Popular Mechanics July/August 2021

No spoilers. The Best Thing POP Ever Taught Me I’ve learned that math can be cool. Best Money I Ever Spent My first house! I was a renter in Brooklyn for 12 years. Now, living in Pennsylvania, my mortgage is way less, and home improvements are so much more worthwhile. This Tool Changed My Life Chef’s Choice TriZor XV Knife Sharpener. I cook a lot, but my fancy knives are rendered useless when dull. I was using a rolling wheel stone before this super-fast electronic magic. CURRENT PASSION PROJECT I’m creating a water feature (we’ll call it a small waterfall with a tiny pond) in the backyard. Calming water sounds for me, cold running water for the dog. MY FAVORITE APP Star Chart—free with lots of cool in-app purchases. Open the app, point your phone at the sky, and know…

THE CUSTOMERS WHO TYPICALLY BUY Harley-Davidsons are getting too old to keep riding, and too few young buyers are taking their place. Part of the solution, Harley management says, lies in a few brand-new motorcycles that will convince riders typically dedicated to other brands to reconsider. The strategy seems to be working—on me, at least. Which is surprising. To me, the large, expensive cruisers synonymous with the brand never had the agility and affordability that made motorcycles special, or at least distinct from cars. But two new bikes have quieted my prejudices. One is the all-electric LiveWire, which came out back in 2019. Yes, it’s expensive, but it’s also the closest thing I’ve ridden to one of those speeder bikes from The Mandalorian. The combination of useful range (about 70 miles), low…

INDIA PALE ALES DOMINATE TODAY’S CRAFT beer landscape, with 10 or so styles laying claim to the name. Now there’s one more: the “clear hazy” IPA. San Diego’s Ballast Point Brewing Co. pioneered the category, which upset plenty of beer nerds and confused others, with the February release of Big Gus. “IPA is a familiar acronym to beer drinkers, regardless if you’re a novice or a total nerd,” says Dan Lamonaca, owner of Beer Karma Bottle Shop in Brooklyn, New York. That’s why so many brewers (and their marketing departments) label beers with these three letters, even if they don’t really fit the IPA mold. For example, Lamonaca says people who come in looking for sour IPAs are “not really looking for something that mirrors an IPA but definitely want something…

1 / Always smell hops before using them. A cheesy or sour odor is a sign they’re too old; if used, those flavors will end up in the beer. 2 / For the brightest hop flavor punch, try using Cryo Hops. This hop powder is created by freezing hops with liquid nitrogen, then separating the lupulin—a waxy, yellow substance containing both alpha acids and ultra-flavorful essential oils—from the plant matter. Tropical, fruity, and herbal notes from hop oils are clean and intense without being weighed down by grassy, vegetal flavors. 3 / Add hops late in the boil to simulate a pro brewer’s whirlpool addition. Hops can sit in a whirlpool for an hour, while a home brew can be knocked out in 10 to 20 minutes. Try adding a large charge…

FOR YEARS, IF YOU WANTED TO MOVE PEOPLE AND stuff, you bought an SUV, and you accepted the body roll and expensive gas mileage that came with a body-on-frame truck. Today, you buy a crossover. It’s a comfort and utility ideal: a tall station wagon built into a sedan chassis, powered by a fuel-efficient engine. The mass appeal of that combination has helped the Toyota RAV4 and Honda CR-V replace their sedan siblings as the best-selling cars in the United States in 2020—just behind pickup trucks from Ford, Chevy, and Ram. For 2021, both models have new hybrid drivetrains and updated safety tech. We tested them against Ford’s new crossover competitor, the Bronco Sport. HONDA CR-V EX HYBRID ($31,735) The CR-V has never been one for flash, just reliability. But don’t take…

THE U.S. ARMY IS DEVELOPING INTEGRATED Visual Augmentation System (IVAS) goggles for close-combat forces, including mounted and dismounted troops, particularly infantry. The goggles can help soldiers see in the dark, check around corners, and even project digital maps and other data onto the lenses. Because these goggles access feeds from the omnidirectional cameras mounted on the outside of armored vehicles, a squad of six soldiers, nestled safely in the back of a Bradley or Stryker infantry vehicle, can “see” through the walls of the vehicle, getting a clear picture of the scene. “Now guys aren’t hanging out of vehicles in dangerous situations trying to get views on what’s going on,” Sgt. Philip Bartel of the 1-2 Stryker Brigade Combat Team said in an interview. “Leadership will be able to maneuver their elements…