Hey guys! Hope you’re well. We’ve got a ton of updates for you, so let’s get right to it!

Product Updates:

USB charger

There’s been some curiosity over why we’ve chosen a magnetic cable over a microUSB charging cable. We considered this extensively before making a decision, and we wanted to share with you why we went in this direction.

Essentially it was to allow us to attain better water and splash resistance: Our original beta design used a micro USB plug and we found its protection against splash to be inadequate given the rainy environments we can often suddenly find themselves in while out riding. This new design is a much better shield against water splash, and allows you to ride in the rain and snow with confidence that your helmet will not get damaged.

The tradeoff is your helmet not being compatible with standard microUSB cables that you probably already have lying around your home for various phones/electronic devices. But keep in mind that your helmet in its nature is significantly more exposed to the elements than most of your electronic devices. This necessitates its own solution, and that is why we’ve gone with a magnetic cable that allows the helmet to have no open ports that would be susceptible to water ingress.

Brake Light / Automatic Warning Light

See it in action!

We have been working on improving the brake light function for some time now and we’re finally ready to provide you with a detailed update. A central difficulty has been finding a balance in sensitivity. Sensitive enough to catch most changes in speed, but not so sensitive that it activates at every vibration. We made a few changes and improvements from what we had in the beta unit:

First: We moved the motion sensor from the helmet to the remote.

Given how often your head moves independently of the motion of your bike, we came to realize that it does not really make sense to have the motion sensor in the helmet. Integrating the motion sensor in the remote makes it less prone to error.

Second: We’ve made it possible for you to adjust the sensitivity of the motion sensor through the app.

If you find that the warning light is too sensitive and coming on too often you can adjust it accordingly to suit your ride.

Third: We’ve made it possible to turn the feature on and off.

Using the brake light feature does come at a cost. It drains the battery of the remote much faster, and depending on how frequently the brake light is activated on your helmet, it also reduces the battery life of your helmet. You might also find that for your ride the brake light feature is not all that useful to you. If that is the case, you can easily turn the feature on and off with just the helmet (no app involvement required).

We’ve come a long way with this feature, and we think it’s ready for public release. At the same time we want to be transparent about the fact that we are still smoothing out some of its kinks, and it is not perfect yet. As such we are releasing the feature in “beta” mode only, and the helmets ship out with the brake light feature default setting to OFF because we think that the most responsible way to handle a beta feature is as an opt-in system. We also think it’s best that all riders set up the brake light to their own preference and style!

Shipping and Delivery

Delivery timeline

We are happy to announce that we were able to start shipping in August (albeit in small numbers), and so far 70 helmets have been delivered to backers! Some of you have been wondering why you have not received a pre-shipping survey yet: as we are shipping helmets in batches, we are sending surveys in batches as well. Don’t worry, yours is coming!

Our first large batch of several hundred helmets ship out at the beginning of October, and as this timeline progresses we will ramp up production to send larger and larger numbers of helmets out over the rest of October and November.

We understand that this may be both exciting and surprising: Many of you were expecting your helmets to have shipped by August, and we offer our sincere apologies for the delay. It is important to us that we send you only the best we can offer, although we regret that it has taken this long. We greatly appreciate your understanding, and it is only because of your patience that we have reached this point of achievement.

It is small consolation, but to make up for this unanticipated delay we are throwing in 2 extra freebies for everyone:

• One extra Lumos charging cable. Every helmet comes with one cable as standard, and extra cables are $12.90 each, but now we will provide everyone with a second additional charging cable free of charge!

Note: We made this decision only recently and some of you who have filled in your survey have already paid extra for additional charging cables. If you did so already we will be refunding you for that charging cable. You should see that processed in about 2 - 3 weeks.

• A water resistant Lumos Backpack Cover.

We thought this would be a great companion accessory to your helmet. Rain can come suddenly and unexpectedly, and with this Lumos Backpack Cover you can protect your backpack from rain AND enhance your visibility. The Lumos Backpack Cover will usually sell for $14.90 but we’re also throwing this in for you free of charge!

Lastly: Awards!

We were in Germany last week attending Eurobike, the world’s largest bike trade fair, and were surprised and deeply honored to be awarded their Best Gear of the Show Eurobike Gold Award! In their own words, “Among the winners are twelve products that the expert panel not only regards as outstandingly made but also have the potential to redefine the state of the art within the industry. Consequently, these products have been allocated a Gold Award, distinguishing them as the creme de la creme".

As a very young company completely new to the scene, we were psyched!

And as if that was not enough, around the same time last week it was announced that we’ve been named one of the Designs of the Year by the London Design Museum! It looks like the refined design encouraged by our beta testers and you guys has paid off!

We couldn’t have come this far without you. Your generous support, participation, and feedback have all been part of what has helped us make this product, and as we enter the homestretch of this journey we ask that you lend us just a little more of your patience. We’re nearly there, and we’re thrilled to be sharing the tangible result of everyone’s contribution to this project soon. We hope you’re as excited as we are!

 

Eu-wen, Jeff, and the entire Lumos Helmet team