Sombra, a New Way Of Looking At Bicycle Visibility

NEW YORK - Jan. 27, 2015 - PRLog -- Abstract

Sombra is an elegant lampshade, but unlike most it is meant for your bicycle!

This simple bicycle safety accessory utilizes some of the unused beam from powerful LED tail-lights and redirects it so it can be seen from every direction, thus significantly increasing your visibility.

That is not all it does, though. Sombra also ensures that other cyclists and motorists are not blinded by your LED beam as they are closing up on you, but rather see a diffused glowing object which makes it easier for them to assess your speed and distance.

Sombra is now crowdfunding on Indiegogo in order to start production. You can visit my Indiegogo campaign page here! (https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/sombra-the-lampshade-for-your-bicycle-tail-light?src=designboom) Contributions of any size are highly appreciated!

Story

This project began over a year ago, when I was living in London and cycling to college on a daily basis. Cycling in London was very different from what I was used to in Tel-Aviv my hometown. On one hand, the drivers are polite and the roads are in good shape but on the other hand it gets dark quite early in the winter time and bicycle lights are required by law (as I was graciously pointed out by a Met police on my first day riding home from school).

Coming from a hot dry country I was also taken by surprise by the large amounts of rain, which called for mudguards, another accessory I knew nothing about.

Since I needed a mudguard and wanted to see how I can design the light beam from my tail-light the logical step was to merge them into one product. Starting off with some folded paper and aluminum I made several models and put my emphasis on structural integrity, knowing I'm going to use Polypropylene sheets for its recyclable nature, price and refraction index I looked at LDPP mudguards and saw they tend to lose structural integrity with exposure to the elements.

After a reviewing many design iterations I was quite pleased with the outcome, but there were some inherent flaws with this mudguard/diffuser hybrid; the first time I rode in real rain I realized that mudguards need to be installed much closer to the wheel to be effective, this did not work out with the height at which the light needs to installed to be seen. Also the elongated closed design diffused the entire LED beam and although it made an excellent diffuser I wanted to keep the beams hot-spot visible from directly behind, this way it can still be seen from afar.

At this point I decided to reduce the product to it's core, a diffuser for the fall-off beam that gives great side visibility, honestly at some point I just wanted to know if my light is turned on or not; something I could not see while riding.

A smaller open version emerged, losing the bracket that fasted the mudguard to the seat-post was a joy; there are so many diameter standards it was surely going to be a problem in the manufacturing stage. I even considered 3D printing as a small volume production solution, but eliminating the bracket entirely and using the seat-post clamp bolt was a better more elegant solution.

Going through many models I finally reached a design that complimented the lines of a classic diamond frame and diffuses only the part of the beam that usually blinds in close encounters, giving great side visibility in return. This model was also small enough to fit in an envelope and be sent via mail, fitting my new concept of "Low Friction Products" in general these are products that can be made locally and distributed with regular envelopes world-wide, allowing a small business operation to Design Make and Sell a product.

The final product is yet to be made, Sombra is now on Indiegogo (https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/sombra-the-lampshade-f...), the complementary marketing part of Low Friction Products, I need your help to make it a reality. Visit my crowdfunding campaign and if you consider contributing you can be one of the first to get a Sombra.

Ofer Canfi