Bike Light Burnout
This post is not necessarily what you think, and my apologies (sort of) to the selected video I chose to highlight this point. And double apologies for the relatively negative post….must be this incessant cold that refuses to leave despite “Spring” beginning. Anyways….
The video above describes a home made projection system that displays your speed onto the ground in front of you. The mechanism is quite involved and cumbersome, but I suppose as a prototype this is to be expected. What I find more objectionable is the continuous stream of “projects” that sound relatively cool, but ultimately don’t surpass any already established bike-related gadget on the market. Why would your speed need to be projected onto the ground in front of you when bicycle computers already sufficiently and accurately display that feature without issue?
The maker then goes on to explain the possibility of projecting a GPS map onto the ground in front of you, supposedly adding a “new” feature to the bike market, but is that REALLY a practical development? A projected GPS map with turn by turn instructions would only serve to add another distraction and make concentrating on the many dangers to bicycle travel that more difficult. Sure, it SOUNDS cool, but it’s not. I really struggle to find the relevance in pushing this out to the cycling market (the maker is submitting it to a magazine so you can create your own) and assume the value ends with the original maker simply tinkering around for fun. For bike commuters, however, this is just…impractical, to be nice.
I highlight this project to make a succinct point. Just as it’s pretty darn hard to improve on “the perfect machine”, the same applies to most other niches of the bike market as well. That isn’t to say new niches can’t be created or individual mechanisms can’t be improved, but with the advent of Kickstarter, it seems like every idea, no matter how absurd, is being put out into the world without considering a few basic premises.
1. Has this product already been made?
2. Does the idea improve on the ideas that have come before it?
3. Is the functioning of my idea practical in a real world setting?
So please, by all means, invent away. But if you’re idea isn’t improving on a previous one or the execution is downright impractical, leave it on the drawing board until it can at least answer the three previous questions.
What do you think? How do you perceive innovation in the bicycle market? Are these projects beneficial or just opportunistic / tinkering?
 to the selected video I chose to highlight this point. And double.. "Pin It")
atMarch 21, 2013 at 8:27 am
It IS opportunistic tinkering and there is NOTHING wrong with that and I would say that such non-commercial one-off projects are beneficial.
There is no reason to leave something like this “on the drawing board”. Here’s a person who got off his ass, built something, and put it out there. It doesn’t cost you anything other than the privilege of saying that it should never have been created in the first place.
RobMarch 21, 2013 at 9:21 am
Scott, I think the key point here is the ‘reason’ for making this product.
This guy is obviously part of the ‘maker’ culture, where creating ‘something’ and tinkering and learning is the key point,
not necessarily making something that is super useful.
I don’t think the goal here was to make a product that would fix a problem, but more just a ‘cool gadget’
I’m sure we all have bought items because they are cool or clever.
Rob.
AmateurParentMarch 21, 2013 at 11:58 am
The market will dictate success and failure rates of projects like these. Most people who are looking to spend hard earned money will put it toward innovations that solve problems or truly improve existing mechanisms. I wouldn’t spend too much time worrying about projects like this and instead focus on the truly amazing innovations that are worthy of our time and consideration.
BrianVanMarch 21, 2013 at 1:00 pm
Market and maker culture evangelizing aside, there’s some points I’d like to bring up:
* If you want to be an inventor and talk about your creations in public, that’s fine, but be an adult when it comes to polite criticism of your ideas. Adults seem to be a rare thing in this space. Everyone has thin skin and massive egos, and various people involved in the culture vigorously attack people who criticize any single idea as if it were retaliation for culture-wide violence. It speaks for how interactive media founders have accustomed themselves to using the leadership techniques of sociopaths and cult founders.
* Similarly, for tech culture, there’s a fetishization of ideas and things that are “interesting” and/or “cool”, to the extent that it is unhealthy and dysfunctional. While it may be difficult to persuade a fierce debate opponent of something’s uselessness with absence-of-evidence arguments, the larger, more agreeable point is that a person who only has attention span for “cool” things is a person who won’t get very far in life.
* One strong case for being entirely against an invention or an idea is when it creates a clear safety problem. That totally seems the case here.
* Another strong case for being against an idea, particularly an idea for selling something, is for an idea that doesn’t live up to its promises. The idea of projecting a useful and legible map in front of a bike rider doesn’t seem like something that is within the realm of modern simple technology, or something that is practical for most cyclists. Maybe it’s my loss if I’m dismissive about it and it’s actually a creation that is effective.
In any case, I understand if you’re annoyed at other people’s inability to consider practical concerns when they create or disseminate ideas. I sort of get similarly annoyed about the hipsters in Brooklyn that buy $4,000 fixies and don’t know how to ride them – particularly, how to stop them – but they want the rest of us to think they’re cool. Err, I don’t think so. Get a single speed with a hand brake and don’t be a menace to society.