Core77

For starters, to be safer, the cyclist should wear a helmet.

Nice. The use of the dynamo power system seems unnecessarily complex though. LED systems like Tireflys use commonly available hearing-aid type batteries which are cheap (and yes disposable), not to mention 'lighter' (bad pun).

Not only keeps you safe, but is also art in motion - awesome

I think that song caused 630 fatalities. In my ears. But the lights are good idea. Nice work dudes.

So, like, when is this going to be available? This has huge potential!

A nicely executed student project, though I wonder about two aspects. First, is it really more dangerous to bike at dusk? Or, are there simply more bikes on the road, so the absolute number of accidents are high, but not the rate per person? Also, I've seen bikes with lights and blinkers and illuminated rims- but the most effective annunciators are lights mounted on the shoes, legs and arms- our brain is highly attuned to detect moving human shapes.

Good research and idea! A self-powered safety lighting system for bicycles' night-travelling made of rim-mounted leds. A revamped version from the all-time reflectors.

The problem is that they only highlight the bike sideways, not worth much when the wheels go straight and for vehicles circulating in front of and behind.

This is really cool!

Thank you *geb* for catching the blog's and designers' use of the word "dangerous."

"First, is it really more dangerous to bike at dusk? Or, are there simply more bikes on the road, so the absolute number of accidents are high, but not the rate per person?"

Without more data, like how many people are riding and how far or how long they're riding, we can't make judgments on the safety or dangerousness of bicycling.

What can be said is that by improving our visibility in the dark, we increase the chances of other road users seeing us and therefore reducing the probability of being involved in a crash (not "accident").

"The problem is that they only highlight the bike sideways, not worth much when the wheels go straight and for vehicles circulating in front of and behind."

You'd still use a headlight and taillight. This is a really well-executed project. Changing the lights to red under deceleration is an especially nice touch.

Great work! But advertising it by showing a dude on a single-speed with a single front brake is goofy. A rear brake (or fixed cog) might help him slow down without going over the bars at one of those dangerous 5pm-10pm intersections ;)

Awesome! I personally use monkey lights (http://www.monkeylectric.com/) - while it's not powered by a hub generator, I've only needed to recharge my batteries once every 3-4 months or so with my commute (less than a half hour).

Those slip rings make me sad - at least its just a prototype. The mass produced way forward would be to work with a hub generator factory to make a generator that has its power outputs on the rotor. This isn't difficult, just not particularly useful for traditional headlights.

Safe bikes have front AND back BRAKES for God sake.
Other than that, great idea and beautiful execution.

@ Anne. He is wearing a helmet. You can see the chin strap and reflection off the helmet. No design student would be dumb enough to discredit themselves by not wearing a helmet in their presentation materials. (Even if they find helmets ineffective)

This would be sweet with a front and rear light too. Would be interested to see that integrated into the lighting system since those are most common lights needed for visibility.

Ryan, thanks for pointing out that he is indeed wearing a helmet. If the photos depicted a helmetless rider, I would have told the designers to take new photos. :-)

Albert and Ryan, I agree that a headlight and taillight with the same color-changing functionality would be nice. Obviously, only the rear light would change to red... I wonder if someone could design a tailllight triggered by handbrakes as well?

Manu, just having a front brake is technically as safe as having both: http://www.sheldonbrown.com/brakturn.html#frontorrear (Still, Brad is right in pointing out that it doesn't make as much sense on a singlespeed, as opposed to a fixed-gear, where you can adjust your speed by pedaling faster or slower... but as Sheldon says, everyone should learn to use their front brake.)

Thanks for all the feedback, I'm sure Ethan and Jonathan are very proud of their work.

Love the idea, but I also wonder if it's as effective as front mounting lights, seeing as cars in front of you can't see the lights mounted to the side of your rims. For example, have a look at the video at around 1:36.

Light emits form the side of the bicyclist, but there is nothing coming from the front to tell drivers there is a bike approaching. Perhaps some additional LEDs for the handle bar and seat post would be a considerable addition. Lights on the side won't alert people in their cars that you're coming up to stop from giving your the Door Prize.

