Maps are great, unless you're on a bike. Then they're not so great. These smrtGRiPS handlebar grips use haptic signals to help cyclists navigate around town. Boréal Bikes
Maps are great, unless you're on a bike. Then they're not so great. These smrtGRiPS handlebar grips use haptic signals to help cyclists navigate around town.
The 3.5 ounce smrtGRiPS sync with the rider’s smartphone over Bluetooth. Plug in your destination, and the handlebars take it from there. Boréal Bikes
The 3.5 ounce smrtGRiPS sync with the rider’s smartphone over Bluetooth. Plug in your destination, and the handlebars take it from there.
The tactile language consists of vibrations so as you approach a turn, for instance, the handlebars will buzz to prevent you from missing it. Boréal Bikes
The tactile language consists of vibrations so as you approach a turn, for instance, the handlebars will buzz to prevent you from missing it.
Unless you’re on your daily commute, in which case you can probably navigate the streets and necessary turns blindfolded, odds are you’re using a map. Probably the Google Maps app on your phone. That’s a big problem for urban cyclists weaving through traffic: glance down for a moment, and your life is on the line.
It’d be best to ignore phones altogether, which is why new company Boréal Bikes’s inaugural product is smrtGRiPS, an eyes-free, hands-on pair of handlebar grips that use haptic communication signals to help cyclists get around town. Boréal CEO Louis Huard figures that by launching a swap in, swap out bike accessory rather than an entire smart bike—like Industry and Ti Cycle’s entry design for this year’s Bike Design Project—he and his company can reach more cyclists, and improve more rides. “It’s the lowest denominator,” he says. “We can be on any bike and make any bike connected.”
Boréal Bikes
The 3.5 ounce smrtGRiPS (“really stealthy,” Huard says) sync with the rider’s smartphone over Bluetooth. Cyclists plug in their route in the navigation system in the Boréal app (Huard says they’ll have an open API, so down the line other mapping services might be available too), and the grips can take it from there. “After that the app sends the notifications to the smrtGRiPS, which turns those notifications on as haptic feedback,” Huard says of the tactile language he created for the grips. As you approach a turn, for instance, the vibrations in the handlebars grow stronger to prevent you from missing it. The communication signals work both ways: later, you can access your bike’s parked location through the app.
Like any good tech company CEO these days, Huard is just as excited about the data Boréal can rack up as he is about the product. By tracking rides, he has the ability to see which streets and pathways work best for bikes. Without enough crowdsourced input, he imagines creating a new layer of maps tailored to a community of city cyclists.
SmrtGRiPS will cost $68. Check out the Indiegogo campaign here.
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