The Novarra Buzz ($999) For way less than you should expect to spend for technology this good, small maker bike Novarra packs a whole lot of tech into a small package. Sure pure road riders will sneer at the aluminum frame, toe baskets and thickish tires. But for bashing and crashing ’round town, it’s tough to beat the Buzz. Relatively forgiving geometry, full disc brakes and the comfy saddle will make road time a breeze.

GTR Series 3 ($999) For roughly the same dough as the Buzz, you can step up into and entry level legit road ride with the GTR. You get a hydroformed aluminum frame with a carbon fork, some nice shifters and gears, and  high-speed frame that can take you places fast. You will miss all the niceties of the Buzz, and a real road bike will be faster, but a thousand bucks you can get some serious riding done. Great bike for the money.

Kona WorldBike ($370) Ok I’m busted. No question, I am getting in touch with my inner tree hugger by going with Kona and their WorldBike. But for about what you would spend for a crap Wal-Mart bike, you get a legit riding machine that can take you, and a ton of junk, anyplace. You won’t mistake the WorldBike for something Contador would ride. But you’ll be surprised the performance of this 3 speed.

Now go have yourself some fun.

Here are a couple big sticks I dig for that “big-fly” feel.

Combat Virus Plague: ($300) If you can’t hit a monster slow-pitch home run with this sucker, it’s time to pick up another sport.

With a simply ridiculously large sweet spot, monster head and composite thin-wall construction, the fully balanced 30-ounce Virus Plague will give you that major league, fast bat head feel in a bat any amateur can swing. The graphics are over the top for this sports geek, but still for those looking for some  Sunday afternoon slow-pitch softball power, the Combat is the Virus to get.

DeMarini 2011 CF4: ($325) If you want to try to hit a baseball, this composite uber bat is the one to get.

DeMarini has pushed the boundaries of what a bat is with this sucker. With a mixed construction handle and head, it brings both unparalleled stick stiffness and head flexibility to maximize power and drive through each swing. The key with these bats is to keep it light to get the best bat speed. The models that may feel a little too light will get you the best swings.  For pure baseball power, DeMarini is setting the bar the CF4.

Now, obviously this product is mostly just PR spin, since really all the code does is create a single frequency filter to remove the sound from the broadcasts. Still, Elgato, which makes video tools for Macs and PCs, should get some credit for coming with a simple way to de-Vuvuzela a broadcast.

I’m withholding judgement until we see if the thing works. Audio filtering can be tricky. But it probably does cut  the noise out a bit. The audio filter that fits into their software links from Elgato’s Web site, although, this link is not downloading quite right at this minute. Probably getting overloaded.

The thing costs $260.

Besides being a decent looking watch, the model shows how durable the sports watch has become as a category. Now, not only do traditional sports watch makers like Casio and Suunto make bad ass gizmos for the wrist, larger sports makers and watch companies compete here as well. Nike, Adidas, Timex and most other makers are pushing some sort of hip, uber geek watch in the line.

It’s getting downright hip to be a sports geek.

Charles Barkley really should go to jail for massacring innocent golf balls and Derek Jeter has a criminal handicap, its in the 30s.  These dubious achievements pall next to Jerry Rice, the hall of fame wide receiver and wanna be dance star,  who set a new low two weeks ago. Rice got chucked from a National Tour tournament when his caddy used a range finder to judge the distance to a pin, which is a major no-no for PGA events.

Now, for sure, it’s ridiculous that both Rice and his caddy didn’t know the rules, but the fact is, range finders are great tools for the average golfer. So here are our picks for scopes for the rest of us.

• Nikon LR 1200 Laser Range Finder ($350): Nikon pretty much leads the way on sticking lasers into range finders. The LR1200 does a dang nice job: Accurate to 1200 meters, it will give you pin placement down to about a foot. Now all you need to do is actually make that shot.
• Callaway LR550 Dual Lens Optical Range Finder ($300): Callaway does a nice job with a medium price optical scope. It wont be as dead accurate as the Nikon, but honestly you won’t miss the performance with your crappy short game.
• Galileo Golf Scope ($20): Honestly, I am not sure why any amateur would golf without this thing. For twenty lousy bucks you can take away all the nonsense about judging the pin, get this gizmo and improve your shot.

You will pay $200 for the privilege. But the code looks packed with nice features. There is a remote, some slick plug and play modules. About the only dinger is users will almost certainly be investing in storage pretty darn quick; since at these file sizes hard-drives will fill up fast.

Can’t catch all the playoffs on that iMac of yours? Here’s where they go.

For a lousy $25 you get the deep inner satisfaction of having your cell phone, media player or iPhone wrapped in sport neoprene.  Then you get not one but TWO compartments perfect of crap like lip balm, tokens, and well … condemns . You know whatever. But wait, there is another two pockets for money, credit cards, transit cards and yes more porn. And two more straps perfect for dangling headphones, keys and a porn filled jump drive.

Never mind you look like you are on some strange new dialysis machine or taking part in some a Lost experiment, you will have all you stuff whenever and wherever you work out.

What is not to love?

Baseball players at all levels seem to take pride in making their dugouts, benches and other “places des games” a complete and utter mess.

Enter the Designated Hanger. For $17, a Banks Oregon compan,  Hooks Inc, will sell you a metal fitting that hangs from  any old wire fence. The flat tool has a slot for a bat, a hook for a helmet and even a spot for an equipment bag or two.

Rocket science the thing is not. But then again neither is baseball. Personally, I think it’s pretty slick.

I was shopping in the store last week and here are some of the decent deals I found.

The bottom line is, if you are considering running out and getting some basic gear, and all you have is a big box store handy, Target is probably the place to shop.

• Junior Franklin OPP Korn Toss. $19, down from $22.30
• Spaulding Street Basketball. $13
• Leather Rawkings Softball Glove. $18
• Sportime Teardrop Sportimer. $9

Not bad.

And they actually don’t suck.

Earlier this month, Olathe, Kansas-based  Garmin International (now that’s a small town where getting lost is just not an excuse)  came to market with the Forerunner 110. A sport watch in a condom sort of thang which at first blush, could not be any more throwaway for GPS. The wrist-mounted unit comes with a positioning chip built in, some decent access and data technology branded as Garmin Connect, and some features like heart monitors and such. But with Suunto, Seiko and now Nike in the game, I personally was asleep before I finished the press release.

But …

The clipping sat on the desk and I finally got around to reporting on this thing and sure enough, Garmin is becoming a GPS-enabled training device sleeper. Besides being not bad looking, its line of wrist-mounted computers has  some nice add-ons. Most important is the claimed 8 hours of battery life! EIGHT! Being the uber-nerd I am, I have been messing with GPS-enabled wrist computers for about a decade, and I can tell you as Dick Tracy as they all seem, almost all GPS watches share one sorry little secret: crap battery life. The idea that I could actually get a full day out of this sucker, well that’s a game changer.

What is even more interesting is Nike, Suunto and Seiko are, for sure, feeling this pressure. And you can expect them to fight back with slick nav watches of their own. So this summer, I plan to let my geek flag fly and start wearing more wrist-mounted nav.

It’s good to be a geek.