Pedalite, the brilliant new pedals that could save your life! Battery-free 360° visibility pedal lights of the fit and forget kind.
During my visit to the Cycle Show 2007 I was kindly given a set of Pedalite pedals for review and on Wednesday, October 17, 2007 I finally got around to fitting those innovative pedals to my general bicycle, an oldish Raleigh Pioneer Classic, one that has still been hand-built in Nottingham.
The fitting was an absolute doddle once I had managed to get the old, and by now well past use-by date, pedals that I was in fact still using on that bike off. I know I should have had new ones fitted a long time ago as the reflectors had all, bar one, broken off but I never got around to doing so. Thanks to Chris Stimpson from Pedalite International Ltd. who kindly provided the review set there now are new pedals on that cycle and I shall report a little more in due course on how they work and ride in day-to-day use. (So stay tuned for those little reports over the next couple of months).
Pedalite Pedals are the unique battery-free pedal lights that have been designed to make cyclists more visible to motorists, day and night, from a distance of 1km away and from any angle, including the side. As soon as you start pedalling the Pedalites uniquely harvest and store a small amount of energy so the lights continue to flash when the cyclist is freewheeling or has stopped at a road junction.
75% of cycling accidents happen at, or near, a road junction [Source RoSPA 2005], where cycles need to be seen from the side. Pedalites help cyclists create their own virtual cycle lane as motorists naturally give cyclists with Pedalite Pedals more space through a wider berth and distance, increasing their safety.
The pedals are made of DuPont nylon (used by the aerospace industry) giving exceptional strength and durability. When the cyclist starts pedalling a small and unnoticeable amount of their kinetic energy is converted into electrical energy which is used to light small diode ‘bulbs’ that flash at fraction-of-a-second intervals. The rest is stored in the capacitor to provide up to five minutes of flashing light when pedalling stops.
Pedalite Pedals are used in 22 countries around the world. They are used by emergency services, including multiple police forces, commuters, school children, students, cycle clubs, government departments, and cycling enthusiasts.
Major blue chip companies and ‘Bike to Work’ schemes are also offering them to their employees as part of their corporate social responsibility programme.
With no batteries required, recycled cardboard packaging and efforts to keep the carbon footprint as low as possible, being seen while cycling does not have to harm the environment.
The lights retail online at www.pedalite.com at £34.99 and they are also available from good cycle shops in the UK and overseas. For more information see the company's website at www.pedalite.com.
Review by M V Smith, October 2007
Product Review – Pedalite
