Published date: May 29th, 2014
If you thought your world was not connected enough, the folks at Vanhawks have added one more thing to your list: a bicycle.
The Vanhawks Valour is the the first offering from the company and it is both sleek and smart. The bike comes with its own app (on iOS, Android and Pebble) at launch which enables you to track your performance as well as for navigation. The bike connects to your devices using Bluetooth Low Energy and the sensors and lights on the bike are powered by an onboard dynamo.
When you’re ready to ride, just launch the app and it will choose the best route to go and also provide turn-by-turn navigation. The navigation part of the bike has also been designed to provide users with visual aid to keep their eye on the road. There are 3 LED lights on each side on the handlebar and these will let the users know when they need to make a left or right turn, as well as a u-turn. This visual aid can be quite handy as a voice navigation might be drowned out by the traffic.
The sensors on the bike will also provide the app with measurements such as speed, distance, calorie and time. These data can be synched with your smart device to help track progress. User can also connect with other Valour owners and share route conditions with each other. Information such as potholes, blocked roads and closed lanes are available to every Valour riders in the community once a bike uploads that piece of data. I sincerely hope that the Vanhawks team would release an aftermarket version with sensors and app so that other bike owners can contribute to this exciting idea. It’s like Waze for bicycles.
This sharing of information has also been taken a step further whereby, when a Valour bike is stole, other bikes can act as a lookout to help locate the missing ride. If the stolen bike passes by or is passed by another Valour, the owner of the stolen bike will be notified immediately using the app on the smartphone.
The team has also added an important safety feature whereby the handlebar will provide haptic feedback (vibrate) when the sensors fixed on the sides of the bike detect vehicles coming from behind on either side of the bike. This is a great feature to have on any bike as it helps bikers with their blind spot. I hope the team would be able to bring this feature to market on its own as well.
The bike has a carbon fiber unibody and is offered with wheel sizes ranging from 50cm to 59cm. Though the bike is built for urban commuting, Vanhawks has added some really cool Ergon saddle, pedals and grips. Based on the pledge made, user can also choose between single/fixed gears as well as the CVP Nuvinci N360 internal gear hub.
The Kickstarter project page for the bike is still active and will end this Sunday, June 1st. The lowest pledge for the bike stands at CAD$1,049 (~RM3,111) now with an additional CAD$150 (~RM445) for shipment outside of Canada. The page has also mentioned that shipping is available for Singapore and a few other countries but nothing about Malaysia. It’s best to contact the team directly for further enquiries. Shipment dates ranges from October 2014 until March 2015 and this depends on the type of pledge.
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