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SmartHalo wants to make every bike Smart

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The SmartHalo is a new way to look at connecting biking and technology, pairing with a smartphone to guides you to your destination, turn-by-turn, for a stress-free riding experience. Its unique design functions without a screen – everything shown with an intuitive and minimal halo of light. It also seamlessly tracks your cycling activity data and automatically lights your way at night.

The SmartHalo more than doubled its initial funding goal on Kickstarter back in September in it’s first three days, and by the end of that campaign had raised almost $400,000. But now it is back in Indiegogo to give more cyclists a chance to get in on early bird specials ahead of its June 2016 public release. Follow the colorful, flashing halo past the break for a video of its features, how it works, and how to get ahold of one…

The people behind the new SmartHalo think that they can get more people on bikes if they can make them more confident and feel more safe. We’ve seen similar rethinking of cycling navigation recently with the Choose Your Own Adventure BeeLine GPS, but the SmartHalo aims to take integration a step further.

They think that integrating tech into smart bikes is a big way to do that. But they don’t want to add much cost, complication, demand on your battery, or even to have to change the way you do things. Oddly enough they want to make bikes smarter with less technology. So while most bike tech goes for more data and detailed screens, they’ve pointed towards incredibly simple display of essentially a circle and a dot.

SmartHalo_simple-intuitive-smart-cycling-navigation_RightTurn

SmartHalo_simple-intuitive-smart-cycling-navigation_SlightRight

SmartHalo_simple-intuitive-smart-cycling-navigation_Uturn

Navigation with the SmartHalo is as simple as following the direction of the circle of LED indicator lights. However if the entire unit pulls a HAL on you, glows solid red, and says “I’m sorry, Dave. I’m afraid I can’t do that”, it’s probably best to just ditch that bike and run.

SmartHalo_simple-intuitive-smart-cycling-navigation_headlight SmartHalo_simple-intuitive-smart-cycling-navigation_on-bike

This thing is all about simplicity. No worrying about starting and stopping activity tracking, the SmartHalo sorts it out on its own, automatically. No need to remember your headlight too. SmartHalo includes an automatic, user presence and nighttime activated 200 lumen light.

SmartHalo_simple-intuitive-smart-cycling-navigation_installed-city SmartHalo_simple-intuitive-smart-cycling-navigation_headlight-locked

While most smart biking accessories need to be taken off after each trip or risk being stolen, the SmartHalo is designed to be “theft proof”. Linked to your smart phone it is unusable by anyone except the owner. And against direct theft, it uses a simple motion-sensitive alarm, that they say is difficult enough to shut up that a bike thief isn’t likely to stick around to try an shut it off. To keep track of your bike, the paired app will remind you where you last parked. Optional to turn on or off, but the SmartHalo syncs with your phone and can display call, SMS, and even weather notifications.

SmartHalo_simple-intuitive-smart-cycling-navigation_app-interface SmartHalo_simple-intuitive-smart-cycling-navigation_app-goals

SmartHalo connects with your phone using Bluetooth Low Energy. It has no on/off button. When the rider is away, it automatically goes into a deep sleep mode. Then, as soon as you grab your bike, an internal sensor wakes it. That means that under normal commuting use it can last up to three weeks. Then easily pop it off the bike with your unique key, and recharge it by USB.

$150 at retail, it is still available to pre-order at Indiegogo for just $120 (a bit better than the current deals on the rebooted Kickstarter it seems.)

SmartHalo.bike

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Maxime
Maxime
8 years ago

It’s huge on the handlebars

Maxime
Maxime
8 years ago

Bigger that a Garmin 520, and not much cheaper.

GoEbikes
GoEbikes
8 years ago

Woah, Tupac was calling that guy! sweet!

Tyler C
Tyler C
8 years ago

Love the integration, but this would only ideally be an urban bike part. The 200 lumen light is a great idea, a couple things in question tho. Does it link to strava or does the SmartHalo have its own interface? Also, on the navigation side, only having a few different lights for directions, how will it differentiate between two lefts that are near eachother? IE bike path next to street….

Marco
Marco
8 years ago
eapk
7 years ago
Reply to  Marco

Haize is only navigation. Smarthalo has other features

James S
8 years ago

If you are one of the growing number of drooling smart phone addicts, this might be a great thing. But it certainly isn’t going to get more people on their bikes. If you are too stupid to figure out how to get somewhere without a device on your handlebars directing you, please do not ride a bike as you are quite likely to get hurt or killed. Bikes are easy to ride, easy to maintain, and have all sorts of health and economic benefits. If you need Strava, GPS, and a million apps to ride your bike, then maybe you should just stay home and stare into your little screen and thumb away like the little smartphone monkey that you are.

Antipodean_eleven
8 years ago

@James S “If you are too stupid to figure out how to get somewhere without a device on your handlebars directing you, please do not ride a bike as you are quite likely to get hurt or killed.”

Wooohahahahahaha. Just what I was thinking.

WTF do people need all this proverbial to ride a bike around?

http://www.eleven.cc/data-overload/

PsiSquared
PsiSquared
8 years ago

I like to ride my bike. I couldn’t care less what data people track. Likewise, I couldn’t care less about what someone else, especially Eleven G, thinks about the data that people track. Let me know when his opinions become fact.

I’m also not terribly impressed by SmartHalo.

Antipodean_eleven
8 years ago

@PsiSquared from what I gather from your many past comments, you could care less about very much 😉 Let’s all rejoice for not caring less…

Nick
Nick
8 years ago

I personally think it’s a great idea for people that use a bike to commute and don’t know their city well enough to navigate to every destination he or she might go do–and god forbid they don’t know where to go ALL the time and they get on a bike.

Sarah
Sarah
6 years ago

I like the fact that it hast everything in one device. Light, navigation, alarm! its great!

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