Can’t afford a smart bike? Smartify your dumb bicycle with this smart tail light

Personally, I love the idea of owning a smart bicycle – maybe one of the new Letv smart bikes announced last month. But smart bikes aren’t exactly cheap, and like most people, I don’t have US$700 to plonk down on something I want, but don’t really need.

Thankfully, there are cheaper alternatives; smart accessories you can strap to your bike to get some of the smart bike experience without the outrageous price. One of the most unique iterations on this concept is the FAST tail light, a smart bike accessory put together by a Shenzhen-based startup that just launched a Kickstarter campaign.

The FAST light is a smart LED light (with accompanying smartphone app, natch) that you attach to the back of your bike. It has multicolored programmable lights that you can get to make all kinds of crazy and colorful patterns, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg. FAST was built with safety in mind, and it is capable of detecting changes in the bike’s motion and position, enabling it to auto-alert your emergency contacts instantly if it perceives you’ve been in an accident. It can also detect light, and will light up automatically to ensure you’re visible if, for example, you’re biking through a tunnel. And when you’re away from the bike, an alarm will sound on your phone if the bike is being shaken or moved, which can help prevent thefts.

Here’s the company’s Kickstarter video pitch:

And here’s a demostration of how light color and scheme customization works in the startup’s app:

“The main design focus of FAST is rider safety and the security of their bikes,” engineer Carl Qin told me. “We built this product based on our experience as cycling enthusiasts.” Carl is one of five people on the tiny FASTeam (as they call themselves), which has been working on this project since mid-2014. Assuming their project gets funded, they plan on shipping the tail light in November of this year. After that, the sky’s the limit.

Sure, the FAST tail light isn’t as full-featured as a whole smart bike, but it also doesn’t cost nearly as much. Just US$30 is enough to reserve a unit, so if you’d like to add a little smart color (and a little safety) to the back end of your ride, you might want to consider checking out the FAST Kickstarter.