Vanhawks' Valour: a Smart Bicycle

Vanhawks' Valour: a Smart Bicycle

An ambitious project on Kickstarter by a company called Vanhawk attempts to revolutionize the way we .. ride a bicycle. And although Kickstarter is just filled to the gills with pseudo-smart techno solutions to our mundane domestic issues that don't do well in the long run due to lack of practical usability, this project seems to be doing just fine with the funding, hinting us to believe it might actually be quite worthy. Vanhawks' Valour, a 'first ever connected carbon fibre bicycle', has gathered over $550.000 from 574 backers and still has 12 more days to go.

What you get with Vanhawks' Valour:

• A 16-pound carbon fiber bike that integrates the latest technology for your safety and comfort.  

• Your route is calculated with an app that will be released for Android, iPhone, and Pebble at launch. It will collect experience you and other Valour owners have had to give you better suggestions and nicer routes in the future.

• The route calculated with the app will take into account known problems on the road, closed routes and heavy traffic, trying to only give you roads with bike lanes.  

• The bike connects to your smartphone via low energy Bluetooth and provides a turn-by-turn navigation by lighting up LED indicators whenever you need to make a turn, thus keeping your eyes on the road at all times.

• The bar you are holding onto will amazingly become a viable source of information warning you whenever you are moving too close to traffic by vibrating.  

• As you are driving, the app remembers the real nasty potholes and other issues on the road and may re-calculate your route giving you a better detour next time. 

• Stolen bicycles aren't lost forever, and if you happen to face this problem, you will receive a notification when another Valour owner happens to ride near your bike.

• Finally, an API will be available for developers who are interested in improving their personal experience with Valour or helping the project.