[Closed] Kickstarter Project: Sparse Bike Lights (nice looking and hard to steal lights)

[i]Only downside[/i]

fairly significant one, though 🙁

fairly significant one, though

For me, yeah, it's a showstopper.

But I guess plenty of people on here keep their bike in the house or in a garage with power.

Be a good way to attach a Dynamo driven light, such as the new Exposure Revo!

Like them.
But my commute bike is nowhere near power.
So i am out..

Or it just needs a battery door on it... but I guess they could steal your batteries!!!

out of interest, what's the bike? Some custom retro job painted up?

Nice looking.
No adjustment?

No adjustment?

Which way? It says it'll fit 1" and 1 1/8" steerers.
For up and down angle, I guess you could just bend it a bit to fine tune, it's only alu.

I doubt that's a retro bike, it's got an integrated headset.

I can see the aims there, having lights fitted permanently to your bike takes a lot of the hassle out of winter riding. You could charge them from a USB cache battery easily enough if you weren't a ****ty graphic designer who brings his bike into the office (as I suspect the project founders are).

A solution looking for a problem. ?Instead of spending £100 on a set of lights you can't take off your bike, why not just buy a tube of superglue for £1 and glue your lights to their brackets? I did this after a bracket broke , and it's stayed put ever since.

My commuter lives outside in the front garden and putting a USB cable through the window, squashed under the sash, would be pretty simple (in fact I do that for some LED garden lights already).

[i]just buy a tube of superglue for £1 and glue your lights to their brackets[/i]

Man from Sparselights: 😥

It looks like brake cables / gear cables etc could get in the way.
Seems simpler just to bolt the light to the fork crown (there's already plenty dynamo-powered lights that do that).

a ****ty graphic designer who brings his bike into the office (as I suspect the project founders are).

What gives you that impression...

[img] ?1351481181[/img]

Oh.. right.

I note in the description they say, "We're designing for a 4hr charge - enough to get you to and from work for a week" 😆

[quote=CraigW ]It looks like brake cables / gear cables etc could get in the way.
Which is why the bike in that top photo has none. We can't let reality get in the way of design.

Instead of spending £100 on a set of lights you can't take off your bike, why not just buy a tube of superglue for £1 and glue your lights to their brackets?

Secure? No worse than other bolt ons I suppose but if I were dishonestly inclined and wanted a $75 light I suppose I would be prepared to spend 10 seconds with an allen key.

Man from Sparselights:

Well it had to be said. got to be cruel to be kind.

1. I have more than one bike

So do I. They each have their own lights. I only ever leave one bike locked up anywhere, so a permanently attached light on that one is not a bad idea. I don't accidentally forget it at all. The rear is bolted to the pannier rack, and you need to take the rear wheel off to undo it, so it's perfectly safe.

2. I dont need lights in summer

Sometimes you stay out later than you intened, go to a pub of for a meal etc, and will need lights when it's got dark.

3. these lihts do come of f, just not easily, you super glued ones dont come off

They do, just as easily: you undo the brackets.

4. Easier to attach a light to your helmet surely to stop this

Not everyone wears a helmet, and helmet lights on their own aren't legal as lights must be fitted to the bike. As well as reflectors etc.

Anyone want to buy my amazing Secura-Lite Conversion Kit? £30 to you.

Orange Crush - Member

Secure? No worse than other bolt ons I suppose but if I were dishonestly inclined and wanted a $75 light I suppose I would be prepared to spend 10 seconds with an allen key.

...and yet all over the place disc brakes, forks, cranksets and carbon finishing kit aren't being nicked from otherwise locked-up bikes. Obviously that happens, but I am amazed what doesn't get stolen from bikes all that often really.

Hopefully I have kept my commuter rubbish enough to not be worth bothering stripping parts from....

A lot of this seems to be form over function. Why make the lights out of die cast aluminium when injection moulding would be 100 times cheaper and easier or why not CNC or use am extrusion. All much much cheaper and faster to get to market. A non removable battery does seem a bit mad especially as its not a light that last days and days like some of the little LED lights

As I was driving home last night overtaking lots of bikes it suddenly dawned on me that so many bike lights are designed with the cyclist in mind, so they are ultra small or do not flash. In reality the basic requirements of a light should be what the motorist needs to notice the bike. So a non flashing light is just not as easy to see.

