Review: BikeHUD by BikeSystems, the first motorcycle heads-up display

Drivers on phones, diesel on corners, changing road surfaces and that ever-present threat of dopey oncoming traffic motorcyclists have quite enough to worry about without having to stare constantly down at their speedometers. But with speed enforcement cranking up in many areas worldwide, there has never been a greater calling for a motorcycle heads-up display that can keep information in view without being a distraction. There are a bunch of different companies racing to get an integrated HUD helmet to the market, but there's only one company that has a working HUD solution out there, for sale, right now. Loz Blain spends some time with Britain's BikeHUD.

People have been talking about motorcycle heads-up displays for a long time. There's a bit of a race on between Skully, Reevu and Livemap to decide who gets the first integrated-HUD helmet to market, each group tackling the challenge from slightly different angles. Then there's Nuviz, which is building a stick-on jigger that fits to the chin piece of any helmet.

The integrated helmets all look very expensive up to US$2,000 (the projected price of the Livemap) and knowing helmets, they'll fit some heads better than others. And as fancy as all their Kickstarter project photoshopped efforts might look, none of them have got anything to the market yet.

British startup BikeHUD actually does have a product you can buy right now; a retro-fit device that will mount to just about any helmet, and it costs $485, or $549 when optioned up with the GPS navigation kit and speed camera warning system.

I've been playing with one for several weeks now, so let's have a look at how it works.

The BikeHUD system is a slightly invasive installation on your bike. The key bike-mounted components are the BikeHUD ECU itself, wired into your ignition circuit, and a handlebar-mounted GPS sensor that also acts as your four-button control interface.

BikeHUD reads your speed through its own GPS, takes an engine tacho reading off a sensor coiled around one of your spark plugs, and splices into the bike's wiring to get a hold of your indicator signals and neutral light.

The GPS sat-nav Wi-Fi dongle plugs in to a USB cable hanging off the main ECU, and splices into the BikeHUD wiring for power. It also comes with a USB socket you can use to charge your phone on the go.

As I have the electrical aptitude of a stoat that also has no electrical aptitude, I was assisted in the installation by 2012 British National Natural Beard, Styled Moustache champion Matthew Brown, who taught me several new swear words in the process.

At the helmet end, you get the "monocle," which fits into your lid on a flexible arm that's mounted to a bracket that BikeHUD builds custom for any lid. In the case of my Nolan N104, the bracket fits perfectly and is held solidly in place by one of my cheek pad press studs. It's easy to add or remove.

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Review: BikeHUD by BikeSystems, the first motorcycle heads-up display