Bright LED cycling jacket

You’ve all probably seen those safety vetsts with flashing LED lights embedded in them, right? The vests I’ve seen previously have very weak, small lights that are essentially useless.

I expected more of this weak sauce when Badger Gears in Los Angeles asked me to look at their Indiegogo project for a new LED cycling jacket. This jacket, however, surprised me and exceeds my expectations, because they seem to use decently bright lights and sought user input on their design to create what seems to be a truly high visibility jacket.



Features include lights bright enough to see from a distance, USB rechargeable battery, and various strobe modes (flashing strobe, fade in and out, and steady on for jurisdictions like Santa Cruz where police enforce California Vehicle Code 25250) all attached to a high visibility yellow jacket with mesh lining and pockets.

In spite of this jacket’s appearance, this is not a rain jacket, but is made with lightweight, breathable polyester fabric.

Buyer beware: The rear facing white flashing lights might fall afoul of CVC 25950 in California if the light exceeds “0.05 candela or more per foot-candle of incident illumination,” however much light that is.

More info on this at Indiegogo.com. File this under Conspicuity.

5 Comments

  1. I have one of the vests with flashing LEDs and I find that it works quite well.

    As far as the jacket goes, I wish it had lights in the arms (particularly useful for signaling turns, etc).

  2. Charles, Thank you for your suggestions on putting lights in the arm area. We will definitely put that into consideration on our next version.

  3. The jacket that the first cat on the video is sporting won’t work … nobody will see those LEDs under that backpack. No matter how bright they are.

    Fail.
    🙂

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