Redshift has already smashed its Indiegogo funding target for Arclight pedals, which feature LEDs facing both front and rear, with more than a month remaining. It currently has pledges totalling over 500% of the £14,500 goal.
“The Arclight pedals are a unique set of bike lights that take advantage of the natural motion of a cyclist,” says Redshift, a US brand that started on Kickstarter back in 2013.
“The pedalling motion creates a distinctive and instantly recognisable light pattern. This unique light movement provides a clear signal to motorists of a cyclist’s presence.”
Redshift says that the pedals increase visibility by up to 57% compared to standard bicycle tail lights, citing a recent article in Accident Analysis and Prevention journal as a source for this claim.
The Arclights are aluminium platform pedals that include four rechargeable and removable light modules (two for each pedal) that have built-in smart features and customisable flash modes.
Read our review of the Redshift ShockStop Suspension Seatpost
A sensor detects the pedal’s orientation and shines the appropriate coloured light. In other words, whichever way up the pedal is, it’ll shine white to the front and red to the rear.
The lights turn on automatically when you start riding and turn off when you stop.
The pedals fit any crank with a standard 9/16in thread, and the light modules are held in place magnetically. They’re said to be easy to remove for recharging via USB.
The pedals are IP64 rated, meaning that they’re protected from dust ingress and splashing water coming from all directions.
Check out off.road.cc’s review of Redshift’s ShockStop PRO stem
You get three light modes: steady light (giving you a claimed three hours per charge), flash (11 hours), and eco-flash (36 hours).
Pedal lights already exist. You can buy a Vision Light kit for Look’s Geo pedals, for example, although these don’t have the Arclights’ smart features.
If you’re riding in the dark, UK law requires that each of your pedals features two amber reflectors positioned so that one is visible from the front and the other from the rear. We all know, though, that many pedals – particularly clipless pedals – don’t feature reflectors.
You can also mount the Arclight light modules to rubber wrap-around straps and use them as standard lights on the front/rear of your bike, clothing, or bag. Again, smart technology automatically selects the correct colour depending on whether the light is facing forwards or backwards.
Redshift says that a pair of Arclight pedals weighs 610g and that it is working on a clipless pedal option
You can get yourself in line for a pair of Redshift Arclight pedals by pledging $89 (about £65) although this Super Early Bird offer ends later today.
After that, you’re looking at a pledge of $109 (about £80). The full RRP is expected to be $135 (about £98). Delivery is scheduled for February 2022. As we always point out, pledging money via Indiegogo is not the same as buying through a shop or online retailer.
Go to the Redshift Arclight pedals Indiegogo page.
33 thoughts on “Redshift smashes funding target for LED smart pedals”
And these are more effective
And these are more effective than standard pedal reflectors how?
They don’t require light to
They don’t require light to be shone on them.
Also if there is a difference in elevation, you would see the lights before the reflectors.
They aren’t.
They aren’t.
Pedal reflectors are IP-as-much-as-you-want. The lights are a barely adequate IP64
Pedal reflectors never run out of power.
The lights have to be recharged, one day you will forget, one day the battery will no longer hold charge.
Pedal reflectors harness the power of whatever headlight is shining on them.
The lights are limited to their own power.
Pedal reflectors focus their beam directly back to source.
The lights must diffuse their beam more widely in the hope that some of it is going in the right direction, whilst the majority is just light pollution.
The reflectors are bad enough, the lights are a whole ecological disaster in miniature.
You have some valid points
You have some valid points about the need to charge these and the potential environmental issues, but I think whilst charged and working these will be more visible than a reflector. Certainly in my experience of cycling and driving after dark, if someone has even half decent lights I spot the lights long before I spot any reflectors.
As you point out, reflectors work by reflecting the light that is shone on them. However, even with a powerful light such as a motor vehicle headlight, only a small amount of that light actually lands on the reflector. The light therefore doesn’t need to compete with the whole headlight, just the far smaller amount that lands on the reflector. It’s also useful to be seen by other road users who may not have such powerful lights.
As you say, reflectors are retro-reflective, reflecting the light back towards the source. However, if they were perfectly retro-reflective they would be useless as the light source isn’t directly in line with the drivers eyes. I notice when wearing a headtorch (as I do for jogging after dark) how much brighter retro-reflectors appear to be when the light source is much closer to my eyes. You are still therefore relying on the small proportion of the reflected light that is reflected towards the drivers eyes, rather than directly back at the headlights.
Finally, reflectors rely on being in the beam of the light. There are many circumstances, such as windy roads and junction, where the reflector wouldn’t be in the beam of light at all, but a pedal emitting its own light would be clearly visible.
