July 21, 2021 is a day that I’m going to remember for a very long time. I decided to go out for a quick 35 KM bike ride on a route that I’ve done many, many times before. About 10 KM into the ride I was riding on a bike path that borders Pearson Airport in Toronto. Part of the path crosses a street that is designed for cyclists, meaning that cars are not allowed to turn right on red. Except that one car, a black Nissan Sentra didn’t get the memo. Because as I was crossing on a green light, the Sentra ran the red light, clipped my back wheel and launched me into the intersection. The crash destroyed my rear wheel, but more importantly it left me with three cracked ribs. I ended up in hospital for a few hours after taking a trip there in the back of an ambulance. Beyond that, there was a bigger issue. I have this Garmin cycling computer which has a feature called “Incident Detection”, which didn’t activate and alert my wife to my accident. I ended up calling her from the back of the ambulance. She declared that to be unacceptable and decided to fix that for me. And the way she fixed that was to buy me a new helmet from Specialized which gives you the option to add the Specialized ANGi Crash Sensor. Let’s start with the helmet.
This is the Specialized S-Works Prevail II helmet. Any Specialized product with the word “S-Works” in it is the best stuff that Specialized makes and is one of the helmets that is used by all their sponsored pro riders from teams like QuickStep, TotalEnergies and Bora Hansgrohe. It’s designed to provide maximum protection for your head by using a MIPS system to protect your brain from severe injury while keeping your head cool. In fact, there is this sticker inside the helmet that illustrates that the helmet is designed to keep you cool:
It’s also light and fits really well. But this review isn’t about the helmet, it’s about what’s on the back of the helmet.
If you look at the bottom left of the helmet, you will see a black rectangle. That’s the Specialized ANGi Crash Sensor. It uses what looks to be red 3M tape to stick to a special section of the helmet. Let’s get a closer look at the ANGi Crash Sensor.
The ANGi Crash Sensor is a Bluetooth device that is powered by a CR2032 battery that lasts about six months. You pair it to the Specialized Ride App for iOS or Android devices. And you use it like this:
- When you start a ride, you use the Specialized Ride App to activate the sensor. The app then sends a message via email or text to contacts that you choose that you’re starting a ride. In my case, that’s my wife.
- At this point you start your ride and the app tracks your current location in the background using GPS on your phone. You do have the option to let the app record the ride. But I don’t use that functionality as the Garmin does that for me.
- If the sensor detects a crash, it commences a countdown on your phone that, if you’re ok, you can stop the countdown and keep riding. If, however, you don’t stop the countdown, it’ll send an alert to your selected contacts with your last known GPS coordinates and a message that you’re in need of help. It detects this via using a number of accelerometers that are built into the sensor.
- If your ride is uneventful, you use the app to turn off the sensor. Your contacts will then be notified that your ride is over.
The app has additional functionality like recording rides, communicating with other riders who use the app, but I don’t use any of that functionality. But it’s there if you choose to use it. You can also use the app to test the sensor and apply firmware updates to the sensor.
During my usage of this helmet and the ANGi Crash Sensor, I have had no false alerts and I have had no issues activating and deactivating the sensors when start and finish rides. My biggest challenge has been remembering to activate and deactivating the sensor before or after a ride. But that’s an issue that will go away the more that I use this sensor as I am on the bike almost every day.
The Specialized ANGi Crash Sensor works best with Specialized helmets of course as they are designed to have the sensor, but it can work with other brands of helmets. It goes for $65 CDN and there a no fees for the monitoring service. Given that an accident can happen to anyone, this is a cost effective way to provide peace of mind for yourself and your loved ones.