Connect with us

Published

on

As one of the few people who can claim to now be in my third decade of living an electric bike-focused life, I’ve tested a lot of gear over the years. Between the gear I buy for myself and the piles of random stuff that shows up on my doorstep from overzealous PR agencies, I’ve gone through a wide range of tools, locks, clothing, accessories, and more. Here are my favorites of all the stuff I’ve tested this year.

I’ll start with locks because I’m a bit of a bike lock collector. I have boxes overflowing with them. That means if a lock has made it out of the boxes and into my regular-use collection, it must have some really good features and utility.

Foldylock Forever from Seatylock

Seatylock is one of my favorite lock companies due to the various products’ combination of security and value. The strongest lock that I use every day is my Foldylock Forever. It weighs around 1/3 of a high-security chain lock (just under 3.9 lb or 1.8 kg) and is much quieter than most folding locks due to the higher precision security rivets. It is rated Gold-Certified by the premier lock testing agency Sold Secure, and is resistant to the most common attacks of blades, bolt cutters, nut splitters, pry bars/jacks, and freezing attacks.

It opens wide to function like a chain lock, wrapping around wide objects like trees or small objects like sign posts, and I also really like the convenient holster that makes it easy to stow and grab one-handed. The wide design means you can also lock both the frame and a wheel, which is important if you want to have wheels on your bike when you come back to it.

This lock is actually quite fairly priced at US $99 on Amazon. High-security locks cost a lot because they are meant to protect expensive e-bikes, and this one is worth every single penny. And that’s even a great sale price, considering it normally costs $125.

I’ve also been testing a smaller version of the same lock, the Foldylock Compact. It comes in multiple colors, but I like the orange-accented one since it has that nice poison treefrog coloring to let thieves see it from a distance and remind them to move on to the next poor shmuck’s bike.

While this one isn’t quite as robust as the over-the-top Foldylock Forever above, the Foldylock Compact is smaller and lighter for those who don’t want a chunky lock. At just 2.2 lb or 1 kg, it’s almost half the weight and still features many of the same important security components like those patented high-security rivets.

This would be a great option for scooters, too, since it’s smaller and more compact for the lighter frames on scooters.

At US $71 on Amazon, it’s a more affordable version of the flagship Foldylock Forever lock.

The third and last lock from Seatylock that I’ve really taken a liking to is the Mason 220. This may look like a standard U-lock at first, but there are two main differences I really like about it.

The first is that it is wide enough to fit around the chunky battery downtube in all of my e-bikes. Most U-locks can’t fit around this wide part of an e-bike, meaning you’re more limited on locking locations. The Mason 220 has no problem fitting anywhere on my e-bikes.

The second thing I like is that the lock’s shackle has a pentagonal profile. That helps reduce weight while strengthening the cross-section compared to round or square bars. The engineering answer is that it puts more material further away from the center axis without wasting material where it isn’t needed. It also prevents thieves from having two flat surfaces on either side for applying various tools. But in layman’s terms, it’s just a more efficient profile for anti-theft.

On top of all of that, the lock is Diamond-certified 20/20 by Sold Secure, which is the highest possible security rating. It’s resistant to cutting, grinding, drilling, bending, prying, freezing, and basically every main lock attack.

At its current price of US $76 on Amazon, it’s a no-brainer.

I always recommend using two locks at the same time, and I often combine the Mason 220 with the FoldyLock Compact (since my wife tends to steal my FoldylLck Forever for her bike).

E-cuffs electric scooter lock

This one is a bit of a strange lock, but stick with me. These handcuff-style locks make great scooter locks, which is what they’re designed for. But in a pinch, you can also use it on an e-bike.

These aren’t the most secure locks out there, so I generally try to use them in conjunction with a second lock when possible, but the E-cuffs do have several good safety features as part of their design. The triple-ply steel is harder to cut and the tight locking cuff makes it hard to get a pry-bar inside of the lock for leverage attacks.

They also mount really nicely to the stem of a scooter so they can deploy quickly around whatever you choose to lock onto.

I used them on the VMAX scooter I was recently testing and found them to be a really convenient solution for quick and convenient locking.

Waterfield Vitesse waxed canvas backpack

For those of you who bemoan the lack of American manufacturing, here you go! The Waterfield Vitesse waxed canvas backpack is made in America. It’s also got made in America pricing at US $219, but hey, you said you’d pay for American manufacturing, right?!

