A new kickstarter project wants to change your bicycle riding experience by adding extra accessories on it like GPS, a bunch of sensors and fitness trackers making it the smartest bike ever. A lot of clever connected accessories have popped up recently on smart bikes, but take note the legacy bike itself hasn’t really changed that much. The smart bike kickstarter project wants over $91,000 to fund Valour, a bike that can track your rides, give you directions, and even alert you to passing cars.
As expected most of the bike’s abilities require smartphone connectivity. A paired app stores its riding data and allows cyclists to set up a route so that the bike can display directions. The way it gives directions is simple and clever, lighting up small LEDs on the left or right handlebar when approaching a turn to signal which direction a rider needs to go. The bike is also equipped with sensors that alert the rider when they get too close to either side of its rear wheel and will vibrate the corresponding handlebar to make its rider aware. All sensors are powered by that same energy built up from cycling the bike.
According to the bike maker Vanhawks, multiple bikes will also begin to form a mesh network, allowing them to connect and share information with each other, like pot holes or bumpy roads that they’ve detected. The company further says the bike parts themselves should be serviceable at a normal repair shop.
The Valour is available as a single speed, a fixie, or with a gear hub, and unlucky for us here they only being made available in the US and Canada for now, and Vanhawks is expecting the first bikes to be ready come October.
