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The BeeLine: Smart, Intentionally "Fuzzy" Navigation for Bikes

For when it's about the destination and the journey

By Rain Noe - October 28, 2015

in Cars | Crowdfunding | Tech

Even in an exciting city, traveling the same route every day is boring. On foot or by bicycle in Manhattan, I'll often take different routes to a familiar destination for the sake of variety. This occasionally pays off when I spot a new café I'd like to try, spy something novel in a store window, or run into someone on the street that I haven't seen in years.

Along these lines, London-based cyclists Mark Jenner and Tom Putnam in collaboration with MAP Project Office have figured out how to combine random variety with the necessary precision of a navigation system. Their product, BeeLine, is a handlebar-mounted navigator that knows exactly where you want to end up, but doesn't guide you there turn by turn; instead it provides the most basic of feedback, a simple graphic arrow, that rotates compass-like to always be pointing at your ultimate destination. The twists and turns you take along the way are thus up to you, and the unit will fit a variety of handlebar styles.

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"The idea is to open up the city for exploration," the duo writes, "and put urban cyclists back in control of their journey."

Here's their Kickstarter pitch, launching today:

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The device is expected to retail for £60 (US $90) but the first 200 pledgers will be able to snag a beeline for as low as £30.

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Gaeten Nkamegue

9 years ago

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Hmm. I can see this having a use when visiting a new city or area~ But as a seasoned cycling commuter, I rarely ever find the need to use Gmaps to weave around the city because I know it well enough, and I don't know that many cyclists actually need a dedicated device for such purposes; I might also be alone in thinking that not many cyclists set about discovering new locations every time they hop on the saddle.

Then again, I understand that I'm not the targeted demographic here, as I expect the less you cycle in general the more useful the Beeline would be to you.

For someone that might prefer to ride on dedicated cycling paths instead of sharing the road with cars; would the Beeline accommodate such a user?

If a river physically separates me from my end destination and getting there requires of me to take a bridge which might be a few kilometers off, where will the arrow point exactly? Towards the path I ought to to take or will I be expected to guess my way there?

Best of luck to these two!

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Mike Cheung

9 years ago

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Finally! I've been dreaming of this exact product for so long.

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