Adrian wrote:

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Another thing is that you haver to consider is the road surface , i
live in a smallish farming town in devon (UK) and well have alot of
crappy roads, and we have huge bloudy tractors dropping lumps of mud
on the road ... not a problem in a car maybe but when your on a racing
bike with 1" thick wheels. There are more examples but basically what
im saying is sometimes its just not safe to take a hand off handle
bars when your cycling.

And by the way A-levels are what we in the UK do in year 13 in school

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Adrian,

Although I personally would not use electronic turn signals myself, I think
such a product could be useful for commuters. You are right: sometimes it is
bad policy to take a hand off the bars to signal a turn. Unfortunately some of
these times--say going downhill fast on a rough road, coming to a right turn
with cars crawling up your backside--a signal could really be helpful.

Any lighted turn signal system would run into a problem on a bike because the
bike is skinny. I'm not sure a blinking light on one side of the handlebars
would convey any recognizable message to motorists. "Something on that bicycle
is blinking, but I don't know why." The best way would probably be some kind of
horizontally mounted post near the back of the bicycle with blinkers on either
end. It would probably have to be at least as long as the similar posts on
motorcycles to give the proper message to motorists, although that would make
it readily crunchable and otherwise a pain in the ass, sorry, arse. Some people
really love having all kinds of crap on their bikes though. I think it makes
them feel like they're operating a "real vehicle" if it has truck mirrors and a
radio on the bars. This hearkens back to the old days in America when every
bike came with a fake gas tank. Your idea for having the lights in the bar-ends
is elegant, simple, nice, but ultimately I think ineffective.

Make the light covers round so the blinkers can be seen from any direction. I
dont like your brake lever activation system--too many conflicts. Why not rig
it up with a simple three-way switch mounted to the handlebar? Most of the
folks who would like such a thing will be using upright bikes and flat bars. A
wireless system would be excellent, and a new twist.

Good luck,
Robert