This online quiz from Newsweek’s a good way to find out you aren’t quite as global as you thought. I just took about half of it and completely lost my ass. I should remember most of the answers though, so I’ll clean up next time. The quiz ranges from travel to politics to economics with a lot of questions geared towards travelers. And a little advice—Canada trades with the U.S. a lot more than you think.

via Gadling

Let your friend eat a spoonful of instant coffee before you tell him you packed the Coleman 9-Cup Aluminum Coffee Percolator. Carrying it would show quite a commitment to coffee on a backpacking trip, though it’s more suited to car camping. You can brew some Peets over the campfire or heat it on your stove if you’re not into leaving an unattended fire when you go for an afternoon hike. The Coleman 9-Cup Aluminum Coffee Percolator costs about $10.

Check out ThirtyTwo’s entire boot line for next year at Snowboard Mag. ThirtyTwo has an insane array of styles including some collaborative work with Airblaster and these workingman boots. I had a chance to dance around in their upcoming Ultralight boot, which they call “the lightest boot ever,” and the things weigh less than most skate shoes.

I know that a lot of cyclists are anal-retentive, mechanical engineering types who get off on the sport’s tech side. Still, I think most of these people are able to keep their quirks within the bounds of biking’s wide range of accepting behavior so they move about largely unnoticed. Here’s a good way to see if your engineering friend’s gone round the bend—show him the ShelBroCo Chain Cleaning System and judge his reaction. If the idea of paying $250 for chemicals and tools to completely disassemble his chain and clean it link by link excites him, then you should find a new riding partner.

via The Piton

You’ll just have to tell your friend that he’s bringing too many clothes if there’s enough garbage in your campsite to cover a clothesline. The applications of Sea to Summit’s Clothesline are limited. On a car camping trip it wouldn’t make sense to buy an ultralight, packable clothesline since it’s easy to toss some twine in your trunk, while on backpacking trips you’re usually wearing all the clothes you brought. The Sea to Summit fishing-line setup stretches to over 11 feet and weighs only 1.3 ounces—now if you only could find a practical use for it.

While the rest of the world is making messenger bags in their bike shops from recycled truck tarps and old vinyl signage, Timbuk2 is still banging their heads against their cubicles trying to come up with a material for their own recycled bags. Timbuk2’s upcoming bag is called Lamitron—probably named after the process of fusing low- and high-density polyethylene into a waterproof, durable fabric. They haven’t announced pricing or a release date for their shopping-bar-and-milk-jug packs, so we’ll all have to keep polluting with the messenger bags we’re currently using.

via Treehugger

The nicest thing you can say about GSI’s Ultralight Backpack Kitchen is that it only costs $10—the worst thing you can say is that it’s responsible for all the ills of mankind. Either way, you’d be giving it too much credit. The $10 GSI Kitchen package sends you into the woods with a mini spatula, whisk, towel, salt shaker, and cut-in-half sponge. The salt shaker might be waterproof, but there’s no way these utensils will last through even the first batch of wallpaper paste pancakes.

When your body washes to shore the locals will probably steal your board shorts before they take the SwiMP3 Surf MP3 player. The waterproof rig only gives you 256MB of playback for about $220—it’s just embarrassing when so many waterproof iPod cases are about. At least you won’t be able to hear the locals harassing you for crowding their turf—or yelling a warning about an inside set.

via Engadget

This guy used the security camera footage of his bike wheels being stolen as a music video for his lame band, Shank Bone Mystic. It’s a little funny, but not nearly as good as The Decembrists’ Apology Song, which is about Colin Meloy leaving his friend’s bike unlocked outside a grocery store to be stolen. The video is better than the song in Shank Bone Mystic’s case—the worst part of the video is watching people walk by without saying anything.

via Boing Boing