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Give Your Bike Some Go and Some Glow with New 3T Illumia Ltd Glow-In-The-Dark Cockpit!

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ERGONOVA LUMIA_BLUE ERGONOVA LUMIA_GREEN

When is custom paint more than just pretty colors? That would be when the paint can actually add to your safety as a rider. That’s what 3t is claiming with their new Illumia hi-viz cockpit components.

Recently 3T announced a new line of custom color options for their Ergonova, Arx, and Ionic-25 Ltd components. Available from the factory, the paint options provided some personality to the components but nothing in the way of visibility. That’s where the Illumia treatment steps in. During the day the components have a bright white sheen, but at night the parts glow in the dark.

When used as a complete set, the bar, stem, and seatpost are said to help motorists or other riders pick up the lines of the bike. Certainly no replacement for a good set of lights, but every bit helps. Plus – who doesn’t like glow in the dark?

ARX LUMIA_GREEN ARX LUMIA_BLUE

ERGONOVA LUMIA_LIGHT BLUE ERGONOVA LUMIA_ORANGE

IONIC LUMIA_YELLOW IONIC LUMIA_PINK

Again available on the same components as the custom color collection, you can find the glow in the dark treatment on the classic 3T Ltd cockpit. The Illumia finish is offered with the custom color accents, but it is also offered with the standard 3T finishing so that the white will replace the gloss black UD finish on the parts.

Pricing is slightly different than the custom color collection with the Illumia Ergonova compact drop bar selling for $425, the Arx stem at $335, and the Ionic-25 seat post with DiffLock retailing for $295. Even with the additional paint, 3T points out that in standard sized the 3 parts together come in at under 500g.

3tcycling.com

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Pedals
Pedals
9 years ago

Sure, why not?

Andre
Andre
9 years ago

Of course once you clamp the bar to a stem and tape it up, there’s only a few cms left showing on each side. But at least the seat post will show up.

Andre
Andre
9 years ago

Whoops. I forgot the fact that there was a glow in the dark stem too. So you’ll have a little more showing than I’d first thought.

Gunnstein
Gunnstein
9 years ago

Cool, obviously, but as far as being seen in traffic goes, reflecting paint is much better than glow in the dark. Maybe do both, in stripes, on the frame and wheels, for the full Tron-like effect?

James S
James S
9 years ago

Glow-in-the-dark paint usually fades really fast when the lights go out. It also doesn’t put out much light. So it’s pretty much useless as a safety measure although it is a fun novelty. I used to have a Niner RIP9 with glow-in-the-dark paint. (The original sky blue paint job). It was fun at night to turn out the lights and see the frame glowing.

Bluefire
Bluefire
9 years ago

@Gunnstein – Exactly. If we can’t feel safe with a headlight under 130 lumens, how much safer can glow-in-the-dark cockpit parts really make us? They certainly wouldn’t be visible when in FRONT of a car (headlights), and nothing but an actual flashing LIGHT has much chance of drawing a careless driver’s eye outside his or her immediate field of view. Glow-in-the-dark coatings won’t increase visibility – this is a peculiar gimmick of the same class as those Purefix Glow frames and wheels. 3T would be far better served in a quest for visibility by applying reflective coatings or graphics to their wheelsets, much as Mavic does. Italian cycling turns out some wacky stuff, but this is more what I’d expect from an Alibaba listing.

Chris L
Chris L
9 years ago

Putting aside the efficacy of glow in the dark paint, $750+ for a bar/stem combo is completely insane.

nunyab
nunyab
9 years ago

Did they just jump multiple sharks at once?

ObligatedToSay
ObligatedToSay
9 years ago

For a sport that takes place largely in daylight…

alvis
alvis
9 years ago

Heard 3T lost all their engineers last year so I guess halloween paint is where product development there is where its at now. Pity.

Dougal
Dougal
9 years ago

Having used glow in the dark bar tape in the past the results are nothing more than a novelty. I wonder why they can use paint with the reflective dust stuff they paint road markings with. Now that would zing.

greg
greg
9 years ago

you can get reflective clear spray paint. not totally “clear” like a gloss, it’ll frost the finish.

Singletrackroadie
Singletrackroadie
9 years ago

I will go ahead and say it – I like it.

Jax
Jax
9 years ago

I do not have handle bars or a seat post that glow in the dark. I will get them and ride on moonbeams.

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