iBike Rider case for iPhone aims at bikers, people with their arms full
By Joseph L. Flatley 
posted Oct 8th 2009 7:34PM
posted Oct 8th 2009 7:34PM
The iBike Rider is a wrist-mounted iPhone case designed to give you easy access to your handset as you cruise around town looking for fights. When paired with its heaphone / mouthpiece, you can listen to tunes or accept calls via the headset. Of course, if you actually wanted to place a phone call it's a simple matter of stopping the bike, removing the phone from its case, removing your gloves, and then dialing away. But once you've done all that, jump back on your "hog," look both ways before entering traffic, and you're an Easy Rider once again! This bad boy is also useful for turn-by-turn GPS instructions -- but if you don't know your way to Bass Lake by now, what kind of a Hell's Angel are you? Available now for £34.10 (about $54).
[Via So Easy GPS]
[Via So Easy GPS]
Yes, because we should all use our iPhones while riding a motorcycle.
And because all bikers look for fights...
The biker-gang people never seem to use helmets anyway.
How about when your riding a bike you PAY ATTENTION TO THE ROAD!
I love how cagers get all butt-hurt about things that others do which affect them in no way. Lane splitting is legal in CA, but some whiney drivers get all pissy about it, even though it in no way impacts their ability to sit stopped in traffic all morning. And they get pissy when cyclists run red lights or stop signs when it doesn't affect their drive in any way either. They're just pissed because OMG YOU BROKE A LAW and ... and... well, that's where their thought process seems to stop.
Sorry, when I'm on my road bike, I'm not going to go 20mph->stop->20mph->stop every block just because you think I should for 'fairness'. Guess what, life isn't fair, those laws are written for cars. We know they apply to cyclists, but if we can run a sign without a cop noticing, who's getting hurt? The only person taking any real risk is the cyclist anyway, unbunch your panties.
But if you're so insistent on following the letter of the law, I guess I'll stop moving over to 'share' the road with you and let you pass. You can park your ass behind me for a few miles going 20mph. I'll make sure to come to a full and complete stop at every stop sign, promise!
Lol 'cager', I don't even drive a car or a motorcycle. Nope, my vehicle is a bicycle.
Well, it's one step closer to being able to eat, drink, fall asleep, and put on makeup while on a motorcycle. We're catching up!
I'm amazed at how dumb and close-minded people are on both sides of the issue here, though this particularly irked me:
UnixSystemsEngineer "We know they apply to cyclists, but if we can run a sign without a cop noticing, who's getting hurt? The only person taking any real risk is the cyclist anyway, unbunch your panties."
...except that pedestrians can get hit, and anybody going through the intersection now has to watch out for assholes trying to buzz a red light.
This is such an crap set up, I have a Scala Q2 bluetooth set on my helmet that is linked up to my N95 8Gb... i know it's an old phone but they pair up perfectly and i can stream music, recieve voice GPS instructions Garmin XT on the N95, answer phone calls via voice, make phone calls via voice control, listen to FM radio, and talk to other riders who have Q2 fitted to their helmets too (up to 800 yards away).
Sorry this iphone/ iBike combo is a failure.
Oh yeah my N95 sits under the seat charging the whole time too. Yup it still gets perfect GPS reception under there too!
In many states it's illegal for motocycle riders to have headphones on while riding. Also it's a bit dangerous.
¿Wait? There are girls who post on this site?
@ UnixSystemsEngineer Sorry, but you are wrong. What makes you think that just because you are operating a two wheeled vehicle instead of a four wheeled vehicle that you are immune to the laws that everyone else has to abide by? Your actions will eventually affect other people, be it on two wheels or four, because you will eventually cause a traffic jam when they have to scrape your guts from in between the tires of a tractor trailer. What a waste of gas.
@Chris
actually, it's the people inside cars that need to pay attention since they never notice another car/bike/pedestrian/etc right next to them. People inside cars are the most dangerous on the road since they "THINK" they dont need to pay attention all the time, it is quite the opposite.
Bicyclists, Bikers, Pedestrians are the ones that have to pay keep an eye out for the inattentive cagers.
first
is that your final answer?
Why exactly does the link go to a translated page while they have an English version of the site?
odst helmet?
I don't understand why helmet companies don't integrate speakers and mics in to the helmets.
Because it's dangerous as hell!
Some of them do. Dainese and HJC make bluetooth helmets. But it's illegal in most areas to have speakers in both ears, so it only goes in one...
@Sean.... Get Your Facts straight. Only 8 states have laws pertaining to headphones or speakers on a bike and only 3 of those disallow them (Fl, VT, MA). Therefore your ASSUMPTION that it is most likely ILLEGAL to ride with them in MOST areas is very much INCORRECT. Get your facts straight. This is a year outdated graph: http://motorcycleinfo.calsci.com/PrintLaws.html
Why Can you talk on a handsfree device in your 3k lb cage and I can't talk on a hands free device on my bike?
@tracknod
"Why Can you talk on a handsfree device in your 3k lb cage and I can't talk on a hands free device on my bike?"
For the same reason it is illegal to drive while wearing headphones, perhaps?
You need situational awareness.. reasons include:
1. To protect your safety, because your ability to hear things is lessoned. You maybe unable to hear a car with a certain horn warning you, to try to prevent an accident ect. causing you to become a hazard to others.
2. Your impaired state may prevent you from hearing sirens that would otherwise let you know to pull over for emergency vehicle or police.
That, however was purely my personal opinion, and likely how Sean came to his conclusions. In reality, motorcyclists wearing a helmet with built-in headsets or earphones approved by the State Patrol are exempt from that particular restriction in most states.
