BikeBiz Bicycle and cycling retail news
Cyclist Andrew Phillips has created a bidon-shaped bike light – The Orb – that he plans to take to Kickstarter. Phillips has experienced night-time near-misses on his bike, and wanted to buy a product that would offer significant side-on visibility but said was unable to find anything suitable.
“I quickly saw a significant gap in the market for a product which was not only useful for cyclists on a day to day basis, but has the potential to save lives," he said.
The Orb uses super-bright LEDs to illuminate a 600ml water bottle. "It requires no specialist fittings beyond an ordinary bottle cage," said Phillips. It is USB rechargeable, and the lithium-ion battery will last for between 5 hours (constant on, full power) and 12 hours (flash), said the inventor, who has patented his idea.
Phillips incorporated Blockhaus Cycles in March, and will be raising money for the tooling for his product via Kickstarter.
(The Blockhaus is one of Italy’s toughest road climbs, and often features in the Giro d’Italia. It is also the name of an Eddy Merckx bike.)
Phillips plans for The Orb to retail for £26. His Kickstarter campaign starts on 23rd November.
Previous examples of such LED-equipped bottles include the H2Glow.
