In the Details is our weekly look at especially smart, innovative or unusual details of a new design.
When Slava Menn of the Fortified Bicycle Alliance decided to design a theft-proof bike light, he solicited ideas from as many bicycle enthusiasts, engineers and passersby as he could convince to offer an opinion. So when he was ready to put the light’s mettle to the test, once again he turned to the crowd.
One afternoon last year, Menn and his business partner, Tivan Amour, headed out to Kendall Square in Cambridge, Massachusetts, to invite passersby to walk away with their theft-resistant bike light. The team announced in poster board and Sharpie: “Free bike lights… if you can steal them.” Next to the light, Menn offered an array of bicycle light–busting tools: needle-nose pliers, an Allen wrench, lock wrenches and heavy-duty plumbing wrenches. If strangers could pry the light from the bike in two minutes (“No opportunistic thief will spend more than two minutes,” explains Menn), the light was theirs to keep.
Over the course of an hour and a half, 20 to 30 people faced off against the lock. Menn believes the location offered a strong set beta of testers. “It’s a tech-y, entrepreneurial community,” he says. “But it wasn’t until we got a bike-shop mechanic coming in that we got a little bit nervous.” Thanks to the early wisdom of the crowd, not a single light was stolen.
After launching the Defender last year, Fortified is working on two new lights called Aviator (left) and Afterburn.
Post a Comment