draw two winners from among all current Premium Members as of April 23. Winners announced April 27.
Question of the Week Update
As I enjoy doing from time to time, here’s an update on how you voted on some of our recent Questions of the Week. As always, I (and I hope you, too) found some of the responses interesting and unexpected.
How Clean Do You Like to Keep Your Bike(s)?
This one was interesting to me because A) I was in the majority (not a “clean freak” but someone who still likes to keep a tidy machine) and B) The next biggest voting bloc tended toward the opposite – not letting a little gunk bother them.
Here are the top three vote-getters, from a sample of over 750 votes:
- Wiped down or otherwise cleaned after every ride. 82 Votes, or 10.9%
- Wiped down or otherwise cleaned as often as necessary. No visible dirt allowed. 371 Votes, or 49.34%
- I don’t mind a little road grime and sports drink sticky on my frame or elsewhere. 200 Votes, or 26.6%
How Many Road Miles Have Your Ridden Since You’ve Been an RBR Reader?
This one was of interest to me for a couple of reasons. First, I nearly always wish I had ridden (or could ride) more miles in any given year. Seldom am I satisfied that I rode “exactly the right amount.” It’s like the “perfect number of bikes” equation, except for mileage: Miles plus more miles = the correct amount.
Second, I know very well there will always be – no matter what – someone who thinks their mileage is woeful, and that the next rider’s is amazing. Same with average speed, power, you name it. Your fast is always someone else’s slow. And your slow is always someone else’s fast. That said, I really wanted to see how many riders hadlogged what most of us would consider an astronomical amount over their years of reading RBR.
Here we go:
In short, a little more than 7% of the total voters logged between 5 and 10 times around the world (125,000 to 250,000 miles, or 200,000 km to 400,000 km).
And here’s how the mere mortals broke out:
- More than 4 Times Around the World (100,000 miles, or 160,000 km), 4.97%
- More than 3 Times Around the World (75,000 miles, or 120,000 km), 9.74%
- More than 2 Times Around the World (50,000 miles, or 80,000 km), 17.5%
- More than 1 Time Around the World (25,000 miles, or 40,000 km), 28.03%
- Less than 1 Time Around the World (25,000 miles, or 40,000 km), 32.6%
When you replace tires due to wear, do you replace one (and “rotate” the good remaining tire) or both?
I expected this one to be all over the board, and it was. So no surprises, to me at least. Here are the top 4 responses, in order:
- Whichever tire is bad, I replace that tire. No rotation. 30.83%
- If one tire is bad, I check the remaining good tire and rotate based on its wear. New rubber up front. 21.96%
- It is purely a situational approach for me. Sometimes I rotate, sometimes not. Just depends. 21.69%
- If one tire is bad, I check the remaining good tire and rotate based on its wear. New rubber in back. 8.59%
Do you count trainer (or rollers) miles when recording annual mileage stats?
This is one of those questions riders tend to ask each other in the winter, on outdoor rides with buddies that the weather has blissfully permitted on occasion. And it seems, by virtue of your answers to this question, that riders tend to take somewhat of a line-in-the-sand, my-way-or-the-highway approach to this issue. Keep in mind that another 23% of you don’t give a flip, because you don’t rider a trainer anyway!
- Yes. I have an approximation that I use. 29.91%
- Yes, but I prorate the number down, since I don’t work as hard as I do on the road. 2.05%
- Yes, but I prorate the number up, since I work harder than I do on the road. 1.88%
That’s a total of 33.8 in the Yes camp.
- No. 36.24%
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