bike lights

There are now numerous "smart" bike helmets available, most of which incorporate remotely operated LED turn indicators. Well, if that's the feature you really want, Blinxi lets you add it to your existing "dumb" helmet.

Although there are now several electronics-laden "smart" bike helmets on the market, the Lumos was one of the first. Now its designers are back, with the new-and-improved Lumos Ultra.

While a set of lights are an essential part of night-time bicycle commuting, advances in electronics have led to a number of headlights that do more than just shine straight onto the road. Here are a few such "value-added" lights that caught our eye.

Although headlights are essential for safe night-time bicycle commuting, the things may get stolen when the bike is left unattended. The Orb Droid addresses this problem, by actually integrating into the handlebar stem.

​​If you're driving at night, which are you more likely to notice: a single spot of light, or an entire illuminated human torso? Colorado-based cyclists Alex Mulvaney and Kathy Vega are betting on the second of the two, which is why they invented the ShineOn Dual Beam bike headlight.​

​Cyclists can already choose between plenty of spoke-mounted LEDs that turn their bike wheels into highly-visible "rings of light" while they're turning. MonkeyLectric has given the tech a new slant, though, with wheel lights that power up automatically – and only when needed.

​It's always a risk, leaving detachable lights on a bike that's parked in a public place. It can also be a hassle to carry them with you, though. A group of North Carolina-based entrepreneurs has developed an alternative, in the form of lights that are attached to a bike-mounted U-lock.

​We've already seen bike lights that are built into the stem, rims, fork, brakes, bars and even the kickstand. Jesse Iozzio, however, is trying something new – the Brooklyn-based entrepreneur's Integrated Bike Lights are incorporated into the wheel hubs' quick release skewers.

​Thanks to advances in both LED and Bluetooth technology, we've recently been seeing a slew of wearable bicycle-safety lighting products. The Wayv system, from a British startup of the same name, brings some interesting new features to the mix.

​We may have seen handlebar-mounted bicycle turn indicators before, but we've never seen ones quite light these. Inspired by the indicators on the Audi A8, Zarathustra lights each feature a ring of 20 LEDs that blink in sequence, plus they've got a unique brake light system.

​We've already seen hand-mounted rearview mirrors AND hand-mounted LED turn indicators designed for use by cyclists. British entrepreneur Paul Tolley has now combined the two, in the magnetically-activated Mirror Indicate – or Mi, for short.

We've already seen plenty of bicycle tail lights that double as brake lights and turn indicators, but the G-Light offers a handy extra feature – its turn indicator automatically switches off as soon as you've completed a turn, just like on a car.