Introducing MODMO's Bekan
Reimagining the way lights are integrated into your bicycle to create the sleekest, sexiest light system around.
A key concern when riding your bicycle at night is staying visible. To this end, cyclists often invest in accessories - front lights, reflectors, backlights, etc - that clip onto our bikes.
We wanted to rethink this into a light system that lives inside the Saigon and blends seamlessly into its design, as sleek and subtle as the rest of the bike. So we came up with something totally unique to MODMO that you can’t find on any other bicycle.
Introducing: the Bekan. A high-tech light system that is rethinking bicycle lights to be more sturdy and theft-safe, and let’s be honest, to look absolutely sick.
Secret Lighting
The main inspiration for how the Bekan looks came from how the sound moves through the speakers on a MacBook laptop.
“I thought if sound could flow through, light could too, and it would keep all the electronics hidden inside away from theft and the elements, and make it look sleek like the rest of the bike,” says Jack.
Jack and our Lead Mechanical Engineer Ton wanted to keep the lights inside the bike for a number of reasons. There is the issue of theft - when Jack’s $90 bike lights on his personal bicycle got stolen he knew that this was something we just had to negate for MODMO bikes - and then there is convenience. With MODMO’s Bekan (and our other lights) you don’t have to remove them and charge them because they all charge automatically from the main ebike battery.
There’s also the worry that your lights may sustain damage. This is something that can happen to any bicycle accessory due to their exterior placement, so we’ve kept as many of our parts as possible inside the Saigon’s frame.
How it works
We develop the Bekan here, at our factory in Vietnam, to keep our supply chain as sustainable as possible (read more about our work towards sustainability here).
To make the MacBook-inspired grid, we use a micro-drilling process to put holes directly into the Saigon’s frame, creating 36 pores in the aluminium surface and anodising the material to seal the aluminium and prevent any corrosion.
Then comes the Bekan itself. We use a small 6mm-wide printed circuit board with more than 20 COB LEDs to emit XX lumens for 120 degrees of visibility. The circuit board is then enclosed in a plastic shell, sealed and waterproofed, and connected to the main battery for power.
We use Aluminium 6061 for our frame and many of our parts, including the Bekan, because it has the highest corrosion resistance and strength among heat-treated aluminium alloys. It’s also easy to weld, malleable and nice and glossy which makes it easy to paint.
Also, just to go one step further on the “elite sexy tech” spectrum, the new PCB inside the Bekan is gold-plated and inscribed with “MODMO”. The gold helps the PCB to cool, secures the light on the plate and helps with electric conductivity. The “MODMO” is just because, well, it’s awesome.
How to Use It
Using the Bekan is really very simple. This is important to us - keeping our tech cutting edge but our user experience as intuitive as possible.
You simply press the handlebar button to turn the Bekan on and it takes it from there.
Always Growing and Developing
We have ongoing plans to keep improving the Bekan - for example we are going to be drilling the holes a little higher on our newer models so that people can put the saddle down lower if needed.
As always, we are keen to hear your feedback and ideas for the development of our products. Send us a dm on Facebook or Instagram, or email us at hello@modmo.io
Check out how MODMO is rethinking Urban Mobility, or read this article about a local HCMC startup re-imagining urban agriculture.