Favorite bicycling and outdoor recreation links

My Favorite Bicycling and
Outdoor Gear Links

You will find below a selection of my favorite online places to shop for cycling, outdoor gear, hiking accessories, outdoor clothing and healthy food and nutrition sources. In most cases I've been able to provide a graphic for each site as well as a text link to get you to the company I'm sharing. Just click the graphic or text link to visit that company.

If you've followed my cycling reports you know that I use MapMyRide every day to track my training rides, graph my progress, give me detailed maps for rides I'm planning and set goals. I can highly recommend it for the serious rider, runner, walker or hiker.

The Square Jellyfish Smartphone Spring Tripod Mount has become one of my most handy tech helpers. This is how to include yourself in the photo when using your smartphone to take the photo. That's what this little inexpensive gadget does for you.

Can you believe 2326 different kinds of snacks. I learned about healthy snacks from Joel. He was one of the first campers I visited with and learned he trained elite athletes including cyclists at his shop in San Francisco. We went cycling together. I offered him a granola bar during the ride which he declined and offered me a small bag of trail mix. He said the healthy snacks are those unprocessed. From that I found Healthy Snacks and NutsOnline. What an incredible selection they have for the outdoor person.

If you've been reading about my return to cycling you know I've lost 35 lbs in four months of riding. But I still like my desserts and sweet snacks. So I was really glad to find Vitalicious.com, 100 calorie muffins. They have a great selection of limited calorie treats which really taste good. When you order for the first time use coupon code "WCJ2010" to get a 5% discount.

OK, I'll admit it, Moosejaw.com sells no cycling gear (except CamelBak hydration packs) but they have all the great brandnames of outdoor clothing such as Patagonia, North Face and Marmot. Their Website is also easy to find exactly what you are looking for with everything in categories. Finally, they have great prices with good sales and they always give 10% back in the form of points which you can use to buy stuff for free. Shipping is free if you order $49 dollars worth of stuff which is easy to do. I love the name too.

One of my favorite places to shop for cycling gifts is CafePress where you will find hundreds of bicycling slogans available on hats, mugs, t-shirts, sweatshirts, underwear, bibs, aprons, and children's clothing too. These are all high quality items often at sale prices. And, if you aren't obsessed with cycling like I am, you'll find literally over a million topics, hobbies and special interests here all with creative graphics or slogans. OR ... you can create your own. Definitely worth a visit.

OK, so this isn't outdoor gear or cycling gear but 1000Bulbs is a great source for 12 volt bulbs. We had a "bulb problem" until I found these folks. They really do have 1000s of bulbs so I'm sure they have your size too. These bulbs were only 24¢ each and fit our bathroom fixture as well as some in the living area.

Here's another fun source of all the folding furniture you can imagine. MAC Sports has folding furniture for humans and pets and often has items on sale. I put the picture of the folding hammock because it is on my "wish list". They have captains chairs, moon chairs, rocking chairs, tables, pet beds, hammocks and much more. We own the captains chair with the folding side table and a pet bed for Morgan to keep her off the ground when she's outside. Very high quality and sturdy.

Yes, this is the new TV that has met our requirements for a light-weight television with low Wattage requirement. This 26" TV weights only eleven pounds and uses only 39.5 Watts in the ON position with less than ONE Watt in the off position. It also has a USB port for direct connection to one of our cameras and most important ... a headphone jack so one of us can listen without bothering the other. All this with excellent audio and the LG brand name with a full one year warranty.

This is Gwen's choice for a new camera. It is the Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-H70 16.1 MP Digital Still Camera with 10x Wide-Angle Optical Zoom. She says she picked this camera for the 10x zoom, image stabilization, the red body color and the moving panorama feature. Also the price is within her budget. Ordering from Amazon gets the camera to her with free shipping and NO sales tax. We'd have to pay at least 7% sales tax in Mississippi and more in other states. Plus, we have not found this camera even within $50 of the Amazon price in any local store.