In reality the basic requirements of a light should be what the motorist needs to notice the bike. So a non flashing light is just not as easy to see.

But [url= http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/whats-this-about-lights-being-too-bright ]as mentioned yesterday[/url], only having a flashing light is also useless to motorists.

(the sparse lights do flash by the way - read the description).

Problem is, people are already stealing kit off bikes by undoing the stem. Easiest way to relieve a bike of a nice pair of STIs is to cut the cables, undo the steerer clamp and take the lot. Security bolts might help a little I guess.

Wow!

I design products for a living and after 20 years in the trade I've never seen an internet forum (or research group) realise the fundamental limitation of an idea/feature so quickly!

'wwaswas' nailed it in the first post.
I hope the folk from 'SPARSE' buy him a beer...?

...and yet all over the place disc brakes, forks, cranksets and carbon finishing kit aren't being nicked from otherwise locked-up bikes. Obviously that happens, but I am amazed what doesn't get stolen from bikes all that often really.

Sadly it's an increasing occurence, certainly in London. A guy I know had an entire crankset and bottom bracket stolen from his locked bike. One nasty trick is to kick a wheel in so the bike is disabled, and the owner has to leave it there overnight, and the thieves come back and strip the bike/take it completely. the market for second hand bike parts is fast growing, with Ebay etc, so this type of crime is sadly quite common.

trickydisco - Member
out of interest, what's the bike? Some custom retro job painted up?

It's a Bianchi Fremont frame repainted and random parts, Cinelli Valencia bars. [url= http://www.bianchiusa.com/archives/2007/born-for-performance/fremont/ ]http://www.bianchiusa.com/archives/2007/born-for-performance/fremont/
[/url]

CraigW » It looks like brake cables / gear cables etc could get in the way.
Which is why the bike in that top photo has none. We can't let reality get in the way of design.

and most people here would just wait until they appeared in DX for peanuts....

I just took them off to get a better product shot : )

Hey hey.. welcome haleyt!
Hope the user feedback was useful and not [i]too[/i] negative 😀

One allen key and it's gone 😉 . To remove the dynamo and front headlight from my dutch cruiser is a 2x10mm spanner job. A hub dynamo is the solution.

And as B and M will tell you, those brackets are under a lot of vibration. I expect it will fail with regular use. Most headlights are now fixed to brake bolts with some impressive stainless steel.

EDIT: and of course it's already been done by Vanmoof

[img] [/img]

One allen key and it's gone

It only needs to be harder to steal than the one next to it. ("outrunning a lion" theory)

Plus it's easy enough to replace headset Allen bolts with security bolts, or use a secure top-cap (or go ghetto and superglue ball-bearings into the bolt heads) - any of which will help to prevent you getting your forks nicked too.

It's a nice piece of design and quite an elegant solution to add it to the headset spacers.

But I don't really see the problem with getting some normal lights and then taking them off the bracket and putting them in your bag/pocket? Is stealing empty brackets a something that happens? And if you need to swap them around things like the Cateye brackets are pretty quick and easy to swap, or you can get extras for most others for a few pounds.

So, solution looking for a problem for me, and too much form over function. Although if you've got the right sort of bike and the aesthetics are important to you I guess this would complement it quite nicely.

actually the mount is good and the bike looks good with the lamp fitted.

If the wedge shaped lighty uppy bit was removable then it would offer 'off bike' recharging plus an elegant look when on it (even if you were ridign without the lamp installed it would be ok) - a lot of lamps/brackets look pretty poor. You could get multiple mounts for multiple bikes if needed.

I don't really see the problem with getting some normal lights and then taking them off the bracket and putting them in your bag/pocket?

I suspect we're not the target audience (Clue: there isn't a lot of pocket space when you are wearing your sister's jeans 🙂 )

Hmm, true... but what about in the manbag?

Might scratch up the moleskin journal.

Isn't this a similar concept but no issue with charging the lights....

[url= http://www.reelight.com/ ]Reelights[/url]