We here at Element.ly are big fans of the American Dream.
We love have always loved the tinkerers, the hackers, the romantics and the hopers.
And the bike industry seems to attracts its fair sharer of those searching to be a part of an industry founded on the idea all you need is a great idea and some hardwork. No where is this more evident than on the back aisles at Interbike and the multiple pages of the crowd funding site Kickstarter.
Of course, not all that glitters is gold. Not all “great” ideas end of being great. And sometimes great ideas don’t float to the top because they are before their time, poorly presented, just can’t find their market or, sadly, have no market.
We decided to go take a look at some Kickstarters which failed to crack the wallets of the bicycle enthusiasts.
Veloloop
The team at Veloloop was looking to raise $84,000 to help you trigger those pesky traffic lights. It uses a patented circuit, powered by AAA batteries, to let the traffic light know you are there and a red light on the Veloloop turns from flashing to solid when the Veloloop triggers the traffic light.
It turns out there were only about $10,000 worth of backers who considered this a big enough problem to strap another battery operated thing-a-ma-jig to their bikes to solve it.
If we commuted in a city filled with traffic lights then maybe we would have been one of them.
Pingbell
You just need to launch the app on your phone and tell it to alert you where you parked your whip by having it ring the bell. There was also a blinking light function “if you don’t want to wake up the neighbors just blink the light.”
And as an added bonus, it also functions like a normal bell.
Unfortunately, they were only able to get around $15,000 of their needed funding.
Ring. Ring.
Quikbyke Q•pod
The group behind Quikbyke Q•pod wanted to bring mobile e-bike rentals to your hometown.
Actually, they were promoting the idea as a way for you to bike up north in the summer and move your business to warmer climates in the winter.
Unfortunately, they needed to raise $275,000 to make this happen and they could only come up with $5665 in Kickstarter backing.
It could be that they were lost in the landslide of electric bicycle Kickstarter ideas.
It seems like every other bike idea on the platform includes the current electric bicycle business buzz.
Widerun
The kids at Widerun wanted to do a mashup between bicycling, virtual reality and gaming.
“Designed to deliver engaging fitness sessions through VR headsets and external screens. It delivers a responsive, immersive, biking experience with unlimited virtual 3D worlds featuring games and bike tracks.” – Widerun
They needed $40,000 to help you put your Occulus Rift to work in your garage, so you wouldn’t have to “stare at the wall.”
But they were virtually $15,000 short of making it happen.
Maybe they just need to add a few roadside bombs and some zombies?
High Bar
The inventor at High Bar needed $50,000 to allow riders to stand straight up on exercise bicycles.
He raised exactly zero dollars on his Kickstarter.
But that video.
Spot on.
Lancelock Titanium Chainmail
The fellas at Lancelock Titanium Chainmail were looking to make your bicycle as theft proof as titaniumly possible.
They used the word “chainmail” as part of their naming convention.
Unfortunately, it appears they were up against an already saturated market.
They were looking for $50,000 dollars and could only secure $603.
Bicycle Porter
The “cycling enthusiast” at Bicycle Porter were out to shake up the bicycle cargo carrier market place.
They needed $2000 to bring their aerodynamic, lightweight and extensively tested Porter, but were only able to extract $139.50 from the Kickstarter community.