An organization known as Lumos makes an more and more fashionable helmet, the Kickstart, that comes with LED lights: white ones going through ahead, pink ones going through the rear, and amber ones on the entrance and rear “corners” of the helmets that function flip alerts. (You set off the flip alerts through a distant management that you just connect to your bike’s handlebars.) The lights work effectively—although you do want to recollect to show off the flip sign when you’ve accomplished your flip, as there’s no “blinker” sound to remind you—however we see a basic drawback with incorporating such expertise in a helmet. Bike helmets are, by design, “one and performed”: That’s, a helmet is supposed to get replaced when you hit your head, even when it seems to be undamaged. (What you’ll be able to’t see is whether or not or not the froth liner has been fatally compromised—that form of injury will likely be hidden by the outer shell.) Nonetheless, after having sunk $200 right into a helmet with turn-signal electronics that may’t be transferred to a brand new helmet (to date, they will’t), you would possibly understandably be reluctant to discard it simply because it may need some invisible injury. Lumos makes two different helmet kinds—the cheaper Extremely and the much more costly Matrix, which has a programmable LED signal on the again—however the electronics nonetheless can’t be transferred to a brand new helmet ought to it’s essential exchange the previous one. (Some fashions are supposedly obtainable in a MIPS model, however at an up-charge of $30 or $40.) Since we examined the Kickstart, Lumos has begun providing a 30% crash-replacement low cost, which we’re completely happy to see.
