Riding a bike or motorbike is a common sight in almost anywhere in the world. It’s much affordable than a car as a daily commute for work; or can also be a good way of physical exercise or recreation activity for health and well-being.

Even to professional cyclist, who cycling across states or countries, they can’t afford to lose a minute of focus in the life-threatening roads. Therefore, a set of safety equipment is a must-have for all the pro or amateur cyclist, regardless of ages. Beside of ultra-fit cycling jersey to reduce wind resistance and for extra comfort, the other fundamental wearable gears including a glove, knee/elbow pad, glasses, a good pair of shoe, and last but not least, a great looking helmet.

Unlike car driver who protected under a frame of metal, biker are generally “naked”. According to statistic, hundreds or even thousands of bikers and pedestrians were killed in bike crashes each year in US alone. Instead of machinery malfunction, they are mostly due to carelessness and lack of protective equipment. Out of that, distraction by phone call or listening to music may also cause biker unaware of the circumstances, including car’s signal light and horn.

Not long ago, we have reviewed a wrist watch that allows you to make/answer phone call with your fingertip. It’s because of the sound vibrations generated and transmited through your fingertip to reach your ear canal. Under the same principle, here we got a new gadget that brings road safety and music together in one.

Ahead | Turn Any Helmet Into A Smart Helmet

Ahead is a hand-free attachable gadget on cyclist’s helmet for answering phone calls, listening to music, navigation, activity tracking and more. It’s safer for cyclist since it doesn’t block the the ears entirely (i.e. for car horn) like any other earphones or headset. Therefore, no more wires tangling or uncomfortable ear buds while wearing helmet. Moreover, Ahead can be attach to almost any helmet that you already own.

Specification

Ahead is a lightweight portable device that weights only 63 grams (2.2 oz) and able to fit in your palm. It’s IP 45 water-proof and dust-proof so that you can ride freely even under the rain and listened to your favourite song at the same time.

It has two intuitive buttons for you to quickly control over your music play/stop, and volume. Via the Ahead app, the button is customisable for other functions. It wirelessly connects to your smartphone via Bluetooth 4.1 and is compatible with both iOS and Android devices. For battery, it has a standby-time for up to 3 days, music for 6 hours or up to 8 hours of talk time. It can be charged easily via a micro 5pin USB under just 1.5 hr.

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The technology of Ahead — is not a Bluetooth speaker.

Similar to Sgnl watch, a vibration generating oscillator to pass sound directly from your fingertip to your ears. Ahead vibrates to conduct sound wave onto random medium, helmet in this case, so that you can hear sound clearly even with traffic noises. With that, it also means that you can attach on almost any other medium to serve as a portable speaker anytime you want.

Ahead also built with audio mics to capture your voice clearly even under the wind/city noises. Thus, while riding a bike, you’re good to talk to your friend/family/Siri safely, and hand-free. Since helmet are varies from one to another, and the sound however, only deliver at a fixed angle, therefore you may need to try to find the best attaching spot so that to maximize the captured voice to be listened clearly on the other side of (e.g. your family) phone.

Ahead comes with 3 type of mounts — Velcro strap mount, curve mount and flat mount. To fit different helmet in the market, Ahead is able to mount on flat, curvy or helmet with lots of contours and venting.

Warranty | Price | Discount | Color

Each Ahead comes with 1 year warranty and is now available in blue, white and black. Each Ahead set is expected to retail at about $120. Via the link below to their official Kickstarter page, you can become an early backer to support their project with a huge early bird discount price up to 34%. Grab one fast for as low as only $79!