Cobi smart biking system launches at £100 + video

German company iCradle is launching COBI, an all-in-one smart biking system that’s designed to be installed on any bike, starting at just over £100.

They call it the ‘world’s smartest connected biking system’ and say that it adds over 100 intelligent features to your bike.

The COBI system is partly hardware that gives any bike headlights, brakelights, and turning signals.

It’s also a smartphone app that offers GPS navigation, fitness tracking, weather forecasting, and Spotify integration.

COBI offers some features that are unprecedented in biking too – at least as far as we know. These include a security system that can only be unlocked with your smartphone password, and a battery pack that can charge your phone.

"I love biking, but I was so tired of looking down at my handlebars and seeing a whole mess of unintegrated gadgets, one for music, one for speed, another for heart race tracking,” said Andreas Gahlert, founder of iCradle. “COBI eliminates the clutter."

Gahlert has previous experience developing connected car systems for Audi, and has applied the same principles and functionalities to bikes.

COBI is being made available first via crowd-funding website Kickstarter. Of course it is!

You can get the system for US$159 – which is £101.47 at today’s exchange rate. iCradle are looking to raise pledges of $100,000 before 1 January 2015. As ever with Kickstarter, they won’t get anything unless they reach that target. Delivery is scheduled for May 2015.

Get full details on the Kickstarter page.