Thursday, 28 March 2024
Electric BikesNews

Inflatable crash helmet Hövding targets e-bike market, recruits Justebikes in UK

Swedish inflatable crash helmet brand Hövding is to ramp up links with electric bike retailers and has now recruited London’s Justebikes as its first UK specialist.

To date, more than 50,000 Hövding airbags have been sold around the world, and the company is “aware of at least 800 cases” where the Hövding has protected a cyclist in an accident, potentially saving the cyclist’s life.

Now sold in over 840 stores across 17 countries, the label is now actively looking to recruit specialist electric bike stores, citing its Stanford University research study within which the brand claims it came out favourably when compared to traditional helmets.

In that study Hövding was compared directly to a traditional foam helmet in a simulation of the most common cycling accident – a single fall. The results showed Hövding to “provide eight times better protection against a risk of concussion”, and was found to be “near perfect” in terms of protecting both the head and neck in an event of an accident.

Because of the typically faster speeds (barring those hit by the nippier road cyclists among us) that a rider can achieve on an e-bike, Hövding is making a case for itself as the ideal lid for the pedal-assist rider. In a cycling incident that takes place at a speed of 16mph studies have demonstrated that the risk of a serious head injury is 90% with a traditional helmet. According to the inflatable helmet label, this drops significantly to under 2% with a Hövding. Unlike traditional cycling helmets a Hövding also protects the neck by locking it in place. Furthermore the helmet can also withstand “multiple hits.”

Fredrik Carling, CEO of Hövding commented: “Here at Hövding we are always looking to work with forward-thinking innovative companies and our partnership with Justebikes is a perfect fit. Both companies are strong promoters of safety and convenience and we can see an exciting future ahead.”

James FitzGerald, founder of Justebikes added: “Hövding’s dedicated pursuit of innovation and promotion of safety for cyclists means that their high quality products are just the sort of thing our discerning customers are looking for. This is going to be an exciting and innovative partnership and one that has the potential to shake up the cycling market.”