Actually my "conclusion" that it's illegal to have headphones in both ears was based on the fact that it's illegal to have headphones in both ears here (in CA). Guess it's not a national law. Someone is enjoying their fact checking a little too much...
It's illegal to have headphones in BOTH ears damn near everywhere.
A $54 accessory that will instantly eliminate your biker coolness appeal.
Anybody else see the crazy looking face with an orange tongue?
Imma chargin mah ahphone!
wow really
traditional mic are not suited well for bikes... you get lots of noise. I went to a motorcycle show a couple of years back and a company was promoting their new mic, it has contact with your throat and it works by picking up the vibrations... it was supposed to be clearer, since it didn't work off of sound. I can't remember the company or remember reading any reviews. The idea sounded good, anyone seen/heard about that product?
Special forces use them all around the world.
Also this looks cool, i'm doing my CBT on the 19th, can't wait :)
Because the roaring engine on your Ninja didn't distract you enough, you'll never hear that car horn warning you of imminent death now. Enjoy sliding 100 feet across the hot pavement!
Now, if only the iBike Rider would use the iPhone's GPS to detect whether the bicyclist was running a red light or stop sign, and if so, send an electric shock every time they do it. Or, better yet, automatically notify the traffic police so they can automatically ticket the perp.
Helmet looks like an ODST :/ or is it just me?
It's just you
Hard to tell from the picture and I didn't see anything that mentions it, but it looks like there is an inline button on the cord, which I assume would act like the inline button in Apple's earphones. If that's what that is, then you could use Voice Control to make calls using that button. And change the volume, play specific playlists or artists, etc. as well as answer the phone when it rings.
If they were able to integrate the inline button and volume controls onto the outside of the helmet, it would be perfect.
does the iphone touch screen not work through the plastic?
touchscreen doesn't work with gloves on cuz it's capacitive.
"Of course, if you actually wanted to place a phone call it's a simple matter of stopping the bike, removing the phone from its case, removing your gloves, and then dialing away."
Or you could use the "voice command" feature on iPhone to dial numbers.
Hold down the home button for a few seconds, and say "call ###-###-#####" (or call ) and it dials for you. Works through the headset buttons too.
I was looking down the list for the first person to point that out, thank you.
Yea the iPhone does a really good job with saying the person's name too. If I want to call my friend "Joseph Annelli" on his cell I'll just say "Call Joseph Annelli Mobile" and BAM. I have a lot of long names like Abdulrahman Jawaad and the iPhone does a great job picking up what I say in a contact library that is HUGE.
Yup, I was thinking that - Engadget wilfully looking past voice dialing for the sake of 'humour'.
Truth is, I couldn't care less about voice dialling - you won't be able to hear much over 30 mph, and in any case I prefer to get there alive - but as a gps mount, this could be really handy. I'm forever stopping, taking my phone out, taking a glove off and checking to see if I'm still going in the right direction.
I finally have a badass waterproof mount for my bike, but try as I might, I can't find a semi-reasonable way to get music and GPS directions over bluetooth. There are kits out there to adapt helmets, but I don't care about slapping a mic on my face, I just need some speakers.
This is pretty dumb because you can't operate an iphone with gloves on.
Sweet, I'm gonna get this for my iPod.
To the guy that mentioned not being able to hear car horns: If you ride a motorcycle, you don't rely on cagers to tell you when they're doing something stupid. You should already be aware of everything going on around you. You should be able to guess what they're going to do before they even do it and be prepared for it.
I don't plan on listening to music too loudly anyway. With my current helmet my Ninja 500 is pretty loud.
I'm all for it. It might reduce the number of iphone users.
So I guess the voice control in the thing doesn't let you actually call people with it, huh?
Also, why won't my avatar upload? I've reduced it's size (although I can't find an actual Pixel specification anywhere) searched google, tried cropping and reuploading... Grr
That is pretty awesome, I need a better solution for riding. Though right now I use Shure E2s which block the noise AND sound great too. Unfortunately it means all i can do is adjust volume on my iphone by mashing the side buttons thru my jacket.
Or I can use my Nano in a tank bag, but then all I can do is change tracks by clicking the clickwheel, but cannot adjust the volume with gloves on.
I've used speakers in my helmet before and haven't found any that I like. Wind noise in a helmet is LOUD and with all that space sitting between the speakers and your ear the sound gets covered up by wind noise. Perhaps these are different but I haven't found a pair of helmet speakers yet that are loud enough for me to understand words. I've hooked them up to all kinds radios, MP3 players, my iPhone, etc.. (iphone was the worst of all of them)
Speakers also take up some of the space your ears get in the helmet so whenever I'd put it on I'd have to reach into the side to unfold my ears. This made taking it on and off a real task.
I eventually crawled the motorcycle forums and found advise on good headphones and finally found a pair that did come out when I put on my helmet, fall off while riding, sounded decent, and were comfortable to wear. After all the money I spent on speakers and headphones the ones that worked the best were a $10 set of ear buds.
I can only image what the person on the other end of the phone call is going to hear.
Which headphones did you end up with?
it's a motorcycle, not a big wheel. please put your toys away.
you really need to be an experienced, savvy rider before you start adding distracting toys.
yes, taking calls, even handsfree is distracting. a motorcycle requires more attention than a cage.
Finally a device that can help eliminate iPhone users and distracted motorcyclists alike!
Does this thing do anything that a pocket doesn't?
I wonder how tight you have to keep the wrist strap to prevent it from sliding down to the bottom side of your wrist.