We’ve all heard of smartphones, smart watches, smart TV’s, and many other “smart things” that connect to the interweb, social media sites, and your phone; but a “smart bike”? Yes, such a thing exists, or it will once the kickstarter campaign is complete (they’ve reached their funding goal).
The smart bike in question is the Vanhawks Valour, a project started by Toronto-based Ali Zahid. I guess you can call the Valour bike the “bicycle 2.0”. It makes use of some trick technologies that are found in smartphones and automobiles.
On surface, the Valour smart bike looks pretty ordinary, but upon close inspection you’ll notice this is no ordinary bike. First, the bike is made out of lightweight carbon fiber, which is something used on many high end bikes; but it’s what’s under the hood (or in the frame) that sets it apart from your average bike.
The Valour bicycle is equipped with a turn-by-turn navigation display, which connects to your smartphone via Bluetooth LE and uses the phone’s GPS and displays turns using LED lights placed on the handlebar. The lights on the left side turn on to tell you to turn left and right side to tell you to turn right. Another cool feature the bike has is the blind-spot detection system, which is not even offered on many cars. The system scans the side of the bike and if you start to turn and there is a vehicle in your blind spot, the handlebars vibrate to alert you.
Other features include connectivity to other Valour bikes in your neighborhood, route tracking, calories burned, distance traveled, and speed, all displayed on the bike’s app. Also, if your Valour bike happens to get stolen and another Valour bike passes near the stolen bike, it’ll immediately alert you of the location of your stolen bike (the loss notification must be set). These are some pretty cool features.
The Vanhawks Valour bicycle is currently being funded on kickstarter; a goal of $100,000 has already been met. You can still reserve a spot for $1,249 CAD (or about $1,150 US at today’s exchange rate).
http://vimeo.com/93113021
