#knogblinder4v posthumous review

So another not-so-awesome thing about Carebear being taken was I had all my rad new Knog Blinder 4V lights on them. In a nutshell, they are excellent at being very bright vertically on your seat post, and lend themselves perfectly to the Nightshades #1 rule: Don't die.

I kept meaning to write a review, but with everyone from the Bike Snob to your mom doing a review I thought no one would notice my opinions. People did notice them on the road and at parties "AH MY EYES- what is that cool thing?" was often the remark I got. I'm telling you, if you want to talk to strangers daily- be a Knog product tester.

Anyway, in true Nightshade fashion I began to compile all the uses for them that weren't just being seen by motorists on the road.

#1- Bike Rave enabler. I powered a mini break dancing session with my blinders at the 2012 Vancouver Bike Rave.



#2- Finding crap in your bag. Sometimes finding things in your bag at night is just hard. Just drop your light in and problem solved!



#3- Bling bling! When you take it off your bike to go inside and boogie, you can wear your super duper bling ring. In some smoke the light beams look like Wolverine's talon thingies. I wish I had gotten a picture of that.


#4- Hypnotize cute bike boys with your awesome blinky bike swag.



#5- Is it too dark to climb that 50 foot tree? Not with your Blinder mouth light!



#6- Who needs a real fire when you can make a bike light fire? It's cop friendly version of the real thing.



Also, you can:
- Unlock your door when your automatic porch light just doesn't feel like working!
- Find thing in the dark on the beach/park/dance floor!
- Fight back against that stupid little barking dog.
- Feel superior to all the puny bike lights around you.

That is all. I also have their cool Bouncer lock and it worked especially well when I actually used it. Actually, it was kinda funny as I'd come out from whatever building I was in to see someone staring at my bike. I would get rampantly paranoid they were thinking about cutting the lock and say something aggressive/mean/crazy, but they were always just admiring the funky design and the conversations with strangers never ended.

Now I'm going to go back in a corner and hate myself for at least another two weeks. Is it true there is life after love? Cher isn't reassuring me. Oh Carebear, I'll wait for you forever...

The Right to Cycle

From June 26th to the 30th I was fortunate enough to attend the keynote sessions of Velo-City 2012 held here in Vancouver, BC.

For three days I was truly blew me away. There is a steep hill to climb and a lot of work to be done to make the rest of the world like Copenhagen, but with such brilliant and hard working professionals dedicated to this task, it's going to happen and it's going to be amazing.

I love Notable Quoteables, so took some of the best from the international speakers and submitted them Toronto's lovely Biking Toronto and Australia's Treadlie.  Broken down into four parts, (seriously so much good came out of those presenters) they are meant to inspire and inform. Follow the links wiki-styles and dive deep into the world of cycling politics and infrastructure.

“Creating cycle friendly cities. It’s child’s play.”
Dr. Paul Tranter- Associate Professor in Geography, University of New South Wales

This year the European Cycling Federation and Velo-City presented The Charter of Vancouver, which is a call to the UN and all nations to acknowledge the right for children to cycle. Biking improves so many aspects of a child's life; their health, independence, personal mobility, cleaner enviornment, and the list goes on and on.... You can read the notes from the Children's Keynote in Part 4 of the Biking TO segment. 



The closing of the conference called for all to sign the charter in suport. I was a privileged to ad my name, and signed on behalf of the Deadly Nightshades. It's not just NGO's who are working to make this world a better place to live and bike, us #girlbikegangs have a role too.

1Love.

xo

R.I.P. Allen Sheppard

Memorial Ride and Protest photos are here.