I'm not sure but these Animal Head Bicycle Seat Covers may be illegal in some states...

These are bicycle seat covers for all you pervs out there with a "sitting on animal heads" fetish. You're my kind of people, high five!

Okay, now police, round up anyone who just tried to give me a high five. Whew, now that the freaky deviants are out of here, let's get down to business.

These bike seat covers come in goat, bear, and dog varieties and all cost about $15. If you want to get the most bang for your buck though I recommend the dog or goat ones, since they're made of way more material than the bear.

I considered one, but I'm holding out for a crocodile. Have you ever sat on a crocodile's head before? Let me tell you -- it's a rush. Like huffing airplane glue, but with more sharp teeth inches from your manhood.

Product Site

Via Geekologie.Com

'Small Haul' is a bike with a trunk.

Bikes are an execellent way to get around, especially if you live in a city. They provide you with exercise, are free transportation (after the initial investment), and are totally environmentally friendly. The problem? It's pretty tough to transport anything around with you on a bike.

Not so with the Small Haul by Frances Cycles. This bike has a nicely-sized canvas cargo hold in front of the handlebars that'll allow you to transport anything from a friendly black lab to a load of groceries, up to 80lbs. No more excuses about not being able to carry stuff; it's time to join the bicycle revolution!

Frances Cycles, via Treehugger

Get Consistent Mental Energy with Smaller, Frequent Caffeine Breaks...

Think the best way to jump-start a project involves a large dark roast with extra shots? Think again, according to Wired magazine. As part of a roundup of mental boosters, one writer suggests that research has shown smaller, regular doses of caffeine—think tea breaks or half-cups of coffee—do more to boost alertness and reduce jitters than a large blast of the stuff:

Test subjects reported that periodic small shots made them feel clearheaded and calm, both of which enhance mental performance. Even better, add a lump of sugar or have a carbohydrate-rich snack at the same time for an extra cognitive kick. It seems that glucose and caffeine together do more to enhance cognition than either does alone.

Hit the Wired link to browse more tips for memorization, mood control and other brain boosters.
Caffeinate With Care: Small Shots Do a Brain Better Than Big Blasts [Wired]

Are you looking for a new cycling route in your area?

I am always looking for a new route to ride, and if you are like me I don't always find one. If you need a few ideas, check out Pedaling.com

The website has Free Self Guided Road Bike Routes and Mountain Bike Trails including Maps, Cue Sheets and Trail descriptions. Resources for local Bicycle Shops, Bike Safety Information and Community Bulletin Board for Cyclist to share trail, road and Cross Country Bike Trip Knowledge. Information about Guided Bicycle Tours, Cycling Gear and Bicycles.

Are you a cyclist? Are you a Star Wars fan? If so...

StarWarsShop gets fans ready for summer cycling with three new Star Wars bicycle jerseys which reproduce some classic poster artwork illustration!

Primal Wear of Denver, CO. has released three iconic Star Wars design cycling jerseys based on the poster art from A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi!

The three jerseys sport the artwork from Tom Jung's A New Hope Style "A" poster, Roger Kastel's Empire Style "A", and Kazuhiko Sano's Jedi Style "B". Check them out here!

Coffee may help stop the development of Multiple Sclerosis

Article from: AAP
By Tamara McLean

April 08, 2008 06:04pm

COFFEE may help stop the development of multiple sclerosis (MS), experiments on lab mice suggest.
US scientists have found they were able to protect rodents from the animal form of MS by feeding them the equivalent of six to eight cups of coffee a day.

About 15,000 Australians have the disease, caused by immune cells that infiltrate the brain and spinal cord, attacking them and causing damage.

A molecule called adenosine, which is involved in many of the body's biochemical processes, such as energy transfer and the promotion of sleep, is believed to be responsible for this process.

Caffeine is known to block the receptor of the molecule, so the team from Cornell University tested the stimulant on mice.

More >>

Another study that says coffee may be good for you...

Caffeine May Block High Cholesterol Linked to Alzheimer's

WEDNESDAY, April 9 (HealthDay News) -- A little caffeine every day could offer some protection from Alzheimer's disease for people with high cholesterol.

Rabbits given the daily caffeine equivalent of one cup of coffee and fed a cholesterol-rich diet for 12 weeks suffered relatively little damage in their blood-brain barrier (BBB), which protects the central nervous system from the rest of the body's circulation, new research found.

The findings were published in the open-access publication Journal of Neuroinflammation.

More >>

Fight Dementia With Coffee...

Coffee is good for you - why can’t people seem to get that? Though coffee does have its adverse effects, it does have good benefits! Yeah, I am biased, but this new research adds more proof to the concept that coffee can be good for the health.

