Review: Bicycle Trash ‘Waste’ Belt
(2019) We are not the type of diehard cyclists who fill the office with tchotchkes in an attempt to create an alter to riding bikes on the road. You will not be directed to our office by ‘turning at the spinny-wheel cyclist lawn ornament.’ About as far as we will go to dressing up for festives is the unfurling of the Flag of Flanders - or even East Flanders - to celebrate that gray season of mud and cobbles and cross winds. Something came across our office desk recently that caused us to take a real interest. We decided to report about it.
Bicycle Trash’s Waste Belt is a handsome combination of recycled items and stylish fabrication.
Paradoxically cycling is labeled as a mode of clean transportation, but as any cyclist knows, we sure do throw a lot of things away. Derailleurs aren’t repaired so much as they are simply replaced. Stretched chains are thrown into a bucket and magically disposed of to god-knows-where. Fractured carbon frames continue to be a concern because no one has postulated what to do with them all. Then there is the issue of the least dependable part: the inner tube.
Companies have emerged eager to deal with the seemingly endless supply of pierced inner tubes. Oakley, the resident office dog, has been known to sport the Bottle Opener Dog Collar made by Cycle Dog, the earth friendly pet company from Portland, OR, who recycles old tubes into dog collars. Then there is Bicycle Trash. With a name like Bicycle Trash, very little is left to the imagination of what resides in the muslin bag. Or, with a name like Bicycle Trash, there is every possibility within the sachette.
The Waste Belt’s buckle opens easily and closes stoutly.
We recently unraveled our Waste Belt and made the appropriate snip for length. Each belt comes with a generous 50 inches in material to be cut down to a custom fit. An exciting moment came when we secured the buckle into place, threaded the belt through the loops, and snapped the closure. The Waste Belt took its place as the new accouterment for post-ride libations at the local Inn, gracing the denim of the off-season or the khaki shorts of the race calendar. The belt is light, has a slight bit of stretch, and takes on a trendy appearance. Most of all it is durable.
It is enjoyable to wear the Waste Belt without betraying the fact that we are using a spent inner tube to hold up our pants. That’s the impressive part about the Waste Belt: it takes on the appearance of a sophisticated item while having the history being stuffed into a tire casing. We don’t typically seek items that advertise we are cyclists to surround us hourly with bike stuff, but the Waste Belt has us singing praises. The punny name of Waste Belt takes care of every description needed by Bicycle Trash. We will wait and see if a tubeless ready belt will come out. Who knows what name they could use.
