Finally, a smart bike helmet that lights your way, protects your brain and still looks cool

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Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/08/30/finally-a-smart-bike-helmet-t.html

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I have a ginormous noggin; I’d look like someone performing a low-rent reenactment of a “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” scene with their head as a spaceship.

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Sorry. Yes, the features are kind of cool, but the shape of the helmet is really no better than any other.

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I have seen these, or helmets like them, in use. They make you look extra dorky, because they’re not neede. For most riders, using hand signals should not be difficult.

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The other half of the reason is obvious — helmets usually make you look incredibly dorky.

Wow. This is right up there with other invented shaming by advertisers, usually body-shaming of women. Bike helmets don’t look “incredibly dorky” and they haven’t since the all-white round variety from decades ago. Most people, I would bet, think modern bike helmets look fairly cool or at least neutral. Bike helmets are a normal thing people see all the time.

Seriously, BoingBoingStore? This makes YOU look incredibly fucking dorky, as well as tone deaf and out of touch.

And I love how the solution to dorkiness is a helmet that looks exactly like other helmets, except for the bright lights. And probably costs 7x as much (didn’t even bother to check that)

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Integrating lights into a helmet does make sense. Trying to add aftermarket lights to a helmet results in lights snagging off as I put it into a bag.

But the last thing I want to do after riding home late is to worry about charging my helmet (and all the other usb powered lights on a bike). I use leds powered by lithium coin cells, which last me a year or so of weekly use.

The key to getting on a bike regularly is to have it set so you just get on and go. No bike shorts, ankle bands, bike shoes, safety vest, pumping skinny tires, attaching/detaching/charging accessories,

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So does it signal when you’re turning right? Or do you have to have an apple watch on both hands?

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Sure. Helmets save lives. And in jurisdictions where helmets are required, accidents go down.

But the reason accidents go down is because people stop riding their bikes as much. Face it, if driving a car required you to change into and out of safety gear each and every time, you’d be less excited about driving.

When oil stops getting burned for transport (when, not if) then bicyclists won’t need to wear helmets so much, because we’ll be facing off against other bicyclists, not SUVs.

But safety for the atmosphere isn’t something that road safety planners are required to think about.

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a right turn signal is communicated by holding the left arm straight out and holding the forearm straight up at the elbow.

Helmet looks just as ‘dorky’ as any other helmet.

This is the second appeal to non-dorkiness by the BBstore in a few weeks. Is there something in the proprietor’s past sriving this?

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Let’s see, I just bought a perfectly good helmet for (checks order) $30. It’s comfortable, solid enough for a bike helmet, and is a nice green and black. The one here lists for $180, on sale for $143 … so normally x6, right now “only” x4.77. Yeah, I’ll stick with mine, thanks all the same.

I’ll agree that a lot of adult helmets are kind of boring, but that’s about the worst I can say about them. If your biggest concern over something that helps to keep your brain intact is that it’s not cool enough for you, I don’t know what to tell you.

(Three hour battery life? Seriously? I only very recently returned to biking and that would barely cover my longer rides.)

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So this wouldn’t really work in a country that drove on the other side of the road, unless you wore your watch on the right hand.

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I’ll grant that a big light-up dork is easier for drivers to see than a run-of-the-mill dork, so it probably is somewhat safer in that respect.

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I would be shocked if the manufacturer hadn’t made provision in the software interface for specifying which side of the road is used.

(No, I wouldn’t, actually. I’m never shocked at manufacturer inability-to-sweat-the-details fuckwittery, especially when likely to have been combined with USian parochialism.)

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Next on BoingBoingStore:

We know you don’t like wearing a mask. Because masks make you look incredibly dorky!! Let’s face it, it’s true. Who wants to look like a big dork? You can understand why people don’t wear masks!

So we’ve made a mask that lights up. It’s normally $40, on deep discount for $25.

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The problem with hand signals is two-fold.

  1. when you need to use the hand signals is also the times when you should definitely have two hands on the handlebars, i.e. stopping or turning

  2. I can’t remember the last time I saw a driver react to a hand signal in a way that indicates they saw or understood it.

The option to give drivers a signal they can more easily see and understand while also allowing me to keep my hands on the handlebars has a strong appeal to me.

edit: just noticed this one needs you to still do the hand signal… why? just put a wireless switch on the handlebar.

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Really? I’ve used hand signals routinely for years and it works fine. It really isn’t that hard.

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