Week in Tech: Strava Top Stops, Pumpkin Clif Bars, daytime running lights, and new TT frame
Use Strava's Top Spots to find a coffee shop while munching pumpkin pie Clif bars on your new Diamondback with daytime running lights
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Here’s your Week in Tech — all the gear news, tips and announcements you need and none of the marketing gibberish you don’t.
Strava Labs Top Stops
Strava can now find and display the best places to stop for a mid-ride snack, coffee, photo, view, or tune up. It’s called Top Stops, and the experimental service has only been rolled out in the San Francisco area so far, but may be expanded if Strava sees demand for the feature.
Strava compares its wealth of ride data, specifically data on mid-ride stops, with data from Foursquare to find the most popular stops for cyclists. The result is a comprehensive map of the best ride stops in the bay area that includes frequency of visits, usual length of visits, and more.
The feature, if rolled out nationwide or worldwide, would be a fantastic travel tool, allowing riders to discover the local haunts with ease.
Cygolite adds daytime running lights
Most mid- to high-end cars and nearly all motorcycles have daytime running lights, designed to improve visibility and safety. But few cyclists take the same precaution.
Cygolites new Dash 320 features a main 320-lumen LED, to be used when a big, powerful light is needed, and has a set of four less-powerful LED daytime running lights.
“We figured that if drivers get to have this safety technology and cyclists ride the same roads, then why not integrate daytime running lights for cyclists. Based on this thought, the Dash 320 is engineered from the ground up to fire up the road at night and to make your presence known in broad daylight,” said Cygolite’s chief engineer Norman Hamasaki.
The new light will retail for $55.
Diamonback launches Serios triathlon/time trial bike
Diamondback has signed on with Optum-Kelly Benefit Strategies for the 2015 season and will provide the team with its new Serios time trial frame.
The company is making some serious (pardon the pun) aerodynamic claims with the new bike. Internal testing shows a sharp drop in drag around a 15-degree wind angle (at 30mph), making the bike faster than both the Cervelo P5 and Trek Speed Concept at that wind angle.
The Serios was formally unveiled at triathlon’s premier event, the Kona Ironman, last week. For more, click over to Triathlon.competitor.com.
Pumpkin spice Clif bars for your fall rides
It’s not really fall until the annual pumpkin spice craze rekindles. Clif has three seasonal flavors available now: Pumpkin Pie, Gingerbread, and Pecan Pie.
Picking up a box of any of the three seasonal flavors need not be a guilty pleasure, however, because Clif is donating one percent of net seasonal sales to the not-for-profit organization Protect Our Winters, which battles climate change.
“CLIF Bar’s continued support has a huge impact for us,” said professional snowboarder and Protect Our Winters founder, Jeremy Jones. “It’s a natural partnership as we are both committed to fight climate change through education, activism, and support of community-based initiatives.”
The seasonal flavors are available now, while supplies last, for $1.39 per bar.