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Video: Blaze Laserlight-Santander Cycles spooky (launch) movieJess Ennis-Hill on Blaze Laserlight Santander Cycles bike (video still)

Video: Blaze Laserlight-Santander Cycles spooky (launch) movie

Jessica Ennis-Hill and a Formula One driver star in spooky 'Blaze Witch Project' to celebrate rollout of Blaze Laserlights across Santander Cycles fleet...
by Laura Laker
Mon, Oct 24, 2016 15:11
8

Blaze Laserlights, which project the outline of a bike onto the road ahead of the rider in green laser light, are to be rolled out across London’s bike hire scheme in time for the lights to go back, with a spooky video, the Blaze Witch Project, released to mark the occasion.

The original announcement of the rollout of Blaze lights on all Santander Cycles was made back in December, with a Star-Wars themed video but Jess Ennis-Hill will officially launch the universal Blaze-ing of the bikes at an event in London tomorrow.

A trial of the lights on 250 Santander Cycles began last winter, after which 75 per cent of riders said the Blaze Laserlight made them feel more confident on the bike. They’re also fun to play with at traffic lights, by weaving the front handlebars.

In the video Ennis-Hill, newly retired Olympic Gold, Silver and Double World Heptathlete Champion  cycles on a Blaze light-fitted Santander Cycle hire bike to join some suitably spookily dressed kids for trick or treating, only to find themselves at a certain Formula One celebrity’s front door. 

Santander Cycles
Jess Ennis-Hill
Blaze Laserlight
jensen button
Laura Laker

Laura Laker is a freelance journalist with more than a decade’s experience covering cycling, walking and wheeling (and other means of transport). Beginning her career with road.cc, Laura has also written for national and specialist titles of all stripes. One part of the popular Streets Ahead podcast, she sometimes appears as a talking head on TV and radio, and in real life at conferences and festivals. She is also the author of Potholes and Pavements: a Bumpy Ride on Britain’s National Cycle Network.

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8 comments

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Trickedem | 8 years ago
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These are a pointless gimmick. A shimmery bike image is projected onto the road about 20 feet in front of the bike. If you can't see a bike that is so close, it probably means you aren't looking.
How on earth did Blaze manage to contact tfl into buying these?

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wycombewheeler replied to Trickedem | 8 years ago
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Trickedem wrote:

These are a pointless gimmick. A shimmery bike image is projected onto the road about 20 feet in front of the bike. If you can't see a bike that is so close, it probably means you aren't looking.
How on earth did Blaze manage to contact tfl into buying these?

For car drivers this is try. But we know lorry drivers cannot see the area on their Left or directly in front. Whether the driver would see the green bike shape and conclude 'cyclist in my blind spot' is another question. But with them on all boris bikes they will be so common everyone should realise what they mean.

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velo-nh | 8 years ago
1 like

"Blaze Laserlights, which project the outline of a bike onto the road ahead of the rider in green laser light, are to be rolled out across London’s bike hire scheme in time for the lights to go back, with a spooky video, the Blaze Witch Project, released to mark the occasion."

 

Does anyone over there speak English?

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50kcommute | 8 years ago
2 likes

Hate these lights... Actually a distraction when a rider is behind me with this green bike flitting all over the place..couldn't agree more, waste of money in entirety and gimmicky.

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EddyBerckx | 8 years ago
4 likes

The main light itself is decent on these - an upgrade on the normal boris bike lights.

 

The laser is a pitiful gimmick and a huge amount of money has been wasted on this.

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NPlus1Bikelights | 8 years ago
3 likes

Even scarier is Blaze's actions with the Burner. Witch has aptly got them burned for last minute changes that were untested and ended up using Backers as testers.  Hopefully they will sort this all out before the Witching hour or this will haunt them on future projects, they still seem surprised backers are holding out for everything promised. It was compared to an Apple product  in design and is living up to that at least. 

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oldstrath replied to NPlus1Bikelights | 8 years ago
1 like

NPlus1BikelightsNJerseys wrote:

Even scarier is Blaze's actions with the Burner. Witch has aptly got them burned for last minute changes that were untested and ended up using Backers as testers.  Hopefully they will sort this all out before the Witching hour or this will haunt them on future projects, they still seem surprised backers are holding out for everything promised. It was compared to an Apple product  in design and is living up to that at least. 

Burnt themselves would be more accurate, by making fundamental changes without even troubling to tell the backers, then arrogantly declaring that contracts to shops mattered more than obligations to backers. Which I'm sure is legally accurate, but not a good way to get 5000 product champions. 

Would  have been nice to see a project this size using lights that actually meet RVLR, or get the government finally to update lighting regulations.

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brooksby replied to oldstrath | 8 years ago
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oldstrath wrote:

Burnt themselves would be more accurate, by making fundamental changes without even troubling to tell the backers, then arrogantly declaring that contracts to shops mattered more than obligations to backers.

Can you point me at links for this story?  I've sometimes backed stuff on Kickstarter, so this sort of thing interests (scares) me.

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