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WAYV launch safety harness and helmet headset with LED indicators, and they're crowdfunding on Kickstarter

Yes they've got indicators, yes there's a companion app, and yes they're crowdfunding on Kickstarter...

This isn't the first cycling safety product covered in flashing indicators to appear on Kickstarter, and it certainly won't be the last... but even so, WAYV say their smart wearable system, consisting of a harness, headset and remote, is "unlike anything else out on the market" thanks to the strategic placing of the indicators that "provide maximum visibility in any riding position".  

Pix backpack with animated turn signals crowdfunding on Kickstarter

WAYV's creator Amit Trehan explains that the idea for the product came following an accident at a London junction: "Although I had lights, the driver simply couldn’t see me properly. WAYV has tactically positioned LED lights on the harness to provide maximum visibility in any riding position, as well as turning indicators. No other bike light currently does that. We designed it with commuters in mind, as it can be used with or without a backpack. And with the indicating capabilities, it will be much easier for others to see how you want to turn. This product was created to help not just the cyclists, but all road users.”

There are over 200 LED's lights in the WAYV harness, on the front and back, which can also be fitted directly onto backpacks. Slap bang in the middle of your back is a whopping great big "iconic hi-viz X", just to make totally sure folk will see you.  

If that wasn't enough, you can pair it with the helmet headset which attaches to most vented helmets according to WAYV. It has another big red X and two indicators that correspond to the signals on your harness, all controlled via the handlebar-mounted detachable remote controller. The remote has a lever that you just nudge with your thumb to operate it, and has blinking icons to remind you that you're indicating. 

 

Of course it wouldn't be really smart without its own app, and WAYV's app enhances your experience by providing notifications about your battery levels, and allows users to customise their light patterns between flashing and static. 

WAYV aim to raise £66,000 via Kickstarter to bring their product into full production, and have currently raised just over £4k with 30 days of their campaign left to go. You can get the harness, headset and remote for £69 at a super early bird discount price, going up to £135 for a limited edition personalised set with a t-shirt - orders are expected to ship out in October 2019. Head over to WAYV's Kickstarter page for more info. 

Arriving at road.cc in 2017 via 220 Triathlon Magazine, Jack dipped his toe in most jobs on the site and over at eBikeTips before being named the new editor of road.cc in 2020, much to his surprise. His cycling life began during his students days, when he cobbled together a few hundred quid off the back of a hard winter selling hats (long story) and bought his first road bike - a Trek 1.1 that was quickly relegated to winter steed, before it was sadly pinched a few years later. Creatively replacing it with a Trek 1.2, Jack mostly rides this bike around local cycle paths nowadays, but when he wants to get the racer out and be competitive his preferred events are time trials, sportives, triathlons and pogo sticking - the latter being another long story.  

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13 comments

Avatar
the little onion | 5 years ago
2 likes

I've got a great device for preventing women getting sexually assaulted. It's a bit of cloth that women can wrap round their legs and ankles in case they are wearing a short skirt. This will mean they can't flash their legs, and will prevent men from feeling the need to assault them.

 

 

Avatar
Morat | 5 years ago
0 likes

Yet another attempt to fit indicators on bicycles? Cyclists don't get knocked off bikes because they fail to indicate, they get knocked off because car drivers don't look or care.

This is just as pointless as it was before, and the time before that.

Avatar
Morat | 5 years ago
0 likes

Yet another attempt to fit indicators on bicycles? Cyclists don't get knocked off bikes because they fail to indicate, they get knocked off because car drivers don't look or care.

This is just as pointless as it was before, and the time before that.

Avatar
Morat | 5 years ago
3 likes

Yet another attempt to fit indicators on bicycles? Cyclists don't get knocked off bikes because they fail to indicate, they get knocked off because car drivers don't look or care.

This is just as pointless as it was before, and the time before that.

Avatar
Mungecrundle | 5 years ago
1 like

Just turn it into a target, use the app to assign a point score and have done with it.

Avatar
Hirsute | 5 years ago
2 likes

Strikes me the X would make a great target for some youths to aim at (as opposed to the usual shouting at cyclists or pushing them off their bike).

Avatar
brooksby replied to Hirsute | 5 years ago
3 likes

hirsute wrote:

Strikes me the X would make a great target for some youths to aim at (as opposed to the usual shouting at cyclists or pushing them off their bike).

Exactly.  About thirty seconds after this thing went live out there in the world, there'd be a Youtube video of someone throwing sh!t at it.

Avatar
Accessibility f... | 5 years ago
6 likes

Another utterly pointless shit "invention".

To anyone thinking of inventing more rubbish like this, gloves with indicators, smart lights, laser-projected icons - it's all shite.  What works is INFRASTRUCTURE.

Avatar
xerxes | 5 years ago
4 likes

I think it would be better to take things away from motor vehicles, rather than add them to cyclists.

If cars had just a speedometer and the essential controls, gear lever, windscreen wiper and indicator switches, etc. perhaps drivers might spend more time looking out of the windows, rather than fiddling about with the in car entertainment settings or adjusting the suspension for "sport mode" and any number of distractions that seem to come with modern cars.

Surely it would also be entirely possible to stop mobile phones working when they sense you're driving a vehicle.

Of course, having no roof, windscreen and two fewer wheels, would make them pay even more attention to what's going on. 

Avatar
PRSboy | 5 years ago
4 likes

A missed opportunity to be able to use the LED array to display amusing scrolling messages for the benefit of the driver one inch from your back wheel.

Avatar
schlepcycling | 5 years ago
2 likes

Aren't both the cyclists breaking the law at some point by not having a fixed red rear light at various points in the video, e.g. @ 1:40 and 2:10 

Avatar
burtthebike | 5 years ago
5 likes

And just like hi-viz, it won't make any difference. 

The problem is that drivers aren't looking, not that they don't see you, and this clever device won't make them look, it merely gives drivers another excuse for hitting you if you aren't wearing it.  I'm sure it will be all the rage in Holland.

This is an ingenious solution to the wrong problem and will not make any difference.  As H L Menken so famously said "For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong."
 

Avatar
Hirsute | 5 years ago
10 likes

Umm....what?
X marks the spot to hit.
Moronic PPE solution.

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