rear lights with red lazer lane....

rickeverett

are these road legal?
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Bicycle-Bike- ... RTM1572015

Though I would give them a try having seen them on someone's bike the other day.

Along with a red LED backlight they also fire red lazers down onto the road surface creating a lane. Looked very effective - esp for higher vehicles.

Colinthecop

Don't know about the legality.... but they're pretty cool.

8)

Actually, thinking about it, can't see any reason why they shouldn't be legal. They're just projecting light onto the road.

slowbike

But are they just creating a "you can pass me this close" line ... ?

A safe passing distance varies with the speed differential ... I would not be happy with that line on the A roads with vehicles travelling at up to 60mph...

majormantra

I'm curious as to how effective they are in real life - I suspect the photos exaggerate their brightness. Still, for the money...

As an aside, these look like a copy of an idea that appeared a few years ago, but may never have made it to market:

http://www.lightlanebike.com/about.html

rickeverett

The width of the lane can vary according to the height and angle they are positioned at.

On my road bike with a high saddle I would put it at the top = wider lane.



for £7 worth the shot. (will be used in conjunction with another light)

The only reason I question road legality is they are red lazers :?

Colinthecop

Slowbike wrote:

But are they just creating a "you can pass me this close" line ... ?

I guess rather than having your bike in the centre of the two lines,



You could position the light to the right so your wheels run closer to the left line creating a bit more space.

If that makes sense...? :?

majormantra

They point downwards, so I don't see why there'd be any issue. Please report back if you buy one.

rickeverett

Colinthecop wrote:

Slowbike wrote:

But are they just creating a "you can pass me this close" line ... ?

I guess rather than having your bike in the centre of the two lines,



You could position the light to the right so your wheels run closer to the left line creating a bit more space.

If that makes sense...? :?

yes - also the height will throw the lazer wider + you can turn the light anticlockwise to throw the right hand side out wide.

WELL- I have gone for it. Worth a shot. Just thought it would be pretty cool.

Colinthecop

rickeverett wrote:

The only reason I question road legality is they are red lazers :?

Just don't point them at any passing aircraft and you'll be fine... doing that gets you in trouble.

Otherwise there's no issue. They can be illegal if they're over a certain strength, can't remember what it is off the top of my head, but i'd imagine these would be well within the limits.

slowbike

rickeverett wrote:

The width of the lane can vary according to the height and angle they are positioned at.

On my road bike with a high saddle I would put it at the top = wider lane.



for £7 worth the shot. (will be used in conjunction with another light)

The only reason I question road legality is they are red lazers :?

Well duh - of course you could place it higher or tilt it to change the line placement - the question I asked was "are they creating a 'you can pass this close' line?" ...
Along with the next para which states that the safe passing distance varies with speed differential it means the line placement is a compromise if it does create a safe passing distance indicator ...

I've toyed with the idea of creating something similar - but not straight lines.

As for legality - there was a recent invention of a front light that projects a green bike onto the road meters ahead of you - that used lasers - so I'm guessing it's ok.

have a read of this: http://www.theguardian.com/environment/ ... -bike-lane

I know it's theguardian ... but first glance it reads ok ..

slowbike

rickeverett wrote:

WELL- I have gone for it. Worth a shot. Just thought it would be pretty cool.

At £7 it won't matter if they're not as effective as they first seem.

Sorry if I sounded negative - I was just trying to get you to think about the effectiveness of what they're trying to achieve.
Sometimes I think the safest way to protect yourself from behind would be to have a tractor & heavy trailer follow you ....

rickeverett

Just to update....

Light arrived today. I have just tried it out as it went dark.

First impressions are the LED Part is really really good and super bright. I was surprised and very impressed. Probably one of the brightest rear light out there. Theres 5 LED's in total with a choice of lots of annoying flashes. 2 LED are also side LED's at 90degree which improves the field of light giving a nice bright 180degree view. That part is really impressive and much better than my £30 CatEye one.



The LAZER side of things not so much. A bit of a gimmick. The pictures arent that far off - bit if you notice they are in virtual darkness.

Wasn't really effective until it was dark and even then it gets drowned out by roadlight. On a Dark country Lane however its actually not that bad and shows up well.

With the supplied holder you cant really tilt the light to throw the lazer out wider. I had to use my CatsEye holder to tilt the light so it threw the right hand side out about 1-1.2m
The Lane it creates is quite narrow even at the top of my seat post to improve width.At default without tilting, its about 60-70cm either side of the rear wheel. If you were in the middle of a road bike lane it would hit the white line.

I think the LAZER only comes into its own to warn other cyclists of your distance, not cars (if they see it) of your proximity. All they see is the super bright lights and a thin lazer line near you that stretches back about 2-3m.


For £7 however its a really good light, and like I said its better that my CatEye one that has pretty poor field of view unless your directly behind.