Thursday, August 12, 2011: I've been shopping forever for a lightweight, lithium-ion cordless drill. Yes, I already own a cordless drill but I made a mistake, I bought one with a 1/2 inch chuck and big battery for the high torque but did not consider how heavy it was. It's impossible to hold for any length of time due to the weight. Yes, it has plenty of torque but I don't even carry a drill bit larger than 3/8" while traveling. The Milwaukee M12 is my answer and Amazon has a good price with free shipping and no sales tax (in most states). It also has a good torque rating (although half that of the bigger drill). This is the one for me. It will work well as the lightweight drill I'll carry with me while traveling.

It's difficult to find a "low tech" MP3 player these days for those who are most interested in music with enough memory to carry a significant number of albums and has the features to help your music sound great. With this player your aren't stuck with iTunes at your only resource.

This is something you have probably never thought of. It's a tactical flashlight used by military, police and hunters. You might think, why spend nearly $70 on a flashlight but this one has uses beyond just seeing what's wandering around your RV. You can buy flashlights MORE expensive than this one but I figure this is all you need. The beam will spot more than 200 yards and has four settings for brightness. The maximum setting will last 1.9 hours while the low setting will last 140 hours on a set of batteries. On maximum it produces 337 lumen, so what does that mean to you. Before owning this flashlight, I had one producing 170 lumen which is blinding if you look at it. I see this as something far better than pepper spray as a defensive weapon or maybe you can use it in addition to pepper spray. You can have this in your hand pointed down and if you feel threatened, quickly shine in the assailant's eyes. They won't be seeing anything for several minutes after that. You also don't have to be so close as you would with pepper spray. Additionally, you can take this into Canada where you can't take pepper spray or guns.

I became fulltime RV in 2006 when I sold all my Oregon property before the terrible economic crash in real estate. I was very lucky but part of becoming fulltime RV was getting rid of all my shop equipment. Becoming a lot holder at Timber Valley has given me a chance to replace my shop equipment. What I choose must fit into a very small shop space. The key item is a quality table saw. I've chosen the Bosch 4100 with "Gravity Rise Stand" making it portable and able to fit into a small space when not in use. I like the quality, size, power, ability to store in a small space, accuracy and 4-1/2 star from 130 reviewers. I've not been able to find a better price with free shipping. Click the ad to see the details. Also, here is a video showing the features.

We expect to spend the winter in a cold, wet climate (Oregon) which causes a problem inside our trailer. We heat with propane which adds water to the air as part of the combustion of propane, plus cooking, showers, and just the act of breathing add water to the air. This causes moisture to fog the windows, dampen walls and furniture and create mold in hidden locations. When visiting with fellow leaseholders at Timber Valley, we have learned that the smart ones use a high quality dehumidifier to eliminate this problem. This Frigidaire dehumidifier is our choice because it removes a whopping 30 pints per day of water from the air, it's Energy Star rated and just the right size for our trailer. Amazon has the best price with free shipping. Click the ad to the right to get more details.

This is an interesting choice for Forstner drill bits. They are of poor quality but there are 16 of them. A good quality Forstner bit would cost the price of this whole set but if you need to drill larger holes only occasionally, a quality bit is a waste of money. In my case, I prefer brad point bits for holes of 1/2 inch or less. But for larger holes, the Forstner bit is a good choice. When you explore this 16 bit set, you'll see that only three of the 16 bits are 1/2" or less. That makes this a very nice choice for drilling larger holes. My thinking is, if I find myself drilling, say, a 1-3/8" hole many times (to fit little wooden people for my grandchildren's toys), I'll buy a quality bit of that size. In the mean time, I have all these bits to learn which ones I need the most. Click the bit set on the left to get the details. Free shipping from Amazon.

Here's an unusual item which I consider important for my shop. These are tenon and plug cutting tools. To make plugs, you are drill into the face of a board then using the plug to cover a screw hole carefully matching the grain in the wood for a nearly invisible cover. For a tenon, drill from the end of board to fit the matching hole (mortise). Like the Forstner bits above, these are not top quality where a quality bit will cost the price of this whole set. From these bits, you learn what's used most and can purchase the quality bit for your collection. The others will work fine in light use. Click the Amazon ad to get the details.

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My Favorite Bicycling and Outdoor Gear Links

My Favorite Bicycling and
Outdoor Gear Links