This bag is a work of art, made of beautiful waxed canvas from an American mill that has produced it this way for nearly a century. The bags are sewn in San Francisco and feature a main open pocket with organizer pouches inside, a laptop sleeve that can fit up to a 16-inch laptop, and a pleated front pocket. The roll-top design also has a waterproof zipper, meaning you don’t have to roll the top if you prefer to stuff it fairly full. You can just zip it when you don’t have the extra material left over to roll it.

The neoprene-padded straps and leather-wrapped handle are comfortable and obviously built for years of wear, as this is a buy-it-for-life type of bag. I often ride on days when you never know what kind of weather you’ll have, and so the waxed canvas and waterproof zipper are key for cyclists who want a good-looking bag that still withstands the elements.

Remco electric lifting bike stand

This stand has changed the game for my bike work. I assemble a lot of e-bikes for reviews and am constantly doing work on my bikes, whether steady maintenance or major repairs. Lifting heavy e-bikes onto a stand isn’t fun, especially as many of the “e-bikes” I review are basically 100-lb light electric motorcycles.

That’s perfect since the Remco electric lift bike stand can support up to 100 lb models, and I actually put that to the test with multiple 100lb+ models!

It’s got a super stable (and heavy) base plate, and the lift itself can be programmed to remember various heights that are most comfortable for you.

The modular design lets you use your own clamp or theirs, meaning you can stick with your trusty Park Tool clamp if you prefer.

A little over a year ago I hurt my back (and had my first “OMG this must be what getting old is” moment), and so the use of an electric bike lift for heavy electric bikes is just such a nice addition to my bike workflow that I can’t imagine anymore muscling those 80 and 90 lb e-bikes into the air while trying to support them one handed and close the clamp with the other.

This is really meant for bike shops and professionals, but even folks like you and me who just tend to do work on one or more heavy bikes can really benefit from it!

Beyond Riders protected riding clothing

I’ve written before about the importance of wearing protective clothing, especially on faster electric bikes. Beyond Riders has become my go-to brand because its clothes look like typical everyday garments yet have hidden armor and are produced with heavy-duty fibers designed for abrasion resistance.

I’ve just started testing out their flannel shirt and cargo pants, which have options for Level 1 or Level 2 armor inserts to protect your shoulders, elbows, spine, hips, and knees. I’ll do a deeper dive on those soon.

Their canvas riding jacket is still one of my favorites too, and it doesn’t even look like a motorcycle jacket. It just looks like a nice canvas jacket!

My wife also likes that I don’t look like I’m heading out for a motorcycle ride, but rather I can wear this stuff on date night. While that’s not my primary concern, the “happy wife, happy life” doctrine always applies. So if I can combine safety and fashion in one, that’s the best option.

beyond riders canvas jacket micah toll
You can see the hidden back armor from the inside

The BEAM’s Virgo helmet

Helmets are obviously critical safety gear for e-bike riders, especially since we tend to spend more time at higher speeds. But no matter the technology included in a helmet, if it only sits on the top of your head, then there’s a whole lot of face material left flapping around in the wind.

The Virgo helmet is a full face helmet with added chin bar to add extra protection.

You pay handsomely for that protection, to the tune of US $299, but you get a lot more face coverage than your typical helmet. That means your jaw has a better chance of staying attached in a catastrophic impact with a vehicle or concrete curb. The included MIPS system also reduces torsional impact on your brain, which is becoming standard on all higher-quality helmets these days.

And for less disastrous crashes, you don’t have to worry about regrowing the skin on your face. If your face is how you make your money (or you just don’t want to look like a lasagna), a full-face helmet is a good idea. The chin bar here is a bit flexy, so it’s not going to withstand the same level of crash as my motorcycle helmets, but it’s also a lot lighter and more comfortable than my motorcycle helmets, making it perfect for cycling.

Even just the visor adds great benefits. I can’t tell you how many times I ride through a flock of gnats or a big dust cloud with one eye closed just in case it gets compromised and I need a backup eye. With a visor, you have eye protection even on the days you aren’t wearing sunglasses. And of course you can never predict the random rock that gets kicked up by a car tire and sent directly towards your eyes. You only get two eyes and they don’t heal the way skin does. Protect them!

There’s also the built-in rear light for added visibility, and of course, the several size and color options. There’s a lot to like here, even if the price is rather lofty.

