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TECH NEWS

New Bell helmet offers collision avoidance alert

Smart helmet warns of dangers outside your field of vision

A new helmet from Bell senses and automatically notifies you of potential oncoming dangers that are outside your natural field of vision.

BRG (Bell, Ridell, Giro) Sports and camera specialists 360fly have announced a lineup of smart helmets at the 2016 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, USA. 

The helmets offer many features, including video capture and mobile editing, and although they are designed for mountain biking, snow sports and motorcycling, we wonder whether some of the technology will eventually cross over into the road bike world. The mountain bike helmet in question is the Bell SuperR with 360fly (pictured).

The feature that most interests us is called “Collision Avoidance Alert”. The idea is that it lets the rider know of dangers outside of their field of vision so they can take evasive action. 

The 360fly has a 360° lens (the clue’s in the name) and that makes us wonder whether the Collision Avoidance Alert could eventually morph into a safety feature for road cycling.

That’s speculation, but we’d be surprised if Bell and sister-brand Giro weren’t at least exploring the possibility.

Bell says that all of the helmets’ features will undergo a series of tests over the coming months in preparation for release later in the year.

For more info on Bell helmets go to www.bellhelmets.com

Mat has been in cycling media since 1996, on titles including BikeRadar, Total Bike, Total Mountain Bike, What Mountain Bike and Mountain Biking UK, and he has been editor of 220 Triathlon and Cycling Plus. Mat has been road.cc technical editor for over a decade, testing bikes, fettling the latest kit, and trying out the most up-to-the-minute clothing. We send him off around the world to get all the news from launches and shows too. He has won his category in Ironman UK 70.3 and finished on the podium in both marathons he has run. Mat is a Cambridge graduate who did a post-grad in magazine journalism, and he is a winner of the Cycling Media Award for Specialist Online Writer. Now over 50, he's riding road and gravel bikes most days for fun and fitness rather than training for competitions.

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don simon fbpe | 8 years ago
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This is an obvious solution, I'm sick to death of cyclists who take no avoiding action and passively let cars/buses/lorries etc hit them and then have the audacity to blame the poor driver.

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richardc412 | 8 years ago
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how does it alert you? is it a visual or audible alert? surely if your told something is going to collide with you its instinctive to look in that direction and therefor taking your attention away from where your going. i feel it has more safety concerns  than added safety.

 

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