Traffic Cone Blog

Just in time for Christmas 2010: the latest incarnation of the TCB now sports a life-saving scotchlite strip for safe travels in low light (like, way past your bedtime). The strip is actually centered on neon orange grosgrain ribbon, which blends nicely with the screaming neon orange polyester. Caroline insists that she needs to sew 4 rows of stitching to do it right, when I was pretty sure the two outer ones would suffice, but hey, never argue with an expert! Pair it with your blinky light on the elastic loop, and you're hot to trot in the darkest night (with your dark knight). Of course, you can add even more life-saving bling to your TCB with iron-on Lightweights . I sell a starter sheet. You can stick them on your helmet, bike and other bling-starved accoutrements. The second shot below shows them applied to my original prototype TCB circa 2007 in a whimsical flower pattern: The reason I don't sell it like this - men may object. So iron ...

UPDATE! New for 2011: All TCB's now come with a 3M Scotchlite grosgrain strip down the center orange pocket, courtesy of my fabric supplier, Outdoor Wilderness Fabric s.  Now you can combine it with your blinky light + optional Lightweights reflectors and you're ready for the darkest night ... Caroline Fu and I prepare to execute another run of TCB's, this time with the new reflective strip. The orange pockets have to be just a leeeeetle wider to accommodate the 3/4" scothchlite strip. The view from Caroline's shared workroom, her trusty industrial Juki sewing machine close at hand +++ A little note from Clay and Rob in the tech dept at 3M:  "Highway standard ANSI 107 requires a minium RA of 330 (level 2) for their safety garments. If you are using the reflective material as a safety item, I would recommend keep the brightness above that value."  I asked them to geek on a bit more:  We take a brightness reading...

You can't tell a NYer how to look fashionable in Fashion Week - it's black and black. It's Fashion Week (Sep 13-19) - everyone wants to be seen - so how come I couldn't convince Lynne to wear her TCB orange side out when biking?   "I like it black!" she says, jumping on her folding bike after coming to my Chelsea Rec yoga class then eating a killer pad thai at Cafe Zemi. Looks like you can't take the black out of the NYer ...  Fortunately, the little loop for the blinky light on the orange side is elastic and stretchy, and can be flipped over the lip of the bag to light up the black side, as she has done in the pic above.  But the bag was meant for stayin' alive, and that's what both the orange color + elastic loop for your blinky light + the optional Lightweights reflectors are for.  Read my  TCB Night Visibility  rant. The Power of Two: I put all my stuff in an inner bag - a TCB in black mode - and pop it inside the larger TCB in orange mo...

UPDATE! As of Nov 2010 the Traffic Cone Bag comes standard with this 3M Scotchlite Strip . But you can still add these reflectors for even more bling. Read on .. For those who ride at night and want more visibility than their blinky light attached to the convenient elastic loop, I carry a small supply of Lightweights Reflector  'starter sets'. These are unpackaged single sheets of 16 ovals that you can arrange however you like. Here, I've used the entire sheet to make this flower pattern. You rub each down through its paper backing oval with a fingernail. Finally you peel off the paper backing, then dry iron briefly through a sheet of baking paper. The Lightweights starter sheet I sell for $5.   I'm feeling generous and will probably throw in 2 sheets until I run out.  Presto! Stayin' alive, stayin' alive ... Of course, you can attach them to the black side instead, but why would a minimalist metrosexual want to do that? They also go great ...

I just returned from a Bike Friday speaking tour in Georgia , where a number of my TCB 's were bought by local commuters. From Sorella Cycling Club member Gwyneth Lodge, who hosted my Cuba talk: I have loved the bag so far! I haven't actually used it on a bike yet, but have been carrying it around anyway as a cute casual bag. My city bike/bar bike is a fixed gear, and I just rode fixed for the first time last night at the velodrome. I'm confident I can handle fixed on the streets now, so I'll be back to my usual riding around town. That's what I really needed the bag for. A new little feature for the June 2009 run: a little elastic loop to hold a blinky light. It doesn't sound like a big deal, but in this day and age of overfeaturing (like supersizing only in features, not calories), my aim is to keep things as minimal and as simple as possible. Everything you need, and nothing you don't. The light I like to use with this bag is the one that...