First Impressions
I was quite excited when I took my new Lumos helmet out of the box and with good reason too. The first thing that struck me is it felt like a real solid piece of kit, very well made and a little more sturdy than an ordinary helmet. To look at, it is stylish, nicely shaped and it has a nice finish to the colouring.
On the back of the helmet is a single, triangular shaped button, which acts as both an on/off switch and to change function according to whether you like the lights to flash, stay on, or fade up and down. Holding the button switches the lights on and off and a shorter press changes function. I was worried that I would have to take the helmet off every time I wanted to turn it on or off, or change the settings, but it is really easy to operate whilst wearing it.
How it Opperates
The lights themselves are really bright, and are in a triangular shape at the back of the helmet and and bright white strip at the front. A short press off the function button changes the lights from flashing mode, to fully on, or fading up and down. Whichever mode you have the helmet set to, the lights are fairly bright providing the helmet is fully charged up.
At the rear sides of the helmet are two more triangular shaped lights that, when operated flash as orange, and act as indicators. They are controlled by a little handset that is easily attached to the rider’s handle bars by a couple of rubber straps. The rider would press the appropriate button according to which way they want to turn and the light flashes accordingly. This is a neat little feature although not my favourite. I would never rely on this to let a driver know what way I was about to go and so I question the safety of it being there in the first place.
Both Helmet and Handset can be charged by USB. The connection is located at the back of the helmet and on the handset that easily detaches from the handlebars. The connection itself is rather small and it is a bit of a fiddle to keep it connected. The only design flaw that I may point out is that this connection might have been better thought out?
Conclusion
Apart from this tiny little niggle, I think it is a really great piece of Kit and I see many urban cyclists having a helmet such as this in the future.