A few years ago a family member went out mountain biking, that day things didn’t go to plan and he had a nasty crash and ended up spread eagled on his back in the middle of a forest, he was in a lot of pain and it took well over an hour to get his phone from his pocket and call for help. Turns out he had broken his neck, he has made a full recovery now but he was very lucky, the scariest thing of the whole situation is that nobody knew where he was, if he had of knocked himself unconscious who knows how long it could have been before he was found.

The ICEdot is a product designed to help in this exact situation, it works by connecting to your phone via Bluetooth and using sensor stickers or a sensor band around the helmet it will trigger an alarm when the sensors detect a strong impact on the helmet. You will then have a set amount of time to cancel the alarm on your phone but if you are unable to it will send an SMS to your emergency contacts and providing first responders with your name, conditions, medications, allergies and emergency contacts. The ICEdot is compatible with iPhone 4S and later, Android version is available for Low Energy Bluetooth enabled devices running 4.3 or later, Samsung phones require 4.4.2 and if you have an Android phone running Lollipop you can download an open beta app. It was simple enough to set up and seemed to work most of the time, the only issue we had was that there are a few times when it struggled to connect to the Bluetooth but this could be due to the phone rather than the ICEdot. Without putting one of our reviewers in real danger (no matter how tempting it can be at times) it is difficult to say whether this is 100% reliable, 100% of the time but from our controlled test this appears to be an excellent device that can offer an extra level of protection for not only cyclists but any sport that involves wearing a helmet. Nevertheless as with any technical gadget there is always room for error so it is still important to let someone know where possible when you are partaking in something high risk whilst on your own. RRP $99

4.5 out of 5

Buy now

Pros

Innovative idea that could potentially save lives

Easy to set up

Responsive

Cons

Only a standby option no on/off switch

No indicator (red light/green light) to let you know when it’s fully charged