![]() ![]() It also ups the audio game with JBL speakers and adds some other tweaks. Livall’s latest model, the $139 BH51M Neo NSO Anniversary Edition smart helmet (top photo), retains the cool comms ability of the original, but changes form factor to a bucket-style lid with more coverage. I still have it, even though it stopped working a couple of years after I got it (it was, essentially, a prototype). ![]() It got attention like no other helmet I’d ever seen before - or since. “That thing looks like you’re wearing a circus on your head,” my editor at the time told me. Techie stuff to be sure, but the LED light show was clearly the main attraction. If you crashed, the helmet would automatically dial a contact as specified in the Livall app. A small Bluetooth controller on the handlebar adjusted volume, changed tracks, operated phone comms or activated the turn signals built into the back of the helmet. It also had built-in Bluetooth comms including stereo speakers, which didn’t sound that great but were still novel. It looked like a typical aero-style bike helmet, but it was positively slathered in LED strips that pulsed, flashed, chased, changed color and so on. LED lights on bikes are more common to be sure, thankfully, but for a relatively small investment, cyclists can make themselves much more visible to drivers and riders, day or night.Ībout six years ago, a company called Livall was running a crowdfunding campaign and sent me a helmet to review, and it was unlike anything I had ever seen before. They are everywhere, and quite often, they are hard to spot, especially after dark. But after a friend of mine hit a night-riding cyclist while riding his motorcycle, causing him to crash and be injured (along with the cyclist), I’ve doubled down on my visual scanning and reduced my speed here in Portland because bicycles are a thing here, and a big thing at that. ![]() And to be clear, the trend towards making bikes and riders more visible is on the rise, especially thanks to the rapid development of LED technology. One of my pet peeves as a cyclist, car driver and motorcycle rider is how hard it is to see some bicyclists, especially at night, a problem compounded as ebikes get more popular and people are riding faster and more often (I know I am). The latest LED-infused helmet from Livall includes a brake light and turn signals, and JBL speakers. ![]()
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