Last week we looked at the Revolights bicycle lighting system, now we look at another new idea in the area, Glo-Bars.
A keen cyclist, Massachusetts College of Art and Design design student Mitchell Silva’s Glo-Bars concept is a response to the statistics regarding death and injury of cyclists in urban areas. Like Revolights, the light source of Glo-Bars is an LED lighting system – 40 high-efficiency LED bulbs in fact.
But whereas Revolights put the LEDs on the wheels, Glo-Bars places the lighting on the handlebars. The batteries – watch batteries – are located in caps plugged into the two ends of the handlebars, and the batteries can be charged by a computer’s USB port.
In addition toe the handlebar lights, Glo-Bars places lights on the back of the seat post. All this is to be controlled by two switches on the handlebar. One, of course, turns the lights on and off. The second switch, turns the system, that is the handlebar lights and the lights on the seat stem, into indicating lights.
As I mention above, the Glo-Bars idea is still a concept only, not a product that you can buy now. In fact in a statement to the Core77 website, Mitchell Silva said this:
After the test of the prototype GLO-BARS, I realized that the installation of the lights significantly weakened the structural integrity of the handlebars. I am currently attempting to create a solution that would restore the rigidity of the bars.
Although the bars were weak, they were extremely bright. I had no doubts about how visible I was to drivers and felt very comfortable while riding my bicycle at night.
Hat tip to Core77 and Prolly Is Not Probably.