Review of Vodafone’s Curve bike light/tracker
Vodafone launched its Curve bike light/bike tracker in June 2021. I’ve borrowed one from Vodafone to see how well it works.
The Curve does everything it sets out to do, but it doesn’t justify the price. The unit costs GBP79, on the high side, but probably acceptable. To take full advantage of the Curve though you need to pay GBP3 per month (on a 24-month contract) or GBP4 per month (12-month contract) — too much in my view.
(All prices are for Vodafone UK — other European markets have slightly different pricing/pricing models. I discuss this at the end of the piece.)
The good news (for Vodafone) is that it would be relatively simple to reduce the monthly fee or even restructure the plan to make it a single price for the unit and connectivity (e.g. GBP99 plus two years of connectivity).
Clever design
Considerable thought has gone into the design of the light. It comes in two parts.
The first part permanently attaches to a bike and contains the tracker/alarm and the battery that powers it.
The second part is detachable and houses the bike light plus a second battery. This second part can be charged from the mains, and it recharges the alarm/tracker unit when they are connected back together. Clever.
The device can also be monitored and controlled by a smartphone app.
The main features of the Curve are:
- A bike light with the usual settings (flashing at different rates or constantly on)
- A bike tracker, which links to a map on the app. This can be used to track rides, as apps like Strava do, or to locate your bike after it has been stolen. (Or even to locate your bike if you’ve forgotten where you left it.)
- An alarm. The alarm can be set through the app. The alarm goes off if the bike is moved while it is set or if someone tries to remove the tracker/alarm unit from the bike.
- Impact detection/crash alerts. If the bike crashes, a message can be sent to notify others.
The alarm is the key differentiator of these features,. There are hundreds of competing bike lights, and tracking can be done on a smartphone app like Strava. Bike computers from Garmin and others will also do both tracking and impact detection.
How does it perform?
The Curve is bigger than most lights (far larger than the Exposure TraceR light I usually use), but the extra bulk isn’t noticeable once attached to the seat post and you are riding along.
A bigger concern is probably the quality of the build; acceptable, but not as solid as the best lights, like an Exposure. This matters as most bike lights don’t last two years (at least in my hands). I’m not convinced the Curve would survive two years of regular use.
The other features work as you would expect. The light works well, and the alarm is sensitive enough to detect even small movements (e.g. I moved the bike 1 metre inside my house and the alarm went off). I’m not sure if you would use the tracker to map your rides (Strava does this better), but it should be helpful if your bike is stolen.
The app is simple to use. It did crash on me once but worked again when it was relaunched.
Vodafone says that the tracker’s battery will last 4.5 days when idle or 7.5 hours when in use (i.e. it will track 7.5 hours of movement). I didn’t test this, and I suspect you would need to get into a routine of charging the light every couple of days.
The price is the big hurdle
For the GBP79 upfront cost, you get an adequate, but not best in class, bike light. If all you want is a bike light, there are better and cheaper alternatives.
For the bike tracker, the sense of security of an alarm and tracker provides additional comfort over a bike lock. It wouldn’t be impossible to remove — a thief could remove the seat post from the bike — and a determined thief probably wouldn’t be too put off by an alarm going off just after the lock was broken and the bike ridden off (or worse, put in a van).
The question then is whether this additional comfort (but by no means complete security) is worth GBP3/4 a month (or GBP48 for one year/GBP72 for two years). Buying an extra lock might be a better investment.
Another way to consider the cost is in comparison with insurance. Monthly cover from Laka, a bike insurance firm, costs GBP8 per month for a GBP1000 bike (or GBP5/month for a GBP500 bike), and it offers more (as well as covering the cost of a new bike if yours is stolen, it will also pay for repairs after a crash).
The Curve’s pricing plan is also not especially attractive. I don’t expect to sign up for a subscription when buying a bike gadget. A price including service would be more appealing — say GBP99 for the light plus two years connectivity. This is the model that See.Sense will use for its Air tracker.
Other Vodafone markets are experimenting with lower prices and different pricing models. In Spain, the Curve has been discounted to EUR94.90 (from EUR129.90), including 6 months of connectivity. Connectivity then costs EUR2 per month after that. The total cost in Spain for two years would be EUR130.9 (or about GBP113).
All that said, it is interesting to see Vodafone try something different. There’s nothing especially wrong with the device other than the price, and that is easy to fix if Vodafone wants to.
A final, very different consideration is what this means for Vodafone’s stores and salespeople. All other mobile phone stores have rows of identikit mobile phones. The addition of bike lights and other IoT gadgets makes the Vodafone’s stores more interesting (and presumably also enjoyable to work in).
