Crazy Cool, Wildly Expensive Bike Lights

Want to display a glowing image of your favorite artwork inside your bike wheels while rolling down the road between 10 and 40 miles per hour? No problem, unless, of course you’re short on cash.

Brand new on the market, the Monkey Light Pro is quite possibly the coolest bike light we’ve seen yet. It’s also the most expensive, ringing in at a hefty $895 shipped to your door in the USA. International orders are $975.

The Monkey Light Pro is a wonder of technology. With 256 ultra bright, full color LEDs, you can upload images wirelessly from your phone to be displayed inside your bike wheel while you roll down the street.

Can’t afford a full blown Monkey Light Pro? The company also makes much more reasonably priced M210 and M232 versions that are much simpler, yet still pretty nifty, LED lights. The M210 is $39.90 and the M232 is $59.90.

But back to the the Monkey Light Pro, the only model that displays actual images. It was funded through a successful Kickstarter campaign that raised $220,000 in July, 2013. It is designed and manufactured by MonekyLectric in San Francisco.

I’m not even going to try to decipher how the engineers built this gizmo, but it looks amazing. The “sensor stabilized full wheel display” comes preloaded with images but is completely customizable with playlists of your own photos and graphics.

The image displayed can be changed with the push of a smartphone button.

The lights are waterproof, run three to eight hours on a single charge of the built-in Lithium battery, and fit wheels 26 inches and larger.

One drawback besides the price? At 500 grams you won’t be winning any races.

The Monkey Light Pro is now available for preorder with delivery scheduled for March, 2014. —Sean McCoy