night riding. fear!
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Now the clocks have fallen back, I doing my evening ride in dark from beginning to end.
My lights are:-
Front
- Bikehut LED - Use on lit roads on flash to be seen
- Light & Motion Li-Ion Arc - for me see on unlit roads - expensive but v bright
Rear
- Smart 1/2 Watt
- Cateye 5 LED
Went out last night for a 16 mile ride on mostly unlit roads, got a little disoriented in the dark, but OK - got back in one piece!0 -
One tip to avoid temporary night blindness from car headlights: close/cover one eye before the car approaches. Once past you can open/uncover and the iris in the eye that was covered will not have closed down to cope with the bright light so you get better vision until the other eye catches up. Works a treat.
More charger/NiMH info in this thread.Aspire not to have more, but to be more.0 -
Simon E wrote:One tip to avoid temporary night blindness from car headlights: close/cover one eye before the car approaches. Once past you can open/uncover and the iris in the eye that was covered will not have closed down to cope with the bright light so you get better vision until the other eye catches up. Works a treat.
Nice tip - will have to give it a go. Some glasses actually make it worse. I found last year that clear lenses and full beam headlights are particularly bad where you just can't see anything so be wary of those too for night time riding.0 -
Yes, the glasses are tricky, but I have been hit by enough small objects when cycling (mostly insects, but they can hit very hard) to consider them essential. Do you find tinted glasses better or just no glasses.doyler78 wrote:Simon E wrote:One tip to avoid temporary night blindness from car headlights: close/cover one eye before the car approaches. Once past you can open/uncover and the iris in the eye that was covered will not have closed down to cope with the bright light so you get better vision until the other eye catches up. Works a treat.
Nice tip - will have to give it a go. Some glasses actually make it worse. I found last year that clear lenses and full beam headlights are particularly bad where you just can't see anything so be wary of those too for night time riding.0 -
alfablue wrote:
Yes, the glasses are tricky, but I have been hit by enough small objects when cycling (mostly insects, but they can hit very hard) to consider them essential. Do you find tinted glasses better or just no glasses.doyler78 wrote:Simon E wrote:One tip to avoid temporary night blindness from car headlights: close/cover one eye before the car approaches. Once past you can open/uncover and the iris in the eye that was covered will not have closed down to cope with the bright light so you get better vision until the other eye catches up. Works a treat.
Nice tip - will have to give it a go. Some glasses actually make it worse. I found last year that clear lenses and full beam headlights are particularly bad where you just can't see anything so be wary of those too for night time riding.
I never found any that were particularly good, indeed last year I went through orange, yellow, smoke, blue & clear and they all had their problems for me in riding at night. In the end I couldn't put up with all the problems and don't use any now however I am worried that I will regret it as I do get hit in the face from time to time and they do sting. If anyone has any suggestions as to lenses that actually work well in night time conditions I would be happy to consider.0 -
doyler78 wrote:If anyone has any suggestions as to lenses that actually work well in night time conditions I would be happy to consider.
Specialized Adaptalite MTB glasses are my fave. I have a pair and they usually stop the blindness due to a mixture of their yellowy tint and their quick reaction to changing light conditions.0 -
wow I'm overwhelmed by the number of responses - i'll struggle to respond to everyone but thanks to all who've contributed.
i'm definitely going to give it another go.
- the fenix had the stock alkalines that it was supplied with - i will replace with decent NiMH rechargeables and see what difference it makes.
- i've worked out a decent way to mount it on the side of my helmet which i might try - is there any worry of the weight or lockblock mount damaging the helmet at all?
- i am a bit worried about my eyesight but i've never worn glasses and had an eyetest a few years ago with no problems. not that they would have tested 'night vision' at an opticians. i'm only 21 so hoping i'm not going blind yet!
- i'm riding Cheshire country lanes. they are not just dark, they are REALLY DARK. often there is no distinct kerb, high hedgerows etc. in the car I would use full beams (obviously the fenix can't ever compete with that - maybe I just need to get used to seeing a lot less road)
- my fenix has the 'smooth' reflector not the 'orange peel' - possibly gives a narrower beam? not sure if this is good or bad
- maybe i just need to get used to it... i will have some more attempts and get back to you!
thanks to all!0 -
Good luck long finger. The difference between smooth and orange peel reflector isn't great, it has a smoother transition between hot spot and spill, but I think the beam spill is the same angle. If it is really dark maybe use 2 (I am fine with one on a totally unlit railway path). Even at around £100 for two it is still a lot of light for the money.0
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Rich-Ti wrote:This is my weapon of choice:
720 lumens of power for 3 hours! That way you can see all you want on dark unlit roads (as well as an early warning of the deer in Richmond Park), and cars definitely dip their lights for me too!
im glad the roadie maxx lumen power is similar to the romisen cr t5. id spend £150 max but i could never spend £300. well im hoping by adding a romisen t5 to the electron eph325 will be enough. only time im glad a driver has his/her headlamps up full beam is behind me but the majority of drivers did dip their headlamps even when all i had was the electron eph325 set. night riding at the moment is just a 19mile circuit near home.0 -
LF - I was out in Cheshire last night too - it was blooming cold - wonder if that affected your batteries ?0
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cougie - that did cross my mind, it was pretty cold! i just googled it and i'm sure you are right:-
http://www.dpfwiw.com/batteries.htm#cold
the graph below is for NiMHs, but i imagine the alkalines probably suffered as much.
i've just swapped out the alkalines for rechargeables and i could be persuaded its produced an improvement - i'll report back once i've had a ride with it. (tomorrow hopefully!)0 -
Cheshire might be dark...
(- incidentally where are you ?
