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On test: M2 Racer Wrap&Roll
You can take it with you
James Huang takes a look at a very handy widget for carrying on your handlebars, well, pretty much anything.
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M2Racer is the brainchild of Victor and Jesse Menayan, a father and son team devoted to creating innovative, lightweight components for the competitive cyclist. Clearly there is a lot of technical blood flowing in the family: Victor is a mechanical and electrical engineer with experience in manufacturing engineering and consumer packaging design, and Jesse holds a B.S. in product design. Between the two of them, they have sought to innovate, design, engineer, and manufacture lightweight and high-quality components that will benefit cyclists of all abilities at reasonable prices.
With such a broad-focused goal in mind, it comes as no surprise that M2Racer has assembled quite a diverse component lineup. A quick browse through their online catalog will reveal ultra lightweight components such as an 83g carbon fiber seatpost and a 99g pair of clipless pedals, but also items as pedestrian as an eyeglass-mounted rearview mirror (which is, however, designed for the "pro cyclist").
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One of their more utilitarian offerings is the deceptively clever little Wrap&Roll. While most bicycle-specific accessories typically include some sort of mounting bracket, other more general accessories such as handheld GPS units and MP3 players are not quite so bicycle-friendly. The Wrap&Roll is a single piece of silicone rubber that simultaneously loops itself around a handlebar and provides a surprisingly secure mount for any number of items.
When you consider that the Wrap&Roll has no associated hardware, requires no tools, and adapts to nearly any bar (road, mountain, oversized, oval, whatever), the ingenuity of the design becomes more obvious. Installation is incredibly simple: place the Wrap&Roll on top of the handlebar, wrap each loop around the bottom of the bar and then around the item to be attached, and you're done. Granted, certain combinations of handlebars and accessories may lend themselves to pairing more than others, but overall, this thing really is quite accommodating. I found it to work quite well on my mobile phone, an iPod, as well as a small Garmin GPS.
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Although heavier items do bob around a bit when riding on rough ground, I quickly got over the fear that my various electronic bits would become road (or trail) litter. When there is nothing to attach, the loops of the Wrap&Roll simply wrap around themselves and lie in wait quietly. Sorry, it's not carbon fiber and it won't make you even a tiny bit faster. Hell, it's not even expensive, but it does make for a very nifty little problem solver. If it makes you feel better, though, you can tell your buddies that it only weighs 7g.
Suggested retail price: Wrap&Roll: US$8.99 each, US$21.99/pack of 3
Pros: Fits on virtually any handlebar, works with a wide variety of accessories
Cons: None
More information: www.m2racer.com
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