Now, if they had come up with
Now, if they had come up with some proper pedals (Look Keo, Shimano SPD SL compatible) I might be interested, although technically they still wouldn’t be legal for use in the UK after dark, as the legislation requires orange reflectors.
SimoninSpalding wrote:
They don’t need to make a pedal, they could make a light housing with two bolt holes for a cleat, this could then be clipped in to the bottom of an SPD pedal (but not spd sl)
Umm. Pretty sure these could
Umm. Pretty sure these could be illegal. Why not make the LEDs yellow?
Prosper0 wrote:
Because making them yellow would make them illegal. Any lights on your bike must be red to the rear, white to the front. So they are perfectly legal as they are, red. Whether or not they fulfill the legal lighting requirements is another matter.
However they won’t satisfy the legal requirement to have pedal reflectors. The law requires pedal reflectors, complying with BS 61022, regardless of other decorations.
Sriracha wrote:
Weirdly, the old regs. were updated in 2005 to allow for amber lamps in a pedal – but I don’t think they rescinded the requirement for reflectors.
So
red, white oramber, alllegal to emit – just still need that amber reflector.(edit – only amber lamps are permitted to be moving, so these pedals are actually outright illegal I think)
Oh, good spot. I just relied
Oh, good spot. I just relied on
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/pedal-cycles-lighting/pedal-cycles-lighting#obligatory-lighting-and-reflectors
which does not bother to mention that detail.
I see that those side-pointing orange lights are also legal – so long as they are strapped to your wheel or tyre!
https://road.cc/content/review/216585-brightside-bright-amber-and-sideways
Sriracha wrote:
lol – why are the bicycle lighting regulations so flipping difficult!
That’s two products currently on sale that are actually illegal to use on the road as designed!
Pretty much every bicycle
Pretty much every bicycle light out there does not meet regs, and are therefore “against the law” as they do not meet relevent British Standards.
But then again any light that gets you noticed, or helps you see where you are going, is doing it’s job.
Almost everyone purchasing, perfectly legally, an escooter, will do so to be used illegally.
If pedal reflectors are meant to be amber and they help to make you visible then I cannot see why amber lights on pedals that could be even more visible would be a bad thing. I couldn’t see the police pulling you over for it, and for a driver to claim that upon seeing the amber lights on the pedals caused them to drive into you would seem incredibly foolish.
Not quite. Not meeting regs
Not quite. Not meeting regs is not the same as being illegal to use. The law has minimum lighting requirements which you must satisfy. But it does not outlaw the fitting of other, optional, lights, which as you say, are the ones that get you noticed. Although there are some overarching requirements, such as you can’t have any red lights pointing forwards, etc.
But to be sure, it’s not black and white!
I do very much accept your
I do very much accept your point, but who fits the shockingly hard to find BS front and rear lights as well as ones that do a far better job. I speak as someone who has detailed their lighting history, with pics, and the fully legal lights were pants.
I am waiting for exposure to start selling their stvzo lights, and I did ask, apparently certification has been difficult to obtain, not that the lights do not meet the standards. But, of course, leaving the EU, will german standards be enough for the UK?
Lupine make some good ones, but have separate light and battery, and the connecting wire is a weak point.
Quality shin destroying MTB pedals with the ability to fit reflectors are also difficult to come by, wellgo does still make some very good ones.
These lights on these pedals
These lights on these pedals do look effective, the pedals, maybe not.
I have been burned before by “ingenious” lights, mainly helmet and valve, and I doubt if these could last a British winter doing a full commute without great frustration.
ktache wrote:
Well, two things.
To get the full “57% more visible”* benefit you need to have the lights on constant, otherwise you don’t get that eye-catching reciprocating motion effect. Hence the lights were almost exclusively shown in constant mode in the video, and for the signature “light trail” picture. But then they only last 3 hours. Want longer autonomy and you need to drop down to a flashing mode, squandering the touted benefit.
IP64 only protects them against “splashing” water from all sides. Pedals will be directly hosed by the briney spray from the front wheel unless you have tarmac skimming front flaps. I’d share your concern over their durability through the rainy seasons.
*reading the abstract of the source of this 57% claim, it seems that the baseline comparator is a fixed steady seat post light. But then the abstract also says that a flashing fixed seatpost light is likewise more visible. Maybe even 57% more visible? I’m not paying to download the complete article, but I smell a marketing fudge here.
Just chalk this up as another
Just chalk this up as another bicycle related Kickstarter that is garbage. Like every other bicycle related Kickstarter that has preceded it.
ktache wrote:
How about these? There’s two sets of shin destroyers in the box, short and long. But yes, only one side destroys your shins.
https://road.cc/content/review/shimano-xt-pd-t8000-trekking-pedals-284503
Nice, rare to find any spd
Nice, rare to find any spd with reflectors.
