Glowing in the dark bike
How about a bike that literally glows in the dark? instead of electricity, these bike use light from the sun to allow the special paint on the frame to glow – making you visible from a great distance during the night.
Pedaling at night might prove a risky business especially in areas with poor lighting. Even with light reflectors and bike lights drivers don’t always notice Cyclists. In 2010 over 600 Bicyclist died in accidents the U.S. and over 52,000 have been injured. Although the number of deaths and injuries is slowly getting down due to better protection and infrastructure it is clear that more work is needed.
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U.S. company Pure Fix Cycles developed a special bike line which might contribute to the safety of bicyclists. The bikes called Kilo Glow have a frame covered with a special paint the glow in the dark after it gets a dose of ultra violet light from the sun.
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According to Pure Fix Cycles the Kilo Glow should glow for about one hour after being in the sun for one hour – what happens later you ask? the glow will slowly dim which means that a bicyclists which wants to take a long drive at night still needs all his usual night gear in place. However as both a cool and uniqe gimmick and as a short term addition for riding just after sunset the Kilo Glow is an interesting solution.
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The Kilo Glow comes in a variety of sizes and cost around 400 dollars – more information can be found on the Pure Fix Cycles website.
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The concept of a glow in the dark bikes isn’t new TFOT actually recently covered the GLOBARS – a special handlebar for bicycles with integrated LED lighting developed by Mitchell Silva, an industrial designer from Boston. A much more similar solution to Pure Fix Glow comes from Germany and is called 8bar Night Bikes. these bikes seem to work in more or less the same way as Glow – letting the sun “charge” the special color of the bike which makes them glow for a while. The main drawback of the 8bar bikes – their cost – around 1500 dollars.
A BlackBerry Bold 9900 commercial showing the 8bar Night Bikes in action
