With less than two weeks before the clocks go back, and cycle commuters are plunged into darkness on their journeys home from work, behold these unorthodox alternatives to traditional bicycle lights.
It’s in the bag
Myung Su Lee has designed a rucksack and bum bag that incorporate a rear light, turn signal and indicate when the bike is coming to a stop. The design even allows riders an element of creativity – a handlebar-mounted controller allows the rider to display a message of their choice.
Flash Jackets
The Sporty Superheroe illuminated cycling jacket has 64 LED lights sewn into its fabric that light up in different colours when its wearer accelerates, brakes or banks to make a turn.
The organic cotton jacket can also be made to flash when a call comes in to the wearer’s smartphone.
The Sporty Superheroe jacket forms part of a menswear collection by the Utope Project– a partnership between designer Wolfgang Langeder and stretchable circuit experts Fraunhofer IZM.
Most of us plump for a cycling jacket that simply keeps out the wind and rain, but it doesn’t stop designers devising increasingly complex features.
Speed vest
American inventor Brady Clark devised a tabard that displays the wearer’s speed on their back in large, illuminated numerals.
The Speed Vest forgoes GPS, using instead a sensor on the wheel and a micro controller that calculates the speed. Mr Clark was curious to know if putting more information in front of drivers might increase their awareness of cyclists.
Wearable lights
This cycling jacket with built-in indicator lights operated by a switch on each cuff was put together with off-the-shelf electronics. The lighting system does not make the jacket cumbersome to wear as the components are lightweight, almost flat and connected by conductive thread rather than wires. Leah Buechley designed the Turn Signal Bike Jacket while teaching an ‘e-textiles’ project at Shih Chien University in Taiwan
Every cycle insurance policy from the ETA includes new-for-old replacement if your bike is stolen, cover for accidental damage (race events included), third party insurance (in the case of an accident you may need to seek compensation or even deal with a claim by someone else), personal accident cover and, if you breakdown, we will even come out and recover you and your bike.
Crankwinder
Additions maybe, but these should not be described as an “alternative” to the proper bicycle lights required by law. And sensible is that law, for those lights you call “traditional” are conspicuous from a great distance, the minimum brightness of an approved cycle rear lamp being the same as that required on a motor vehicle, plus a headlamp is surely needed to light the way ahead.