The Speed Vest is a high visibility yellow cycling vest, with reflectors and a large inbuilt speedometer display, which broadcasts the cyclist’s speed to following traffic.
The inventors Brady & Mykle pitch this vest worn over your cycling jersey as a road safety tool, supposedly impressing drivers by demonstrating that any cyclist can ride at 10mph to 15mph.
No. Drivers stuck behind cyclists are not going to enjoy the reminder of how slow they are travelling. Road safety? Not really: Vehicles approaching from behind the cyclist, have plenty of time to judge the difference in speed, and the biggest factor is visibility, for example; lots of red flashing lights on the bike.
The Speed Vest, would serve the biggest road safety offering, if the speed readout was on the front of the vest, and drivers waiting to pull out of a junction, could use the speed information e.g. "10mph" or "25mph" to help decide whether to pull out in-front of the oncoming cyclist or not. This would be very useful because some drivers regularly misjudge the oncoming speed of other road users.
Popular Cycling Vest
This product could be hugely popular, but who is going to buy it?
- Men.
What more tantalising a motivation, than a Speed Vest 100m ahead, reading 15mph while your own speedometer reads 18mph. Think; red flag to a bull, and hare to a greyhound.
In London’s apparently competitive and aggressive society, it has to be one of the most harmless and fun games going. Like most games, it is ultimately pointless (professional footballers take note!). Can you imagine the scene as one hurry-on Harry pursues the next speed target ahead, in a silly but effective stress-burning ride home.
If the inventors manage to start producing this for the mass market, I guarantee it will absolutely fly off the shelves! These boys are due a trip to Dragon’s Den!
Various designers have been muting the concept of wearable technology for a while now, but that seemed mostly ridiculous; like parading down the catwalk with a radio on your head. However, here is a genuinely usable idea, which if released, will create a market for something we did not know we needed.
View the official Speed Vest site.
Technorati tags: Speed Vest. Commuter race. New invention.
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