the GearCaster

Grease Monkey Wipes-All Natural Cycling Degreasing Wipes

Grease Monkey Wipes are individually packed degreasing wipes geared towards cyclists. The citrus based, all natural grease cleaning formula is made to handle heavy duty cleaning, including bike grease and road grime associated with any mid-ride repair. These durable degreasing wipes can easily clean not only skin, but oily chains, dirty frames and for all you parents out there, marker and paint off of small hands. 

Hoo Ha Ride Glide

All you men have plenty of chamois cream to choose from, now there is finally one made by women for women. Friends and triathletes, Jena Schuster and Laurie Mellott, finally decided they had enough of using their husbands' chamois cream. After a fruitless search for women specific products, the pair founded Reflect Sports and launched their own anti-chaffing skin cream product Hoo Ha Ride Glide.   

Their original skin and chamois cream is specially formulated for women and protects your most girlie parts from chaffing, friction burns, irritation, inflammation and saddle sores. Hoo Ha Ride Glide contains all natural ingredients, is sulfate free and can be used anywhere on the skin that chaffing occurs. 

Keeping on the triathlon theme, the Company also launched their own hair care line, Reflect H2O, to protect hair from the sun or damage form frequent swimming. Reflect H20 Swim Shampoo is formulated to prevent green hair, remove chlorine, salt or other impurities without stripping hair color. The Swim Conditioner adds moisture and strengthens hair while the Pre-Swim & Sun Protecting Gel helps protect your hair from the sun's harsh rays or salt and chlorine in the water before you go out.

All Reflect Sports products can be purchased directly from their website. 

Go Anytime, Anywhere With Pocket Waste Bags

Already well known in the mountains for the ubiquitous Wag Bag and in Military circles for their various portable sanitation solutions, Phillips Environmental Solutions is preparing to launch an everyday, everywhere, bathroom on the go solution- the Pee-Wee. 

The so called personal embarrassment prevention pouch will be constructed the same way as the Wag Bag with the zip closure, pre-loaded Poo Powder and landfill approved packaging. I can see this being used by parents for their kids on long car trips or maybe teenagers at one of the various summer festivals. Not sure about other outdoor environments as you wouldn't use this and a Wag Bag in combo- though maybe for Big Wall climbing? Or during sports events where they may not have facilities?

I met CEO Mike Hetherington at OR this summer and he told me about their plans. Apparently there will also be a She-Wee version with integrated Female Urination Device for those of you girls that don't own a GoGirl already (you should!).  Phillips Environmental Products is also in the process of rebranding as Cleanwaste with a new website in the works too so stay tuned. 

Another not so subtle option from Germany is the Ladybag for women above and the Roadbag for men. Same concept really, different packaging. If anything I have to laugh at the German couch potato used in their advertising campaign. Beware- the advert is in German (and kind of strange) but you will get the gist anyway. 

GoGirl For The Girl On The Go

OK it may seem very strange to get excited about a Female Urination Device (FUD) but being a female mountaineer, I have used and misused my fair share of these. GoGirl is the first FUD I have seen that actually appears to be almost "accident" proof- not to mention it is pink and the Company is from MN! 

The GoGirl is made with flexible, medical grade silicone and has no extension tube to pull out (the cause of most of the accidents) like its competitor Freshette. At $6.99 for a single GoGirl it sure beats the $23.95 price of the Freshette and you can more easily justify disposing of it after a long expedition on the mountain. 

Watch for the GoGirl team and port-o-potties on their GoGirl Tour- next at the BlogHer 09 conference I believe. You can order the GoGirl as well as clothing and accessories at the GoGirl website. 

I gave up on my Freshette after a particularly accident prone trip on Denali but now thanks to GoGirl, I can't wait to try out the FUD again!

Lance and Levi Talk to DZ-Nuts Founder

Lance and Levi Talk to Dave Zabriskie -- powered by http://www.livestrong.com

One of the funniest Giro D'Italia videos so far from Lance Armstrong is his pre-race interview with Dave Zabriskie, the founder of DZ-Nuts chamois cream. 

The trend in both men's and women's cream is the use of "all-natural" ingredients as worry grows over what harm parabens and other chemicals may do when applied to your skin. 

There are plenty of reviews out there comparing chamois creams so no point in doing that here.  It's worth mentioning some of the more popular all natural creams which have hit the market lately including Nubutte, Sportique Century Riding Cream, Chomper Body and Beljium Budder. There are now plenty of "all-natural" ways to keep your saddle sores at bay!