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Comment count is 31
Hooker - 2014-04-25

So it's part ankle bracelet, part shock collar for your kid's bike.

Just explain the dangers of riding a bicycle to your kid and quit trying to meticulously control them.


infinite zest - 2014-04-26

I grew up on a pretty steep hill on a "roadway not improved" road, so the worst that would happen would be me eating shit on the grass or hitting a stop sign or something. Lesson learned, but I see this being useful for parents in more urban environments.

My neighborhood's making this transition from mostly 20something drunk-in-the-afternoon hipsters to 30something parents, and it's relatively flat, but cars and motorcycles and adult bicyclists still fly out of nowhere as if they forgot that there's kids around. I haven't seen an accident yet, but definitely some close calls.

If I was a kid I'd hate this like a dog hates a choke-chain, but I also thought helmets were for pussies when I was a kid. 16 stitches later I always wear a helmet. If I was suddenly stopped, or going so fast that I was thrown off my bike, I'd be pissed, but if I knew there was a bus whose sounds I didn't yet recognize I'd probably be thankful in hindsight.

Also, I think this is intended for kids first learning to ride, really not going fast enough to warrant an over-the-handlebars accident. A sick part of me wants to buy one of these and secretly install it on a friend's bike when he's drunk. Biking to the store to get beer? Didn't think so.


SolRo - 2014-04-26

zest is spot on, this is for training wheels learning, to keep your oblivious 4 year old (or whatever age bike riding starts) from riding into traffic.


Braze - 2014-04-25

so this thing suddenly stops the bike on a kid who isn't expecting it, sounds like a good idea


Konversekid - 2014-04-26

And when the battery gets low.

You would expect them to see that they could make a safer device and not have to use batteries if design possessed a wheel that was in constant contact with the back tire to generate power and allow for some sort of controlled deceleration mechanism like a caliper brake.

Seriously, I have no idea how this design seems like a good idea for a bike that doesn't have training wheels.


Caminante Nocturno - 2014-04-26

"I swear to God, I hit the button when he was still on the sidewalk! There must have been some kind of delay on the damned thing that made it react late!"


EvilHomer - 2014-04-26

Mivan srácok kidobtak az auditól? Régen se volt ilyen azt mégis túléltük, azoktól a szülőktől akik nem figyelnek a gyermekeikre azok meg legközelebb húzzanak már gumit, mert olyanoknak nem való.


magnesium - 2014-04-26

I'm picturing a multitude of unsuspecting children being flung over their handlebars when their bicycles suddenly stop. Ha ha, children.


EvilHomer - 2014-04-26

How abruptly do these brakes apply pressure? He claims they are developed to be "safe", which presumably means that they've been tested with kid-flinging in mind, but I'm having a difficult time envisioning a scenario in which the brakes apply pressure gradually enough to prevent dangerous spills from occurring on a regular basis, yet quickly enough to still be useful in the sort of emergency situation it's designed to stop.


Redford - 2014-04-26

The mechanism itself is shown in the video, and it both seems pretty sudden, and questionable effectiveness. Notice how there are EXACTLY ZERO DEMONSTRATIONS in that video. For some reason this company is so proud of it's bike-stopping device yet refuses to show any videos of it in action, instead giving us an animated cartoon involving a teddy bear. Also, the one demonstration they show us the wheel stops pretty fast, yo. Pretty sure they know if you do that to a kid learning how to ride a bike at any decent speed, he's going to go tumbling off.


Binro the Heretic - 2014-04-26

I wonder how long it will be before some asshole with a bit of tech savvy makes a universal remote and starts making kids suddenly stop at random.


infinite zest - 2014-04-26

You mean the CGI teddy bear isn't real? :(


SolRo - 2014-04-26

I know I shouldn't expect you mental giants to understand how a bike works, but how can you be so dumb as to think that locking the rear wheel would make someone flip over the handlebars?

Or were you bouncers too cool to ever ride a bike as a kid and lock the rear wheel to do a kids version of a powerslide?


EvilHomer - 2014-04-27

You really love your nanny state, don't you?


EvilHomer - 2014-04-27

^ Sorry, reply to your other comment. This one was going to get a reply about how SolRo is a Bike Scientist.


EvilHomer - 2014-04-27

Also, just to clarify, are you arguing that suddenly locking the rear wheels will not result in forward handle-bar flips (correct, in most cases), or that suddenly locking the rear wheels will not result in accidents, but rather in kids going all Tokyo Drift like little badasses?


SolRo - 2014-04-27

handlebars, but honestly a bike wouldn't do any kind of horrible high speed accident if you locked the rear wheel.

at worst it would slow down until it fell over.

(and no, bikes don't explode when that happens, no matter how well the action movies have taught you physics)


SolRo - 2014-04-27

and for the nanny state thing;

were you one of those sheltered faerie children that had a bike with rubber tires instead of wood, and wasn't 12 feet tall, and had brakes?


themilkshark - 2014-04-26

This is designed to end those horrible slo-mo scenes in movies where the helpless parent chases after the kid with no peripheral vision.


Binro the Heretic - 2014-04-26

Oh, for crying out fucking loud.

It's bad enough we make children encase themselves in armor just to ride a fucking bike, now this shit?

What's next, a device to limit their top speed and side impact airbags for when they fall over from not being able to go fast enough?


SolRo - 2014-04-26

"BACK IN MY DAY..."

"KIDS THESE DAYS!"

"NANNY STATE!!!"


memedumpster - 2014-04-26

Not a worthy substitute for disposable robot children.


BorrowedSolution - 2014-04-26

Just to clarify some basic physics for some of the posters here; rear brakes will NOT throw you over your handle-bars. Jesus.


Binro the Heretic - 2014-04-26

True enough, but it can still cause a nasty wipeout.


BorrowedSolution - 2014-04-26

I'm going to go ahead and assume that anybody this paranoid is also going to outfit little Johnny with a helmet and knee/elbow pads and will have him riding his bike on a hamster wheel.


Lord_Crocodilicus - 2014-04-26

Or, you stop the bike in an intersection.


infinite zest - 2014-04-26

It's not impossible to be thrown forward from stopping solely with the rear brake, but once again we're talking pretty fast speeds. Actually the idea of a possible fishtail sounds much more horrifying if you're going what I assume is about .5 MPH.


SolRo - 2014-04-26

it actually is impossible, unless your bicycle has a dragster tire for a rear wheel, and only if said tire is heavier than the rider.


BorrowedSolution - 2014-05-02

Man, it's pretty bad when SolRo knows more about a topic than most of the posters in the thread.


bluebeetle - 2014-04-27

Countdown to someone hacking the transmitter while Tanner's in the middle of the road.


Jet Bin Fever - 2014-04-27

Hell no, fourners. I ain't givin' you no money!


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