Peak Design phone holder

I have tested many phone holders for e-bikes, scooters, and motorcycles. By far, my all-time favorite has got to be Peak Design’s phone holder.

I got the case for my iPhone, and now I have the matching holding on several of my e-bikes, as well as one on my Gogoro scooter and another on my LiveWire Del Mar motorcycle.

The basic concept is similar to Quadlock or other quick-release holders, except that there’s no twisting. A magnet guides the phone’s case onto the spring-loaded locking tabs, which snap into place in the back of the case and securely hold the phone. To release it, you can press a button on either side of the mount and your phone instantly pops off. It’s rugged yet easily released – a tricky combination to master.

I bought the $39 universal mount for my bikes and scooters and I have the $79 dedicated motorcycle mount on my LiveWire, but there are lots of different mount options available.

Tentsile camping hammock

I LOVE bike camping, and one of my newest acquisitions is meant to make e-bike camping all the more fun with a relaxing hangout. Tentsile’s tree hammocks aren’t your traditional hammocks, but rather oversized triangular hanging platforms that can take the form of tents or hangout hammocks.

I got the six-person giant hammock recently, but sadly I haven’t had a camping trip yet to try it out. So far it looks like it should work well though, as it’s nicely constructed and huge! That’s another nice thing about e-bike camping, you can afford the extra weight of gear like this because the battery helps take the pain out of the pedaling.

This is another one that ain’t cheap, at $384. But if you’ve got the luxury of adding fun gear to your recreational bike-camping setup, this is definitely one that will change the game. Instead of a bunch of folding chairs, you and your friends can all be lounging in the air, suspended from Mother Nature’s anchors – trees!

FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.

Continue Reading

Environment

Altman, Huang and the last-minute negotiations that sealed the $100 billion OpenAI-Nvidia deal

Published

on

By

Altman, Huang and the last-minute negotiations that sealed the 0 billion OpenAI-Nvidia deal

Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI (L), and Jensen Huang CEO of Nvidia.

Reuters

ABILENE, Texas – Sam Altman had a deadline. OpenAI’s CEO was headed to Texas to unveil his company’s next big infrastructure push, and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang wanted in on the action.

Through a series of hurried negotiations, late-night calls and last-minute contract tweaks, the two giants of artificial intelligence struck a $100 billion partnership on Monday, hours before Altman boarded his flight to Abilene, a city of about 130,000 residents roughly 180 miles west of Dallas.

It helped that Huang and Altman had been part of President Donald Trump’s state visit to the U.K. a week earlier, allowing the president to be briefed on the agreement days in advance. 

The deal, which Huang described to CNBC as “monumental in size,” marks a watershed moment in the tech industry, as capital and influence are increasingly concentrated in the hands of the two companies closest to the heart of the artificial intelligence boom.

Huang now presides over the world’s most valuable public company, worth nearly $4.5 trillion after gaining $170 billion following Monday’s announcement, while Altman runs the most prominent startup on the planet, valued at half a trillion dollars.

OpenAI’s ascent to the forefront of generative AI has relied on Nvidia’s high-powered graphics processing units (GPUs). Now the companies are more intimately linked than ever, as they plan to carve a path to jointly building the next wave of AI supercomputing facilities.

“You should expect a lot from us in the coming months,” Altman told CNBC’s Jon Fortt in an interview at Nvidia’s Silicon Valley headquarters on Monday. “There are three things that OpenAI has to do well: we have to do great AI research, we have to make these products people want to use, and we have to figure out how to do this unprecedented infrastructure challenge.”

Altman and Huang negotiated their pact largely through a mix of virtual discussions and one-on-one meetings in London, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C., with no bankers involved, according to people close to the talks who declined to be named because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly on the matter.

The arrangement calls for Nvidia to invest $10 billion at a time in OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT. As the buildout unfolds, Nvidia will also supply the cutting-edge processors powering a host of new data centers.

While OpenAI gets more intimate with Nvidia, it has to maneuver through a number of high-stakes relationships with other key partners.

OpenAI only informed Microsoft, its principal shareholder and primary cloud provider, a day before the deal was signed, the people familiar with the matter said. Earlier this year, Microsoft lost its status as OpenAI’s exclusive provider of computing capacity.

The pact also comes less than two weeks after a disclosure from Oracle indicated that OpenAI agreed to spend $300 billion in computing power with the company over about five years, starting in 2027. At the start of the year, OpenAI joined Stargate, a multibillion-dollar project announced by President Trump and backed by Oracle and SoftBank, to build out next-generation AI infrastructure.

