How We Built the First Wireless Motorcycle Wheel Light
When we started Nyxglo, we weren't trying to build a company. We were just riders who wanted wheel lights that actually worked.
I was living in an apartment at the time, parking my bike on the street, and I kept thinking about visibility at night. Underglow never felt right to me—it lights up the ground, not the bike. Wheel lights made way more sense. Better side visibility, cleaner look, and actually shows the motion of the bike.
But when I started looking for them, I realized they didn't really exist. Not the way I was picturing them.
There were valve stem lights that barely put out any light. Reflective tape that wasn't even LEDs. Wired kits that required taking your wheel off and running cables through your swingarm—basically a full day of work even if you knew what you were doing.
Nothing was just... good.
So I teamed up with my electrical engineer co-founder, John, to build wheel lights just for personal use.
I posted the first prototype on Instagram, and within a few hours people were asking where they could buy them. That's when we realized this might be bigger than a weekend project.
What "wireless" actually means
Here's the thing about motorcycle lighting: companies use "wireless" pretty loosely.
For us, it had to mean actually wireless. No connection to the bike's battery. No wires crossing between the wheel and the frame. Nothing that would wear out, short out, or require you to understand your bike's electrical system.
Everything had to be self-contained in the wheel itself.
Which sounds simple until you actually try to do it.
The first reality check
Power was immediately a problem.
Our first few designs had the battery in one spot and wires running to the LEDs. Those prototypes failed pretty quickly. Water got in. Solder joints broke. The adhesive couldn't handle the vibration.
Mounting was harder than we expected, too. Motorcycle rims aren't flat—they have this subtle taper that's barely visible but makes a huge difference when you're trying to get something to stick at 80 mph.
We always knew the engineering would be hard. You're designing electronics that have to work on a wheel spinning at highway speeds. The centrifugal forces on a 17-inch wheel at speed are order of magnitudes larger than a rocket launch (seriously!). Everything has to be well-balanced.
What we didn't fully appreciate at first was the gap between "we built one that works" and "we can build a hundred of these consistently."
Prototyping is one thing. Manufacturing is completely different.
We went through nine major versions before we sold a single unit and personally tested on our own bikes. A full year of real-world testing before we committed to production.
How we solved the power problem
The breakthrough was realizing we couldn't centralize the power. It had to be distributed evenly around the entire ring.
That meant integrating small batteries throughout the system, balanced so they wouldn't affect the wheel's rotation. Every electrical component had to be positioned to maintain balance while surviving the constant centrifugal force.
And yes, because they're not connected to the bike, they need to be recharged. But that also means they're not draining your motorcycle's battery, which a lot of riders actually prefer. It was a tradeoff we made intentionally.
The other thing people don't always realize: these aren't just LEDs stuck to your wheel. People see LEDs everywhere—in light bulbs, strip lighting, Christmas decorations—and they assume they're simple and cheap.
But all those LEDs plug into a wall.
There is no wall outlet on a motorcycle wheel.
Why installation mattered so much
I didn't have a garage when we started this. I didn't have a lift or specialty tools. I was working in my apartment parking lot with basic hand tools.
We weren’t about to build something that required tearing apart your bike.
Yeah, you can make almost anything work if you have enough time and the right tools. But most riders don't. We wanted something accessible—something a new rider could install in their apartment parking lot, like I was doing.
Making that happen required harder engineering decisions. We had to build the entire system—power, control, lighting—into the thinnest possible profile that could still handle the forces and protect the electronics.
It's not a strip of LEDs. It's a complete lighting system that happens to fit on a wheel.
It wasn't one breakthrough
People sometimes ask when we knew it would work. Like there was some moment where everything clicked.
It wasn't like that.
It was just iteration after iteration. Testing, failing, fixing, testing again. There are still things we're improving.
The biggest evolution from our first version to what we sell now is that everything is sealed inside a single protective ring. The early versions were more exposed. Now it's fully enclosed, reinforced, built to last.
There were definitely moments where we thought, "Is this even possible to manufacture?" The assembly process was incredibly complex—over 100 individual steps and raw materials per unit.
We had to build custom tools just to make assembly feasible. We redesigned components to be more manufacturable. We went through multiple material suppliers to find ones that could meet our specs consistently.
That complexity isn't something we added for fun. It's what it takes to build this properly.
Why nobody else did this
Honestly? It's hard, expensive, and doesn't scale easily.
Most manufacturers don't want to take this on. Why invest years in R&D for a niche market?
But we're riders. We are our own customers. We built a test bench with actual motorcycle rims so we could simulate high-speed conditions every time we wanted to test a revision.
Nyxglo Test Bench With Motorcycle Rim That Rotates Up To 200mph
What "first" means
When we say Nyxglo is the first truly wireless motorcycle wheel light, we're being specific.
According to our research, we're the first motorcycle-specific, continuous LED wheel lighting system that operates with no external power and no bike wiring.
That distinction matters. It's the difference between an accessory and an actual system.
Why we're writing this
As more people get interested in wheel lighting, there's more confusion about what's actually possible versus what's marketing.
We wanted to be transparent about what it takes to build something like this the right way. Not to say we're better than everyone else, but to explain why this category exists at all—and why it looks the way it does.
There's a reason most manufacturers haven't done this. It's genuinely difficult.
Building it right was the whole point
We built Nyxglo because we were willing to do something that didn't exist and do it properly.
Safety has always been the north star. Every decision, every iteration, every unit we made was with that in mind. Riders deserve products that look incredible and are actually engineered for the road.
This product category didn't appear because the market demanded it. It exists because we were stubborn enough to do the work, even when it would've been easier to compromise.
And now it's here.