Other than that, WHERE?? (can I get some)

fit some bloody brakes to the bike for a start and obey the highway code... zebra crossings for example ... i'd love to see some stats on how many people get hit or narrowly avoid getting mowed down by marketing working hipster idiots on fixes with no brakes. None of them where helmets - because it would ruin their trendy haircut and a high vis vest is to common to wear.

That said .. the tech is very good... if he'd put it on another bike and looked less like the trendy tossers that I have to avoid on the london pedestrian streets I'd have avoided the rant...

@slippyfish: I think you're missing the whole point of the hub generator and why it's there. It's not simply providing the power output, but it's also being used to detect the speed of the cyclist thereby changing the colour of the LED from red to blue; slow to fast. Often in the evening/night it's increasingly more difficult to judge speeds of approaching objects so the colour indicator is definitely a smart solution to a very noteworthy problem.

I'd say as much as there are other cheaper solutions out there, this definitely takes the cake for creativity, as well as providing a beautiful solution to approaching the problem.

great idea to improve side visibility. if you like this -- check out www.lunasee.com and watch the video --- perhaps a simpler approach to side visibility- less LEDs and no wires/LEDs in the wheels..

Great idea and kudos to you guys for furthering the cause of commuting safely. But, as a guy who commutes and rides ~8000km per year and who has been run over twice the best way to stay safe is to not ride after 5. And, don't ride when it's icy and/or too wet. When it comes to physics us cyclists lose every time. Use your heads.

What song is on the video?

This is great! Will these be available at some point? This seems like a good project for kickstarter... I'd buy them.
http://www.kickstarter.com/

i'd love to purchase when available.

Bueatiful project, reminds me of a TRON bike lol. Hope you'll recieved high marks, you'll deserved it. I see a lot of comments about adding headlights or breaklights but those already exist and aren't as seemless as the design you've proposed. Sure a front and back light feature could be added, but when you really think about it any illumination during evening/night rides is better than none. A+

Well I guess it'll work ok, as long as you only ever ride your bike sideways down the road. Sure, your Rapha-wearing micro-brewery drinking big-ring-wannabe fixie riding chums will all be jealous, but the bus driver up in front? It doesn't matter how sparkly your wheels are, he can't see them.

The fact that the designers are trying to sell this as anything more than an aesthetic accessory is testament to one of the most fundamental mistakes a product designer can make - losing touch with the problem you're trying to solve because you've stumbled across something that looks cool. Yes, it looks cool. No doubt. Even I'd consider using them and I abhor pretty much everything fixie related. But to say that it's a safety measure as well as the indicating that you no longer need any other lights or safety gear, as shown in the movie, is pure, dangerous, fiction.

They do look super cool and there is a market for super cool. However, if your objective is to save lives or make money, wouldn't LED pedals be more effective for the $'s???

1. The pedal lighting would have better front and rear visibility.
2. Above comments suggest batteries might be an adequate & inexpensive power source for pedal lighting.
3. Marketing anything for which the bikes or expensive wheels have to be designed by bike and wheel manufactures could be difficult. (That not invented here thing, plus the travel budget)
4. Inexpensive lighted pedals could be a huge after market to parents for existing bikes for there children, could be handed down to sibling's bikes.
5. You could market directly to consumers and bike shops (world wide) via EBay, Amazon, etc. without having to gain acceptance from bike/wheel companies.

Low cost, rapid acceptance, speed to market, and wide adoption on existing bikes might save the most lives.

Good luck and safe riding!

We were doing this in the early 80's

Amazing,
when can I get those?

Could anyone please tell me what kind of LEDs does he use?!
Thank you in advance. Extremistul@yahoo.com

I think that not only should the wheels be iluminated, but mostly the cyclist, so that you can see them in the dark when one is traveling at higher speeds in a car you could tell it´s a cyclist not a product of one´s imagination in the middle of the night..

can this can be installed to my trek 4300D???:) please mention price also..:)

thanx

Wher can i buy this system? I really would want to get it.

congratulations to the creator of the project. I wonder if it will be available for purchase.

The RGB LEDs seem great till you realize they dim after about 1000h, so are the designers suggesting we replace our rims after such a short time frame?

Not that I'm jealous, but I thought exactly that same idea some time ago. Incluiding the hub generator and the color change depending on the speed. Exactly that same idea, no joke.
Greetings to you guys, good luck!