Going forward, all of OpenAI’s infrastructure projects will fall under the Stargate umbrella.

Representatives from Microsoft, Oracle and SoftBank didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

Nvidia and OpenAI provided scant details about where and when the buildout will take place, other than to say that the first of the 10 gigawatt sites will go online in the back half of next year.

Executives said they’ve reviewed between 700 and 800 potential locations since unveiling Stargate in January. In the months that followed, they fielded a flood of proposals from developers across North America offering land, power, and facilities. That list has been narrowed as OpenAI weighs energy availability, permitting timelines, and financing terms, the company said.

In Monday’s announcement, OpenAI described Nvidia as a “preferred” partner. But executives told CNBC that it’s not an exclusive relationship, and the company is continuing to work with large cloud companies and other chipmakers to avoid being locked in to a single vendor.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Nvidia CEO, Jensen Huang arrive to attend the State Banquet during U.S. President Donald Trump’s state visit, at Windsor Castle, in Windsor, Britain, September 17, 2025.

Phil Noble | Reuters

For Nvidia, the investment in OpenAI is historic in size, but it’s just a big piece of a rapidly expanding portfolio.

Last week, Nvidia put $5 billion into Intel as part of a joint venture to co-develop data center and PC chips with the troubled chipmaker. Nvidia also said it invested close to $700 million in U.K. data center startup Nscale, a move that resembles Nvidia’s backing of U.S. AI infrastructure provider CoreWeave, which held its IPO in March.

Tranches of money

The financing structure for the OpenAI deal is designed to avoid hefty dilution. The initial $10 billion tranche is locked in at a $500 billion valuation and expected to close within a month or so once the transaction has been finalized, people familiar with the matter said. Nine successive $10 billion rounds are planned, each to be priced at the company’s then-current valuation as new capacity comes online, they said.

The relationship between Nvidia and OpenAI long predates the launch of ChatGPT in 2022.

Back when OpenAI was still a small nonprofit research lab and Nvidia was best known for building graphics chips for video games, Huang personally delivered his company’s first DGX supercomputer to OpenAI’s office in 2016. At the time, the startup was located in San Francisco’s Mission District, in a building that’s now home to Elon Musk’s xAI.

Almost a decade and trillions of dollars in value later, Huang and Altman are perhaps the most significant power players in the tech industry.

In October of last year, Nvidia formalized its financial stake in OpenAI, joining a $6.6 billion funding round that valued the company at $157 billion. A month later, in Tokyo, OpenAI executives met with SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son to brainstorm what to call their next phase of expansion. Out of that session came “Stargate,” a codename that has since become shorthand for OpenAI’s most ambitious buildout plans.

Stargate now encompasses every major deal for compute capacity, including this week’s partnership with Nvidia. Securing the rights to the name required some careful maneuvering, but OpenAI has embraced it as the banner for its long-term infrastructure strategy.

OpenAI CFO Sarah Friar: Biggest issue we face is being 'constantly under compute'

The $100 billion commitment from Nvidia represents only part of what’s required for the planned 10-gigawatt buildout. OpenAI will lease Nvidia’s chips for deployment, but financing the broader effort will require other avenues. Executives have called equity the most expensive way to fund data centers, and they say the startup is preparing to take on debt to cover the remainder of the expansion. 

As OpenAI’s compute necessities increase, a big question is where the company will host its workloads, which have to date been largely housed in Microsoft Azure. Taking the work in-house would push OpenAI closer to operating as a first-party cloud provider, a market led by Amazon Web Services, followed by Azure, Google and Oracle.

Executives have openly floated the idea, suggesting it may not be far off. Some even indicated to CNBC that a commercial cloud offering could emerge within a year or two, once OpenAI has secured enough compute to cover its own needs. For now, demand for training frontier models leaves little capacity to spare, but OpenAI isn’t done looking for new opportunities.

As Altman and Huang hammered out details of the arrangement that was announced this week, OpenAI’s infrastructure team was in Tokyo meeting with SoftBank’s Son to discuss broader financing and manufacturing support.

The parallel talks underscored the scale of Altman’s ambition, and the web of global players now involved in bringing it to life.

