Motorcycles

BikeHUD Adventure to include transparent display and front/rear HD cameras

BikeHUD Adventure to include transparent display and front/rear HD cameras
BikeHUD Adventure - a significant step forward for BikeHUD
BikeHUD Adventure - a significant step forward for BikeHUD
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BikeHUD Adventure: a significant upgrade for BikeHUD
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BikeHUD Adventure: a significant upgrade for BikeHUD
BikeHUD's rule of thirds
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BikeHUD's rule of thirds
BikeHUD Adventure Vision's on-demand rear vision camera
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BikeHUD Adventure Vision's on-demand rear vision camera
BikeHUD Adventure Vision - HUD unit, plus bike-mounted components including cameras.
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BikeHUD Adventure Vision - HUD unit, plus bike-mounted components including cameras.
BikeHUD Adventure Plus - HUD unit, plus bike-mounted components
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BikeHUD Adventure Plus - HUD unit, plus bike-mounted components
BikeHUD Adventure, right, pictured with the BikeHUD Classic monocle.
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BikeHUD Adventure, right, pictured with the BikeHUD Classic monocle.
BikeHUD's safety camera warnings
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BikeHUD's safety camera warnings
BikeHUD's bike-mounted cameras
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BikeHUD's bike-mounted cameras
BikeHUD Adventure, left, pictured with the BikeHUD Classic monocle.
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BikeHUD Adventure, left, pictured with the BikeHUD Classic monocle.
BikeHUD's GPS navigation screen
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BikeHUD's GPS navigation screen
Three generations of BikeHUD displays - the prototype, left, followed by the BikeHUD Classic monocle, centre, and the much smaller BikeHUD Adventure
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Three generations of BikeHUD displays - the prototype, left, followed by the BikeHUD Classic monocle, centre, and the much smaller BikeHUD Adventure
BikeHUD Adventure - a significant step forward for BikeHUD
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BikeHUD Adventure - a significant step forward for BikeHUD
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When we reviewed Bikesystems' BikeHUD motorcycle heads-up display earlier this year, we had two big problems with it. We weren’t impressed with the chunky "monocle" unit that sits inside your helmet, and we didn’t like the tangle of wires between the HUD and its on-bike componentry. But BikeHUD was always a product in development, and now the company is moving to fix both those problems with BikeHUD Adventure, a thin, transparent display that can run wirelessly off a smartphone, or hook into a fuller in-bike installation to give you extra functionality like live rear view camera and front/rear video recording.

BikeHUD is looking to take a significant step forward with the addition of a thin, transparent display to replace its large black "monocle." BikeHUD Adventure, like its predecessor, will fit inside pretty much any helmet thanks to custom designed mount kits that will ship with the unit.

Instead of a shrouded LED screen, the Adventure will use a much sharper, high definition TFT display, "illuminated by LED driven fiber optic technology." The image will be reflected into the rider’s vision using beam splitting glass, making the Adventure model look a lot more like what you’d imagine out of a motorcycle HUD than the previous "Classic" model.

BikeHUD Adventure: a significant upgrade for BikeHUD
BikeHUD Adventure: a significant upgrade for BikeHUD

BikeHUD Adventure

Running on an Android 5 (Lollipop) operating system, the Adventure will have its own onboard battery, so you’ll be able to run the whole thing off a smartphone without installing any of the BikeHUD gear on your bike.

This standalone install will give you GPS navigation information, speed camera warnings and some information from your smartphone, such as caller ID and music track names, as well as the all-important speedo number.

The GPS chips in smartphones, however, aren’t designed to excel as speedometers, so speed will update in a slightly laggy fashion when you run BikeHUD Adventure as a standalone kit. This kit is expected to retail for UK£310 (US$485) before sales tax.

BikeHUD Adventure Plus

For a slicker experience you’ll need to install the BikeHUD onboard components, which include a brain unit and GPS module. Speed updates 100 times per second, and with other wires and sensors spliced into your bike’s wiring harness, you gain more information, such as tacho, gear position and indicators. BikeHUD Adventure Plus, as this kit is known, will cost UK£562 (US$879) before tax.

BikeHUD Adventure Vision's on-demand rear vision camera
BikeHUD Adventure Vision's on-demand rear vision camera

BikeHUD Adventure Vision

And finally there’s BikeHud Adventure Vision, which adds to the Plus kit by installing front and rear facing cameras on the bike, both to record vision as a dash-cam and to provide a rear vision video feed directly to the HUD.

The cameras are powered off the bike’s battery, removing the need to charge them every ride. Each camera records a field of view of 170 degrees in 1080p HD with anti-judder stabilization processing built in, and recording is synchronized for easy editing. The Vision kit, including all on-bike components and the transparent HUD, will retail for UK£946 (US$1,481).

BikeHUD is aiming to crowd-fund the development process this time around, looking to raise UK£120,000 (US$187,886) though a Kickstarter campaign, which includes a pledge level of UK£195 (US$305) for those that already have the Classic BikeHUD and are looking to upgrade to an Adventure, while those without an existing unit will need to shell of UK£245 (US$385) or more to get on board. Deliveries are slated to begin from August 2015 if all goes to plan.

You can check out the team's video pitch below.

Source: Bikesystems

View gallery - 12 images
3 comments
3 comments
Nelson Hyde Chick
The price for the system is half as much as an Aria helmet, what a deal.
Antonius Dalezios
Great idea, even those the bike helmet SKULLY AR-1 was first, I think :)
RC
Looks dangerous, that piece of glass in front of the eye, like a blade waiting to cut during a small crash.