I'm between Warrington & Knutsford, and I think cougie is over towards Ellesmere Port)
...but how much light you need seems to be purely personal.
I was out on Monday, down unlit back lanes, stopped to fiddle with something which was rattling, a cyclist going past slowed and asked if I was OK (which is great ! We all should do that)
I said I was fine, he continued by and then after a bit of a pause I started off after him.
From the rear he was lit up well, very visible, but at the front he seemed to have very little lighting, at least the to-see variety rather than to-be-seen.
I was expecting that with my lighting I'd be going quicker and I'd catch him, but it wasn't until the T-junction at the end and he turned-off just before I got there.
I know that road, it's got a bumpy-rough but not potholey surface, I was doing 20+ and perfectly happy with the amount of road I could see with my lights, but he had very little at the front by contrast and yet was doing a similar speed.
Obviously I need more light to be happy than he does.0 -
Spooky. How did you know where I was ?
I passed a guy on the Wirral Way last week at night- pitch black - theres me on the MTB - two Fenix blazing away and there he is on a racer with a puny little light on the front - so puny that mine obscured it when I was anywhere near him. He wasnt much slower than me either.0 -
andy - i'm riding around the delamere forest area, on the quieter lanes and avoiding the A roads (and even the B roads!) where possible. it seems a little warmer today, i'll see if the new batteries have done the trick later on...0
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okay, I've made some real progress tonight -
- a fresh set of NiMH batteries in the fenix made all the difference. I owe this thing an apology. It is impressive! The alkalines that it came with really didnt do it justice. I had to stop once I was on the unlit roads to adjust the angle of the lockblock to point further down the road, but then i was much happier.
- BUT...after about 45-50 minutes there was a noticeable drop in output from the torch. (like a powersaving function that switches out of 'turbo' when the batteries are low. switch off and on and it goes back to turbo for a few seconds before going dim again).
not quite the advertised 1.8 hours but it was around 4degrees Celsius [and then some windchill?] so i guess the batteries may have suffered.
- my 45 minutes of glorious torchlight did allow me a decent ride, including 8 miles of unlit road in which i passed only 2 cars and one fox! its a strange, eerie but awesome feeling being out there in the blackness
- i'm thinking of getting another L2D so I can mount the pair together on the handlebars, so i have a backup for when the batteries die down or if i need more light (downhills etc)
i'm pretty excited about finding some new routes for the night-time. thanks for the encouragement and the inspiration to get out there...0 -
Same just happened to me cos I couldn't be bothered to recharge the batteries after last night's run. After 45 mins tonight it went dim. Fortunately had a second pair of charged batteries in the old back pocket so after a bit of fumbling in the dark I was back up to full light-sabre mode and scaring wildlife / oncoming motorists again!0
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I'm pleased you got some decent performance out of the light, but I suspect your NiMH batteries may be in poor condition, even with the cold you should get 80-90% of the performance. Your batteries may be low capacity, may be past their prime (charging in a cheap charger) or just partially charged. I recommend Vapextech 2900mah batteries and the LCD World Ultra Fast charger. For an even "smarter" charger, there is the Technoline BL-700 or the MAHA Wizard One (which I have). These last two not only charge your batteries at any rate you wish, they analyze battery condition and will recondition batteries to try and restore performance. They are expensive though, but they satisfy the geek in me! The Vapextech one will do fine. I don't know what your Ever ready charger actually is, but the presence of led's does not mean it is a smart charger (my old charger had them, it merely indicated that they had stopped charging because the timer kicked in). A decent smart charger will detect voltage and temperature in the cells and will stop charging before any damage occurs. If you start afresh you should get close to the stated performance for the Fenix - I do!0
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hi alphablue.
i think it was someone else with an everready charger - i havent mentioned mine yet. mine is an ultra-quick charger and it is 'intelligent' in determining when the batteries are done. but i dont think it was terribly expensive. [it is a 'fameart' charger? means nothing to me!]
the batteries i'm using are brand new, "GP Ni-mh 2700 high capacity" from the photon shop - http://www.thephotonshop.co.uk/page45.htm
i will look into the chargers and batteries you mention. - i think maybe having a second torch as a backup may still be wise as well0 -
alpha blue - i'm starting to suspect you are right, as i look at these battery chargers. mine may be fast and 'intelligent' but it doesnt have temerature sensors to avoid damage from overheating, and the batteries do get HOT. i've had a few rechargeables die completely on me before now. maybe this is why. doh!0
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Ah, sorry Long finger, confused with another thread. There are ultra quick chargers and ultra quick chargers - I did have a Uniross one that was "smart" and would charge the batteries in 15 minutes - amazing I thought, but within a few months my entire collection of NiMH's were junk. The charger even had a fan in it to keep the temperature of the cells down, but it was just too brutal on the cells. Vapextech's "ultra fast" charger is a lot gentler - it will take about 4 hours to charge 4 AA cells (not sure why it has the ultra tag). I think the charge rate is just too high on chargers that are genuinely ultra fast, even if they are "smart".
I think Fameart = Sanyo, so it should be reliable, electronics wise, but if it does charge at a very high rate it may compromise your batteries. Alternatively it may be just fine. It is worth leaving your cells in the charger for an hour or two after they are finished, some chargers will trickle charge and get the last 10% of available capacity.
The GP cells should be good - I have used them in the past. All cells will overstate their capacity maybe by 10% or more, my 2900mah cells actually give about 2550, but they still are pretty close to the best available (the best I have are Powerex, but they are 3 times the price and only offer 50-100mah more).0 -
I may try and get up to Delamere one night - bit of a trek though on the MTB.
Tonight was nowhere near as cold as Tuesday.0
