Hey everyone, hope all is well, and happy National Bike Month! In case you’re curious, check out the BikeLeague website to find Bike Month related events that may be happening around your area and also consider joining the National Bike Challenge run by the awesome folks at PeopleForBikes!

We were really glad to see in the last update that people liked the final design of the remote. Tooling on that and all the various pieces of the remote and helmet remain on-going and is progressing nicely. We look forward to updating you guys on that in another update in the very near future. Our estimated timeline for delivery of pre-order units in September remains unchanged.

From our last update we received a number of questions and requests to be able to purchase additional mounts of the remote. We definitely intend to support that and will let you know how you can do so closer to the shipment date.

In the meantime, here is a small product announcement!

Limited First Edition Lumos Helmets

What’s that?

This:

Your Lumos Helmet with the “First Edition” mark engraved in its retention system, identifying you as part of the pioneering group of people who believed in us, believed in Lumos, and through your support helped make it happen.

We’re gonna do this specially for all our Kickstarter and pre-order backers (ie. You guys!).

This is something we’re ONLY going to do for the units from our first production run (and ONLY those units). After the first run is completed, we’re literally going to sand the feature out of the tool, so you guys will be the ONLY cyclists to sport these on your Lumos Helmets.

Why?

You guys made Lumos possible and have been waiting patiently for your Helmets. Jeff, myself, and the whole Lumos team truly appreciate it, and so when a member of our team raised this as an idea to incorporate into the product, we jumped on the opportunity and made it happen. We hope you guys like it! We would love to know what you think, so if you can spare 30 seconds, we’d love to get your feedback in this very short survey here!

Again, these Limited First Edition helmets will be available to Kickstarter and pre-order backers ONLY, so if you or anyone else you know wants more of these limited edition helmets, you can still do so on our website (www.lumoshelmet.co) while we’re still taking pre-orders.

Beta Tester Stories

Although our beta testing program officially ended in January, many of our beta testers have continued using their beta units. We sat down and interviewed a few of them to have them share their stories on how they have been using their Lumos beta unit these last few months.

While the beta units are not perfect, it was really really exciting to hear how our beta testers (ie. real people) were using their Lumos beta helmets out in the real world. They had some really great experiences and we’re really excited to be sharing it with you guys!

To keep this update short we’ve kept the interviews on a different page on our website. Our first two stories feature Victor who is using his beta helmet in Munich, Germany, and Robert who is using his beta helmet in Santa Rosa, California USA. Do check it out, and let us know what you think!

Lastly, Lumos Helmet the company

Getting Lumos through production and into your hands asap will remain our #1 priority, but since we’ve pulled the trigger on tooling and are waiting for it to be done, we have allowed ourselves to start thinking more about the next steps for our company AFTER we ship the product to you.

We started as just two engineers who had built something interesting and wanted to share it with the world. Today we’re a team of 9 with over 20 additional people among our partners working to make Lumos a reality and bring it to you. And although delivering the first batch of Lumos Helmets to all of you will be a HUGE milestone for us, it will really just be the beginning. What comes after that would determine if we’re just a one-off Kickstarter project, or something more enduring.

How do we grow? How do we build a brand and a community around Lumos? How can we better serve urban cyclists with this and future products? Where can we take this company?

We have many ideas, but our main plan is quite simple on paper. Make a great helmet that will hopefully make your ride safer, better, and more convenient, and through that earn your trust and grow by word of mouth recommendations old school style. We also have many ideas and designs for future products, new helmets, and hopefully even industry shifting concepts. The motto we’ve adopted is “Advancing City Cycling”. We are going to make the products and services that help make you safer, and feel more confident as a cyclist. We will continue to grow our team and expand our reach so that many more people can enjoy using their very own Lumos products on their rides.

Would you like to be a part of making that a reality? As a backer you have already done a lot, but if you would like to be more involved, we are looking for people interested in being brand ambassadors (once the helmets are delivered) as well as advisors, connectors, and experts in branding, marketing, retail, and investment/fundraising.  

Whoever you are, if you think you can help we would be glad to hear from you. Leave us your information here so we can reach out to you!

Eu-wen, Jeff, and the Lumos Helmet team