Week in Tech: American flair, video everywhere, hydration liaison

Here’s your Week in Tech — all the gear news, tips, and announcements you need and none of the marketing gibberish you don’t.

Byxee keeps an eye out for road hazards

Unless you’re testing the durability of your wheelset, you probably want to avoid the plethora of potholes on your daily ride. Byxee wants you to avoid them too, so it scans the roadway ahead of you and alerts you if there’s a hazard you need to steer around. It uses a video system to scan the road and alerts the rider of potential dangers with a beep. It only works in daylight, though, so you’ll still need to keep your eyes peeled on those late night rides home. Check out the Byxee on Indiegogo here.

Spirit of Paul QR Skewers channel some Americana flair

If you’re heading out to an Independence Day barbecue and need just a little bit more Freedom on display, Paul Components has you covered with the Spirit of Paul QR Skewers. They come in different lengths to accommodate your parade bike and they’re all dressed up in red, white, and blue for a bit of American pride. They’re $60 and you can get them here.

See video from all new vantage points with 360 Fly

On-bike cameras have taken hold for both entertainment and safety. 360 Fly wants to take your ride videos to the next level with 360-degree simultaneous recording. Yep, you should be able to record everything all around you with just one camera. Once released, the 360 Fly app is designed to let you edit and share your videos from your smartphone. Like most other cameras, it mounts to most places you can dream up to mount it, and it’s waterproof too. It’s priced at $399.

BikeTag tracks your ride, detects crashes

With all the amazing technology on the market to track your rides, sometimes it’s nice to simplify. BikeTag takes GPS technology off your handlebars and sends it to your smartphone so you can focus on the ride instead of the data. Just mount the BikeTag under your seat or drop it in your jersey pocket and it tracks your ride without any manual starting or stopping. It also notifies friends and family if you crash, so you can get help when you need it. And if your family likes to know where you are on your rides, they can live-track your progress.

Trago thinks you should have a drink

We’ve all heard it before: hydration is key to performance. Yet many of us don’t drink enough while we’re riding, hiking, walking, or just sitting at our desks. Trago’s water bottle measures how much water you drink and lets you create a profile to determine how much water you should be drinking, thereby encouraging you to change your hydration habits. You can set hydration goals in the Trago smartphone app, and the specially designed water bottle cap helps you reach those goals by monitoring your intake. The cap fits on most wide-mouth water bottles so you can still use your favorite. Check out the Kickstarter campaign here.