
World’s First Connected Bike Grips - conner_bw
http://smrtgrips.bike/
======
bbarn
A quick look around my living room and the bar end of every flat bar bike I
have is beat up and chewed up. Not a stellar place to put important pieces.
Much like most "bike innovations" these don't seem to cater to those who use
their bikes on a regular basis.

------
thret
I imagine this would be extremely useful for bike couriers. Less so for people
who ride the same route each day, but still pretty cool if you ride for fun.

------
radley
A smart watch with Google Maps already provides haptic navigation. Not sure
I'd want two more things I have to charge daily.

------
slug
Funny the video talks about safety, but none of the riders wears a helmet.
Also no mention of power/battery longevity.

~~~
joshfraser
In countries where people bike a lot, biking isn't treated as an inherently
risky behavior. Instead, it's more akin to how we treat walking or driving a
car, which we feel comfortable doing without helmets even if they would save
lives on occasion. This alternative attitude to biking risk encourages more
people to bike, which makes it safer for everyone as drivers become more
accustomed to seeing and watching out for bikers. Keep in mind, most people
don't die from accidents, they die from disease. Riding 20 miles a week on a
bike cuts your chance of heart disease in half. Given that heart disease is
our biggest killer in the US, we'd do well to stop treating biking as a risky
behavior and instead encourage people to bike whether they choose to wear a
helmet or not.

~~~
mc32
I live at a block with a two way stop at the intersection. A few weeks ago a
student was pedaling at a healthy clip --25-30 mph, I was walking on the same
direction as she was. The street she was pedaling down has a stop sign, the
cross street does not. A lot of cyclists kinda sorta slow down a bit at the
stop sign. This day, a car was coming down the hill on the street with no stop
sign. The cyclist didn't stop ---not did the car (it did apply its bakes)
which had the right of way.

She was wearing a helmet and she left a nice dent in the side of the car. She
came out of it stunned but alright. I doubt she would have had the same
outcome had she not worn a helmet.

~~~
Someone
Yes, helmets do provide some protection, but so would helmets for pedestrians,
five-point safety belts in cars, safety belts in buses, etc.

Unless it was seriously down hill or with a serious tail wind, and she was
extremely lucky, I bet she wasn't doing 25-30 mph.

I think that bet is safe because the world one hour record for women is about
[http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hour_record#One_Hour_records_...](http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hour_record#One_Hour_records_.28female.29)
29 mph.

Also, a bicycle helmet doesn't do much good in a head-on impact at 25 mph. It
only gives you a few mm of deceleration distance. So, if the impact was at
25mph, that dent in the car likely did way more for her than her helmet.

~~~
sethammons
While I agree that going that fast minimizes or negates the saftey of the
helmet, your hour-record link is useless here. While cycling on a flat
surface, I easily club up to 30 mph (for a stint). On a downhill, I've had to
use my breaks to stay below 40 mph. The parent post did not say she was
sustaining that speed for a whole hour, plus this was downhill. Despite how
fast she was going, she should have been going slower and riding defensively.

------
Jugurtha
From the video (at around 2:02, CadSoft EAGLE frame) they're using Nordic
Semiconductor's nRF51822 Bluetooth Low Energy & 2.4GHz Wireless SoC.

~~~
kawsper
I don't produce electronics that much anymore, but I very fondly remember
working with EAGLE. I hope they have fixed the issues with redrawing that we
had.

~~~
Jugurtha
Yeah. It rocks now :D

I use EAGLE to make the breadbord, Proteus for simulation, and NI Multisim to
produce the schematic to print on paper (they look nicer than Proteus' or
EAGLE's schematics).

I also use LT Spice for simulation. It depends.

------
ukandy
I'm surprised they are using smrtgrips.bike when they own smrtgrips.com.

------
andrewljohnson
If these get popular, I wonder if they will be a target for theft, and then
what can be done to fix that.

~~~
IneffablePigeon
Let the app register each set to an account, and don't let the grips work with
any device not authenticated with that account.

~~~
davvid
That's a good idea, but people will steal them anyways. Sometimes things get
stolen for no reason ~ e.g. my bike seat got stolen. I'm pretty sure they
didn't need it.

------
jbob2000
Cool, but it's not really solving a problem anyone had.

Did anyone really have a problem with directions when biking? I mean the great
thing about a bike is that it's pretty easy to come to a stop and grab your
phone if you get lost.

I've never had a problem finding my bike, even amongst a rack of hundreds.
Getting the bike out... now that's a problem worth solving!

And connected biking? Wtf? Nearby friends? If I'm out on a ride and one of my
friends is nearby, but I'm not biking with them, why the fuck do I care? Am I
going to stop my ride to pull them over and say hello?

------
bennettfeely
If I have a phone in my pocket with the capability to call out directions
verbally, I sure don't feel compelled to buy some overpriced bike grips
that'll have to be charged, and might get stolen.

------
rishabhsagar
Does any one know how is this device secured to the handlebar? From the video
it looks like it's just 'insert, twist and go'; but then won't it be prone to
theft?

~~~
fulafel
Like most bike parts.

------
moe
How often will I have to charge it?

How do I prevent it from getting stolen?

------
r109
Can they make a model wear the grips pick up your heart rate? PLEASE!?!? This
would be the coolest most insanely awesome mod I'd to to my bike! v2 v2!

~~~
johnny99
Watches with heart rate monitors have been available for a while, and you can
use them when running, or walking, or sitting on your ass.

Built into handlebars seems limiting, and error prone--what happens when
you're wearing gloves, or braking

------
legatoninja
I think this is interesting, bike has to be more smart. Yes, I know many
device like smart watches have similiar features already, but I personally
like those features are in my bike, not on me. By the way, I hope this smart
bar can be inserted in Motoped.

