For years I’ve asked cycling computer brands to add a button that opens my garage, to no avail. Now, finally, someone’s put that button on the bike, and the form factor couldn’t be better.
The new 12speed Doormate is a universal garage door remote bar-end plug that fits into the end of a handlebar. It’s just 16g and $40, and it works.
While the design looks simple, they say it took quite a bit of development to give it adequate range while tucked inside alloy or carbon handlebars, which apparently like to block signals.
Not only were they able to get it up to 50ft, but they also made it IP65 water resistant and it has more than a year of battery life from an A27 battery…with multiple activations per day. So, likely much longer with more limited use. And that’s good, because you do have to remove your bar tape to pull it out.
We brought one home from Sea Otter and installed it, and while it’s annoying to think you’ll have to rewrap your bars when the battery dies, that fact is a security feature.
Once slid into the bar, an upper and lower shell (not shown on install photos) use double-stick tape to attach to the exterior of the bar and trap the remote inside. Once you wrap the roll bar tape over that, it secures the device so that someone can’t just pull it out (and it won’t rattle loose over rough terrain).
The end result is a clean look that resembles a Di2 junction port, but with a tiny button to activate your garage door. It works with most common brands of garage door openers (Chamberlain, Genie, Linear, and Billion Code), and it took me all of two minutes to pair it and get it working.
The project launched earlier this year on Kickstarter and crushed their campaign. It’s now available to order direct from their website.
