Handlebars on a bike can be so much more than rests for your hands, a place to affix the brakes, and a way to actually turn the two-wheeled vehicle. With the Helios handlebar, you can add the following features: button-activated rear-facing LED turn blinkers, 500 lumen headlight, smartphone controlled ambient lighting, speed indication and even navigation assistance. The blinker functionality is pretty straightforward, but the others can use some explaining. The speed indication will have the LEDs progressively change colour as you speed up; red for slow and green for fast. The Helios uses the GPS in your phone (paired through Bluetooth 4.0) to not only determine your speed, but also to give you directions; just load up a course and it’ll interface with Google Maps’ cycling directions to light up the appropriate LED as a required turn approaches. How exactly you’re supposed to see the LED on the rear-facing part of the handlebar we’re not entirely sure, but we trust that some thought has been put into that.
Finally, a low power GPS module is integrated into the handlebar itself. Just pop in a prepaid SIM card and you can track your bike from anywhere in the world, which is great if it ever gets stolen.
All this for $200? That’s a bargain if you ask us. Heck, it’s even $149 in Early Bird pricing on the Kickstarter campaign that should get off the ground sometime today.
[ Product Page ] VIA [ Engadget ]
