Smart Hat designer puzzled by cyclists’ negative response

Just needs a head-up display with integrated Garmin navigation and bluetooth connection to a smartphone and it's perfect....

It seesm odd that rather than just making it and seeing if people buy it, he seems to want the New South Wales government to use this to introduce compulsary regestration plates foir cyclists giving him a captive market.

Dear BBC
I have found you a candidate for the next series of the Apprentice

Regards

This continues to be a great wind up. Don't play this guy at poker.

I actually used the feedback mail address on his web site to say I couldn't tell if he was joking or not. I didn't get a reply. Maybe I shouldn't have worded it as "or really are a complete idiot".

Whatever the designer was on at the time... I'll ha...
actually i'd rather not..

I wonder if the proximity chip will also allow me to pay for my cafe stops contactless..
iPhone in my helmet. means of payment too... maybe he IS onto something...

[/sarcasm]

Normally I feel sorry for the struggling inventors that get as far as production then go down the pan due to poor marketing / lack of funding.

When this one goes belly-up (if it gets off the ground), I will feel releived and hope that he moves onto better things that don't involve him working / listening to people.

It looks like when Homer was invited to design a car on the simpsons....

http://www.giantfreakinrobot.com/sci/homer-simpsons-car-future-exists-pr...

So he's like you people arent listening to my great idea. Here's an idea! Like why dont you listen to what we're telling you???

Perhaps should go on UK TV's Dragons Den. One of them is a cyclist so that would be interesting and perhaps make him see sense before he remortgages his house on this.

Well he can always come over here and get a job in British Government, he's clearly removed from both what the people want and what is economically viable, so he would fit in perfectly.

Prefers vehicles, can't believe his how much research he has put into his project without finding there are more head injuries in car incidents than cycling.

“I know people are willing to spend 10-15K on a bicycle. What’s the value of safety, or saving yourself from trauma to your head?"

10-15k UAD? Really? Well you go chase that market then. Good luck with that.

I'm just amazed. If he is genuinely 'bemused' by the negative reaction then he really is an idiot.

Following his logic, pedestrians should probably wear something like this (with reg plates of course)...

http://www.mywaterball.com/zorb/bumperball.html

Are we sure there is not some massive corp with a vested interest behind this?

perhaps we are missing a trick here. This thing is not designed for cyclists - it is designed for rabid right-wing anti-cyclist politicians and their lobbyists (and the Daily Fail brigade).

After all, Mr King has not tried to sell this idea to us, he went straight to his state governors.

That we don't like it may just be adding to the attraction?

He doesn't seem to understand how market research works. If his potential customers don't like his potential product, the product is wrong. He needs to go back to his drawing board and design another product.

Personally speaking, I'm not buying anything that big if it doesn't have a gyro-stabiliser unit to stop me falling off my bike. And a jet-pack to zoom me out of the way if a lorry is going to run me over. And a tranquiliser gun to immobilise any driver who does run me over, until the police arrive. His design is just missing too many essential features.

I think the registration plate in the picture says a lot about the mindset of the designer. "Here, wear a cumbersome neck-injury inducing crate on your head so that I can read your registration number when you do something I don't like - uh, I mean for your own safety!"

Going to the government smells a little bit like trying to force a roll-out.

I wonder if he will want to roll it out to pedestrians too...

Mad. Totally mad. I wonder if this guy has actually tried riding a bike with a massive weight on his head to try to understand the negative reactions?

Not all of the ideas are bad. There's just too much crammed into a too-big helmet. And I don't want a registration plate on the back of my head. Seriously.

I think he should go ahead and manufacture it. I just hope that it's done with his own money and not muppetfunding, then again a fool and their money etc...
Obviously this safety expert know better than the people who are expected to part with their hard earned. Lessons have to be learnt, no matter how hard or expensive they are.
One final note, I would imagine that those who spend $10-15,000 on a bike will be looking for something more aerodynamic and less weighty for their money.

better still - make yourself a prototype Mr. King, then go out for a ride with it on for 4-5 hours and see why we are having something of an adverse reaction to it...

"he honestly prefers vehicles”

Says it all, really.

I still can't believe this is not an April Fool...

this idiot is actually genuinely serious...

Quote:

King admits that he doesn’t actually ride a bike himself

Wow, no sh!t sherlock!

Even Clarkson had a go on a bike out when he tried to talk to cyclists.

Please someone ask this guy what his background in head protection design is?
He is campaigning that this thing is going to be an improvement is safty - does he have any facts and figures to back this up?

I couldn't believe it when it was revealed he didn't cycle!!!

"here’s something that will improve safety" - I think that's where he started going wrong

"whats the value of safety" - well, that's actually a big question, not a rhetorical question to which he expects the answer : "whatever you want to charge, mate"

I reckon the mix of his 'mixed response' is actually something like this : from cyclists "no" , from a few other non-cyclists who think they know it all "oh thats a good idea"

Truly, I feel a bit sorry for him that he has got it so spectacularly wrong and cant believe it. Eventually he'll realise that he's flogging a dead horse, but currently the whip seems to be flying. Give it up ! Give it up !

Has he designed one for pedestrians and motorists too? It would make their journeys safer, surely?

Next step is to remortgage his house to get the thing into production.

Go for it, big fellow, we're all with you, it's a no-brainer!

I keep waiting for him to reveal that it's all been a BrassEye-inspired wind up. A satirical look at the ludicrous state of anti-cycling feeling.

Surely...