Night-time cyclists everywhere are thankful that LED tail lights have gotten extremely bright in the last 10 years. So bright though, that at close range they can be distracting, or even painful to look at.
Sombra is a bicycle tail light diffuser. It makes your tail light visible from any direction and reduces the bright spot effect of a high-powered LED. Inspired by a ride in London where inventor Offer Canfi was blinded by a passing cyclist’s rear light, he then when he went home relaxed with a book. While reading, he noticed the lampshade on his lamp, and voila! An idea was born…
The Sombra is made from a translucent polypropylene, and should fit most bikes on the market by attaching to their seatpost clamp. By diffusing the light through the plastic, it makes the bike visible from all sides, as well as helps others gauge your speed and distance from them since they do not have the bright light shining in their eyes.
Through the process of developing it, Canfi moved from paper and aluminum to the polypropylene that is used for the final product. Even after finding the right material, several different shapes were tried to see what worked best.
One of the coolest things, the Sombra is low impact, meaning it’s locally made from 100% recyclable material and shipped in a regular envelope anywhere in the world.
As with all good ideas lately, the Sombra is on Indiegogo for the next 28 days, starting at just $5 for a single one.