WATCH: OpenAI restructuring clears hurdle

OpenAI restructuring clears hurdle

Continue Reading

Environment

Orsted shares jump 7% after U.S. court overturns Trump project block

Published

on

By

Orsted shares jump 7% after U.S. court overturns Trump project block

Burbo Bank, Liverpool Bay, England, viewed from the sea turbines on Burbo wind farm off the U.K. coast.

Ucg | Universal Images Group | Getty Images

Shares of Danish renewables giant Orsted jumped on Tuesday, after a U.S. judge ruled the embattled firm can resume construction of an offshore wind farm that was halted by the Trump administration.

The decision means Orsted can resume work on the nearly completed Revolution Wind project off the coast of Rhode Island and Connecticut.

Shares of the Copenhagen-listed company were among the top performers on the pan-European Stoxx 600 index during morning deals. The stock price, which notched a fresh record low last month, was last seen up around 6.6%.

The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on Monday granted a preliminary injunction sought by Orsted to overturn the Trump administration’s stop-work order, allowing construction on Revolution Wind to resume while the lawsuit progresses.

Orsted on Monday said it would start work on the project “as soon as possible.”

The company’s shares have tumbled 22.4% this year amid the Trump administration’s more aggressive stance towards renewables.

On Sept. 5, the Danish firm cut its full-year operating profit outlook following lower-than-normal offshore wind speeds during July and August. Orsted also received approval from shareholders for an emergency 60 billion Danish krone ($9.48 billion) rights issue to raise capital. Norwegian energy group Equinor said it would pledge almost $1 billion of fresh capital as part of the fundraising.

Trump block

The court victory represents a significant reprieve for the Danish company, which has been hit hard by U.S. President Donald Trump’s hardline stance on offshore wind projects.

Since his return to the White House earlier this year, Trump has clamped down on the wind power industry. On his first day in office, Trump signed an executive order suspending new or renewed onshore and offshore wind leases.

The U.S. president, who is championing America’s oil and gas industries, told reporters in January that his administration was “not going to do the wind thing.”

The Department of Transportation last month said it was withdrawing $679 million of funding for a dozen infrastructure projects that support offshore wind development and would instead redirect the money to upgrade existing ports and other infrastructure, where possible.

Continue Reading

Environment

Blink + Hubject unlock easier EV charging across North America

Published

on

By

Blink + Hubject unlock easier EV charging across North America

Blink Charging (Nasdaq: BLNK) has struck a deal with Hubject to make charging easier for EV drivers across North America.

The agreement will bring Blink into Hubject’s intercharge eRoaming platform as a charge point operator. That means electric mobility service providers (eMSPs) and their customers in the US, Canada, and Mexico will soon have access to Blink’s charging stations through their existing apps. In turn, Blink drivers will gain better access to stations connected through Hubject’s network.

Hubject, which already connects more than 1 million charging points and 2,750 partners worldwide, expects the integration to strengthen its North American presence by adding Blink’s wide-ranging network of chargers, from Level 2 workplace stations to DC fast charging. Blink, meanwhile, anticipates more customers will plug in, thanks to Hubject’s reach.

“Our collaboration with Blink marks an important step in expanding our North American intercharge network,” said Trishan Peruma, CEO of Hubject North America. “By integrating Blink’s network into our eRoaming platform, we aim to help reduce barriers that have historically complicated EV charging and to support the continued growth of EV adoption across the United States, Canada, and Mexico.”

Advertisement – scroll for more content

Blink Charging’s president and CEO Mike Battaglia added, “Connecting the Blink Network to Hubject’s platform will allow more drivers to benefit from interoperable charging while traveling.”

The integration will use the industry-standard OCPI protocol to keep billing and communication between networks secure and reliable. Deployment is planned in phases throughout 2025, with full integration targeted for the end of the year.

Read more: Blink just made it a lot easier to find its charging stations


The 30% federal solar tax credit is ending this year. If you’ve ever considered going solar, now’s the time to act. To make sure you find a trusted, reliable solar installer near you that offers competitive pricing, check out EnergySage, a free service that makes it easy for you to go solar. It has hundreds of pre-vetted solar installers competing for your business, ensuring you get high-quality solutions and save 20-30% compared to going it alone. Plus, it’s free to use, and you won’t get sales calls until you select an installer and share your phone number with them. 

Your personalized solar quotes are easy to compare online and you’ll get access to unbiased Energy Advisors to help you every step of the way. Get started here.

FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.

Continue Reading

Trending