On video - the vest that displays your speed!

It's not very often we get excited about a vest, well, never. Until now. The Speedvest is a s a reflective vest… that diplays your riding speed on your back, like a giant speedo, as you ride along. Check the video below. Cool or what?

Developed in the US by Brady Clark and Mykle Hansen, the vest works in a not dissimilar way to a wireless computer: a sensor on the wheel sends a signal to a micro-processor in the vest which then display the appropriate numerals. The vest's top speed is 70mph. SpeedVest inventor, Brady Clark, says he came up with the idea while out on his bike. "Riding my bike down a steep hill one day and 'taking the lane' (riding in the middle of the traffic lane) so that no cars could pass me too closely, I thought- 'Some people must really be pissed at me- I wonder if they knew I was going 25+ mph they’d think the same.' "The idea grew beyond that incident into thinking about having my speed being visible at all times to motorists and wondering if it might encourage them to try biking if they can see that most any person on a bike can average 10+ mph - faster than a lot of the average speeds through cities (taking into account congestion and that cars can’t make use of the road shoulders to get ahead)." The SpeedVest is currently used to teach people about road safety in the pair's home towns of Minneapolis and Portland, but according to Mykle, there has been plenty of enquiries both from the cycling industry and other quarters too. " Interestingly, we’ve been contacted by runners who want to wear the vest in races. How we do the speedometer for that, I don’t yet know, but it’s great that people see this invention and come up with uses we couldn’t have predicted. Motorcyclists have also expressed interest, and I for one would love to see Speed Vests in races." So would we Mykle, so would we!