It was almost inevitable that I write about this gadget. It sits simultaneously astride two long-standing Gadget Lab traditions: unwieldy bike accessories, and novelty umbrellas. And so I present the Uberhood, a bike-mounted umbrella.
First, let's deal with the obvious flaw: It's a bike-mounted umbrella. If there's one thing umbrellas hate, it's wind. And if there's one thing bikes are good at, it's the generation of brisk breezes. The kind of breezes that tug at a brolly, turning it inside-out or ripping it from your hands. And even if it doesn't collapse, it will certainly slow you down.
Even when furled, the Uberhood sticks straight up from your handlebars, 20 inches into the air. If you're short, this will be right in front of your delicate eyes.
Fitting the Uberhood is easy, but scary if you have any mechanical knowledge whatsoever. The video shows the steel mounting plates being clamped onto a poor handlebar. "It's not possible to over-tighten these screws," says the voiceover, ignoring the fact that it is possible, and that they're bolts, not screws.
The reason for this over-tightening is obvious. These bolts are at the end of a long lever with a sail at the end. It's like fixing the mast to a boat with thumb-tacks: it won't hold. Instead, it will twist and scrape at your aluminum handlebar until it snaps, and you tumble eyes-first into the wreckage.
If you do want to ride in the rain, better to invest in some good waterproof clothes, or just carry a real umbrella in your hand. This works surprisingly well, and will let you angle it forwards, because that's where the rain will actually be coming from.
Then again, it's difficult not to love a product whose instructions include the line "Swing up the shaft of your Uberhood until it is vertical."
Should you still want an Uberhood, you can order one now for a ridiculous $80.
Uberhood product page [Uberhood]
