Designed With A Roll Cage, This Bicycle Can survive A Crash With A Semi

If an 80,000-pound semi truck slams into the new Babel Bike, the bike is meant to live on—together with the particular person riding on it. The Babel Bike surrounds the rider in a “safety cell”—a customized seat that looks like a go between the roll cage in a race automotive and a motorcycle seat made for a child.

“the safety cell is bodily sufficiently big so as not to get beneath the front or facet of large vehicles, so the Babel Bike (and rider) will probably be pushed away by means of the bus or truck, now not overwhelmed by means of it,” says Crispin Sinclair, the U.okay.-based entrepreneur who created the bike. A seatbelt holds the bicycle owner inside the safety cell, in order that they will not be thrown out in a crash.

Sinclair got here up with the speculation after a crash of his personal in London. When a turning van failed to see him in a bike lane, he narrowly evaded his own dying and his bike was beaten. He had an epiphany: Why now not redesign a motorcycle that would totally give protection to a rider? during the last couple of years, he labored with a crew growing tons of of prototypes of a safer bike.

the final bike has a number of different features that go beyond a typical design. If a cyclist pulls right into a truck’s or bus’s blind spot, the bike sounds an automated alarm. front and taillights come on routinely as somebody rides, even all the way through the day. The horn is as loud as a automotive’s, so drivers can in reality hear it. The bike also has turn signals, rear view mirrors, and foot protectors (one foot protector doubles as a Kryptonite lock). elements like wheels are locked to the body to forestall theft.

Sinclair believes that the bike can fundamentally exchange the number of people who find themselves prepared to experience on busy metropolis streets. “Survey after survey shows that safety is the #1 cause people give when requested why they don’t cycle more,” he says. “by means of being the first firm to construct devoted safety features into the bicycle we genuinely hope to result in an awfully important uptake in the selection of individuals the usage of their bikes every day.”

however will people need to journey a bicycle that looks so different from a classic design? Sinclair factors out that they’ve made the shift sooner than—in the 1800s, penny farthings with large wheels were commonplace. the brand new “safety bicycle,” invented in the 1880s, with the design we now recall to mind as same old, additionally had to go through a period of acceptance. “In 1884, the Rover security Bicycle would have looked very strange as it seemed totally different to what bicycles would have viewed as ‘normal’ for a bicycle,” Sinclair says.

The startup thinks the bike will be hottest in cities like London, the place, regardless of progressively more bike lanes, cyclists nonetheless steadily need to ride with visitors. In a place like Copenhagen, with a full community of separated lanes, it might be less vital—although even there, Sinclair argues that it may give protection to individuals on bikes from turning automobiles.

“right kind bicycle lanes are, of course, one of the best answer for bicycle safety,” he says. “but except these are put in all over the place big apple and London and lots of other cities all over the world, we hope and imagine that the Babel Bike shall be very fashionable.”

he’s currently elevating funds for the bike on Indiegogo. it is not low-cost—the Indiegogo bargain price is £1,999 (nearly $three,000), or £2,999 with an non-compulsory electrical motor. the corporate plans to offer payment plans for people who can’t have the funds for the up-front price, and hopes to make it available to everyone.

“it is going to work out not up to you may presently pay to shuttle with the aid of automotive, bus or train, assuming a typical commute of three miles or more each and every approach,” Sinclair says. “while you own the Babel Bike outright, your day-to-day commutes are totally free. and also you gained’t need to go to the health club or for a run afterwards, as you are going to have constructed your train into your daily commute.”