When my wellgo mg1s die, and most pedals do even with regular stripdowns, I like the look of the wellgo b129s, big platform with those so important reflector accepting holes.
I’m on a tablet at the moment, cutting and pasting is not too easy, let alone posting pics.
Those Shimano pedals are the
Those Shimano pedals are the ultimate versatile pedal. They even look good on a road bike and are fully serviceable
Sriracha wrote:
Well, no – I’m not sure a black light would be any use to anyone.
Unless you’re using your bike for crime detection.
ktache wrote:
It’s not illegal to use a light that doesn’t conform to the relevant BS, as long as it’s in addition to a BS lamp (or meets the 2005 updated regs for brightness and flash modes).
But I didn’t fully understand the caveats to that – regarding the colour and movement…
So, my ‘pulsing’ exposure TraceR, not only lacks a BS mark, – but is actually outright illegal too. So is the ‘heartbeat’ lezyne flasher and some of the Cycliq Fly 6/12 modes of my other lights.
It’s a shambles – I’m definiately in the law breaking but visible camp though!
What does all of that say
What does all of that say about the fashionable zippy direction indicators on upmarket cars, the ones where the light processes sideways? Are they classed as moving lights? They have the same visual effect. Surely they are all illegal (along with the darkened or missing number plates that seems part of the same vibe).
I suspect those ‘directional’
I suspect those ‘directional’ indicators are not compliant – but might check!
I noticed that there used to be a design requirement that rear lights were not to be placed on a moveable boot lid, which seems really sensible, but that got removed. So lots of cars now have rear/hazard lights that are useless if you break down and need to get into the boot for your spare tyre and tools etc.!
It is probably not possible
It is probably not possible to walk into Halfords and buy a set of lights that meet british standards.
Some may well exceed BS Standards, but don’t have the paperwork.
You can almost hear Nick Freeman, “If only the deceased was using legally approved lights…”
Cycloid wrote:
Just had a look at Halfords and cannot see any lights that have BS or STVZO accreditation.
But Decathlon has a whole range of them! (well, STVZO or French certified, none of that BS nonsense). It’s a good idea to run a set of back-up lights when commuting through the winter, so choosing compliant ones makes sense.
This is my pick of the bunch, only £13 front and rear with a useful 75 lumen shaped beam on the front that’ll be ok for navigating dark country lanes.
But there’s also:
£60 B+M rechargeable
£24 dinky ‘be seen’ rechargeable
£10 ‘be seen’ battery
£6 ‘be seen’ rechargeable rear – only has a flash mode, so is actually compliant with British road law.
HoarseMann wrote:
According to UK law, the lights need to be certified to the relevant BS or “a corresponding standard of another EC country”. So French or German standards will do just as well, take your pick. Whether that has changed now I do not know.
Sriracha wrote:
It’s still ok (buried in the middle of this link, you’ll find the text below)…
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1989/1796/note
Thank you very much for
Thank you very much for finding this and the other information.
ktache wrote:
Cheers ktache. It keeps me out of trouble and I weirdly enjoy the odd trawl through legislation!
I am that person that fits compliant lights to their bike, to compliment the proper lights that actually work (but are not approved). I also made sure I had a rear red reflector marked with an approved standard and the amber pedal reflectors too when I commuted in the dark.
Not that it would have done much good now I learn the pulsing and heartbeat flash patterns are actually illegal! But I guess it’s harder for a driver to argue that the flash pattern was a problem to see, than point to a lack of approved lights.
I like the little round cat
I like the little round cat-eye reflectors, even on the front which is not strictly required and a bit pointless given my Hope R4. I would fit the Exposure 3000 lumen stvzo compliant thing, power when you need it, zooming downhill, off road in the woods, but sensible with great beam pattern and no chance of dazzling oncoming road users, but they will not release it until certification.
I very much like the reflective spoke straws, even have them on my good Ti MTB (no other reflectors, shhh) as why not, don’t take up any very valuable seat post space, weigh next to nothing and go with the effective lights.
Prosper0 wrote:
pedal reflectors are generally yellow, as a fixed reflector could end up pointing either forward or backward depending on how the foot meets the pedal. Since this pedal can detect which way up it is and adjust the lights accordingly, there should be no need to be yellow.
HOWEVER, what if the pedal fails to detect orientation, or fails to adjust light colour as required. Especially as pedals live in the splash zone. It’s not unforseeable that that something may develop a fault.
I’m sure years ago I saw
I’m sure years ago I saw adverts for similar pedals, but with a small dynamo integrated into the pedal so they never needed charging. But I can’t find them now, so I guess it didn’t work out.