Back in the eighties and early nineties, smoking cigarettes was a popular pastime. It was relatively affordable, made desirable by tobacco companies sponsoring sports such as Formula 1 racing and it gave people something to do to pass the time while they waited for the PlayStation and Facebook to be invented.
In the following years, as taxes were increased and smoking in public places was banned, the practice began to decline. Instead, people either quit or switched to e-cigarettes — a practice known as ‘vaping’ where nicotine vapor is inhaled from electronic devices.
The TokeTank Trail pack is the first cycling-specific vaping kit to hit the market, meaning that you don’t have to stop riding to vape. It’s aimed at seasoned vapers who don't want mountain biking to interrupt their quest for vaping utopia.
The kit consists of a combined atomizer and rechargeable battery unit, which clips to a replaceable (non-recyclable) bladder filled with flavored e-liquid. Into this unit clips a tube, which runs from the backpack to your mouth. The whole thing weighs around 3 kilograms dry.
In our tests, the TokeTank confidently delivered huge fragrant vapor clouds behind us as we rode
Simply slip the vape bladder (with its enormous 3l capacity) into your existing hydration pack and you’re good to go. A mouthpiece on the end of the tube ensures that it’s less likely to slip out if you’re enjoying a good vape while you’re out of the saddle sprinting or tackling a gnarly off-road downhill stretch.
The brand is also offering a number of e-liquids especially developed to cater for the tastes of cyclists. In the range are Smashed Avocado on Sourdough Toast, Citrus Isotonic Refreshing Burst, and Italian Artisan Espresso. We’d like to see more flavours, perhaps Absinthe, Everclear and Tequila (separately, not an Absinthe, Everclear and Tequila blend — we’re not crazy).
In our tests, the TokeTank confidently delivered huge fragrant vapor clouds behind us as we rode which, like a scene from Wacky Races, obscured the view of the riders behind us. That could be quite an advantage in a race.
The only problem we found was that if we weren’t concentrating, we’d occasionally mix up the hydration tube and the vape tube, so we’d accidentally inhale a lungful of water, which was an unpleasant surprise and caused us to crash on two occasions.
This could be easily fixed if the vaping mouthpiece was pressure-sensitive so, when it came into contact with the user’s lips, it triggered an audible alert such as “PREPARE TO VAPE!” followed by the sound of the General Lee’s car horn from The Dukes of Hazzard played from a loudspeaker mounted on the bike’s handlebars. We’ve written to the manufacturer to suggest this safety upgrade.