According to research carried out by scientists from the North Dakota School of Medicine and Health Sciences, a coffee a day keeps dementia away. The findings of the research were published in the Journal of Neuroinflammation and showed that daily doses of caffeine prevents the destructive effects of high cholesterol levels, which have been linked to occurrences of dementia, of which Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form.

The scientists used rabbits in their study and gave the little critters 3 mg of caffeine daily. This is roundabouts a cup of coffee. The rabbits were also given a very rich cholesterol diet during the course of the study. The indicator used was the blood brain barrier – which was more significantly intact in the rabbits that were dosed with caffeine.

According to the report published by the Press Assocation:

Jonathan Geiger, of the University of North Dakota School of Medicine and Health Sciences, said: “For the first time we have shown that chronic ingestion of caffeine protects the blood brain barrier from cholesterol-induced leakage.”
He added: “Caffeine is a safe and readily available drug and its ability to stabilise the blood-brain barrier means it could have an important part to play in therapies against neurological disorders.”
The research confirms earlier studies showing that caffeine intake protects against memory loss in ageing and in Alzheimer’s disease.

I have always thought that coffee was good for my sanity – and I was right all along!

Tandem face-to-face bike is great for first dates...

What better way to acquaint yourself with a new love than riding with them on a completely ridiculous and presumably extremely complicated face-to-face tandem bike?

This bike is the result of a year's worth of hard work by a Taiwanese inventor. It does include some nice features like being able to rotate the seats so it can be ridden back-to-back when the first date goes awry.

The inventor, Chen Yugang, is currently in discussions with manufacturers to mass produce this bike. Will the face-to-face bike be the next Razer scooter? Probably not, but it's a nice gimmick.

Via Geekologie

The Running-Powered Bike is Completely Ridiculous In My Opinion....

Can't decide between walking or bicycling? Fear no more.... This is a running-powered? bicycle (although technically, it's a tricycle, which gives it even less dignity).

There are no pedals; instead, you run with the seat jammed up in your crotch and hop on the foot holds when you get enough speed going to coast. It is amazingly ridiculous, and it only gets funnier when you see the video of some dude running on it with, as I said, the seat jammed up in his crotch.

Make sure to watch the video below and you will see why this is quite possibly the strangest way to power a bike.

Via [DesignBoom]

Ergonomic cup design conforms to shape of your lips...

Finally, somebody designs a coffee cup that takes into account that human beings will actually be drinking from it. Most mugs have a rim that’s so fat, even a horse’s lips couldn’t keep the coffee from spilling, but designer Jinhong Lin fixed that problem with his clever design concept.

If it's ever produced, at long last, ergonomics might come into play for those of us with recurring coffee stains on our shirts. Cup and mug designers, take note.

Via Yanko Design

Brilliant cycling awareness safety video...

Transport For London's brilliant "Do the Test" cycling safety video invites you to pay close attention to a video of some basketball players, then demonstrates just how little you really saw, ending with a voice-over that explains how easy it is to miss things you're not looking for, like cyclists:

This phenomenon is known as "change blindness" - only a tiny fraction of all the information going into your brain enters your consciousness. People often fail to see a change in their surroundings because their attention is elsewhere.

Even stranger, if you are concentrating on something, you can become blind to other events that you would normally notice. This "inattention blindness" is possibly the reason why motorists collide with cyclists.

Just as it is important for road users to keep an eye out for cyclists, cyclists must also take steps to ensure they are seen by motorists.

Coffee Cup Air Freshener??

How do you get rid of that smell in your car?

You just throw one of these Coffee Cup Air Fresheners into your vehicle.

Better a fresh coffee odor than the stale coffee smell from all those empty cups on the floor.

Product Page ($7.95)

Puma’s New Bike Glows Green (or Golden Orange) At Night

Why someone hasn’t thought of this before is beyond me. Here at The Caffeinated Cyclist, we take our biking seriously — and it encourage it whenever possible. Of course, we’re also aware that biking in cities and towns can be a bit of a nightmare during the darker hours. That’s why I'm completely jazzed about this new ‘glowing’ bike from Puma. It’s almost as cool as the glow-in-the-dark star stickers you had as a kid all over your ceiling.

Here are the details:
Available in two colourways, one butter milk come green and the other a deep orange which turns a golden orange tone these bikes feature a paint which absorbs the sunrays during the day so when the sun goes down it produces a magnificent glowing effect.

The bike also comes with “twin-disc breaks, off road tires, head and back lights, and an integrated wire lock system. Apparently this means if the bike is stolen and rode without the wire, the whole thing will auto-destruct. I have no idea what that means, but if there are bright explosions and sparks involved, I’m all about it.

via SlamXHype