Stingray - a bike light that doubles as 140 decibel alarm

An electrical engineer from Manchester who has had his bicycle stolen three times has invented a 140-decibel bike alarm that doubles as a front light – and is looking to crowdfund £50,000 to put it into production.

The Stingray bike light has an output of 300 lumens and five modes of operation, but its inventor, Obaidah Sheikh, believes its killer feature is an alarm that can also be activated remotely by any cyclist unlucky enough to be mugged for their bike – as once happened to him.

On the project page on Indiegogo, he says: “I didn’t think existing alarm systems were up to the job either due to the poor design and effort required to maintain them.

“I set out to create a simple way of adding that extra layer of security – something that could be easily used as a real deterrent to keep thieves away.

“My solution: Stingray, a bicycle light combined with a motion based alarm system. For the effort of maintaining your lights, you also get an alarm system that, in conjunction with a lock, offers an all-round better security solution.

Rechargeable via USB, the product uses “an accelerometer and gyroscope are used by a highly optimised algorithm to continuously determine what is happening to your bicycle.

“A few nudges here and there won’t be an issue, so you don’t need to worry about false triggers.

“But too much movement and the 140dB siren will shock a thief dead in their tracks. As it’s positioned on the front handlebar it’s is very loud to the rider (… or thief).”

While the light is easily removable, when the alarm is armed it locks, stopping the quick release clips from being engaged. Meanwhile, a fob acts as a “panic trigger,” activated via a button which sets off the alarm and also locks the unit.

Backers can advance-order the unit, with discounted packages starting from £50.

Estimated delivery, should the crowdfunding campaign prove successful, will start in October 2017 and you can find more details including full product specifications on the Indiegogo page.