The benefits of wearing something reasonably bright on your bike in the midst of traffic are so obvious that even the most painfully fashion-conscious roadie will now put aside their elegant black and grey kit to wear a bit of yellow. Inventions to make cyclists, runners and walkers visible to sleepy car drivers in the evening rush hour are coming out daily. Some are technological marvels employing lasers, holograms, smart sensors, etc; and somewhere on this spectrum, you have products like the NiteBright Safety System.
The NiteBright Safety System takes an unusual approach to the problem of low-light visibility. In the box you get the harness - a sort of tabard to wear like a rucksack - and a second, miniature version that straps around a bag or pannier. The tabard/harness is yellow and has some reflective trim, but the main means of attracting attention is the NiteBright unit itself, an illuminated sign that slots into a clear plastic pocket on the back of the harness.
This illuminated sign is quite odd. The unit is fairly bulky (claimed weight 148g), but the illuminated area is unfortunately pretty small, just 152 x 68mm. A selection of six interchangeable signs are provided showing different sports and words that might reflect the warning you want to project: a bicycle, CHILD, joggers, SLOW, etc.
The LED unit is powered by three AAA batteries that fit in the bottom of the sign, which offer a claimed 80 hours of run time.
Somewhat underwhelmed by early impressions, I put in the batteries and took the NiteBright out to use with a city centre running group I coach in Glasgow in the evening. We ran along lit streets and unlit paths and parks, and passed the harness around so we could all try wearing it and get an idea of its visibility on other users. These were our impressions:
1. None of us could adjust the harness to fit well. It is very big, and for runners who tend to be slim and don't wear bulky clothes, it was bouncing around all the time.
2. The weight of the NiteBright unit is quite noticeable, and tends to work down your back until the harness chest strap is under your chin (there is no waist strap).
3. On the plus side, the NiteBright sign can be seen in darkness from a reasonable distance. However, as noted above it is very small. Changing the sign template to show a bicycle rather than a runner would be completely pointless. The warning triangle sign, seen from a distance, even seemed to read "taxi" which was quite comical.
4. There is nothing illuminating to the front of the garment, and the reflective piping is too thin to be very effective. Bicycles coming toward us on unlit paths therefore had no forewarning.
5. The phone pocket on the shoulder was too small for any of our phones.
6. General build quality and materials seemed poor. Cyclists and runners are happy to spend money on kit, but they are used to getting a very high quality finish on clothing and equipment.
In summary, the NiteBright Safety System has clearly been developed with good intentions, but unfortunately it is let down by the execution. Similar products already exist, and are of a higher standard.
With a price tag of £28.95, I feel that some key design changes are needed in order to appeal to the intended market and position the NiteBright as a worthwhile item of sports safety gear.
NiteBright Safety System, £28.95 from nite-bright.co.uk
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