Re: repairs and obsolescence ish

Frank Krygowski <frkrygow@sbcglobal.net> wrote:

On 5/6/2025 8:17 PM, Roger Merriman wrote:

Frank Krygowski <frkrygow@sbcglobal.net> wrote:

On 5/5/2025 8:33 AM, Roger Merriman wrote:

Just had my old bike light repaired for £20 which considering its
replacement cost seems more than worth it.
 
And I do like that Exposure Lights whose lights are MTB or off road focus
mostly have a we will repair it if you manage to break it!
 
Ie it’s not a black box that is disposable.
 
Sort of related is Hovding helmet or rather I guess non helmet
 
<https://bikerumor.com/hovding-airbag-helmet-brand-deflates-w-bankruptcy-filing-following-overturned-recall/>
 
<https://youtu.be/HS9Q6D992M4?si=6uKvsagMPgeCbrBV>
 
Which came up on YouTube and Berm Peak, and as Seth says I’ve never thought
about having to charge my Helmet or so on, and with the app now dead much
like some other bikes with app stores that have gone bankrupt your rather
stuffed.

 
Seems like Hovding saw this cartoon:
https://sheldonbrown.com/airbag-helmet.html
and said "Ooh, what a good idea!!"
 

I think it’s the timing aspect as Seth says, ie when helmets became
mainstream ish, plus modern helmets are lot more comfortable and just
invisible in use.
 
Does seem to have some interesting technology though which hopefully can be
used, further down the line in some applications.

 
The technology is sort of interesting, but it's still nothing I'd ever
consider using, for multiple reasons.
 
ISTR hearing of incidents in which Hovding owners put their jackets on
quickly or made other sudden benign moves and had the airbag helmet
inflate. And I guess when that happens, you buy a new one - which is far
from cheap!
 

From the video the reason they got recalled was that in certain crashes etc
it doesn’t deploy.

I’m unconvinced that in this application it’s not a solution looking for a
problem, but perhaps the technology can be used elsewhere.

Roger Merriman