Don't be a d!ck. Point your lights down.

UndercoverElephant wrote:

I'll just leave this here:

100 of the finest German luxes, all hitting the road at the same time.

Reinforcing the need for stvzo style lighting regs
I can't remember if that was a safe ride or a b&m ?

http://en.bumm.de/innovations/headlight ... rison.html

jds_1981 wrote:

That looks quite reasonable/impressive (although it is very bright so might still be a bit much for someone coming the other way along an unlit road.)

To my point above, you don't know the camera settings to know how bright it really is. But that does illustrate my point: with cameras, the aperture setting and the sensitivity of the sensor makes the difference and the same goes with your eyes.

(ETA - the sky in the pic is quite blue against the trees - suggests, given how bright the foreground is, that it's quite a "lightened" picture).

meanredspider wrote:

jds_1981 wrote:

That looks quite reasonable/impressive (although it is very bright so might still be a bit much for someone coming the other way along an unlit road.)

To my point above, you don't know the camera settings to know how bright it really is. But that does illustrate my point: with cameras, the aperture setting and the sensitivity of the sensor makes the difference and the same goes with your eyes.

(ETA - the sky in the pic is quite blue against the trees - suggests, given how bright the foreground is, that it's quite a "lightened" picture).

1/5th, f/2 and ISO6400 according to the EXIF data, the sky is pretty much exactly how I'd expect it to look for those exposure settings in the blue hour (or blue 10 minutes as it more typically is). That's definitely a lot of light to throw out from a bike!

Should have bought a BMW

Rhodrich wrote:

So, after sounding all smug about my StVZO approved light, it looks like its becoming increasingly unreliable, by turning off when I go over bumps.

Please can I have a recommendation for an economical, UK road legal front light, with decent shaped light output that I can buy in the UK?

The Garmin Varia front looks like a decent bet, shame it costs one meeeeeelion dollars.

My saferide appears to have had some water ingress and the button was misbehaving on the last ride. Fortunately when Rose had them cheap I bought two of them.

You never used to get these dazzling problems with the good old Ever Ready Night Riders of the 80's...

http://simple-living-in-suffolk.co.uk/tag/nightrider/

UndercoverElephant wrote:

I'll just leave this here:

100 of the finest German luxes, all hitting the road at the same time.

Am I right in thinking that's a dynamo powered B&M of some description? Curious to know which model and which dynohub?

I have the battery powered Ixon IQ Premium which does 80 Lux and is generally pretty good for my quiet rural bimbling round Newmarket after dark. In theory it should do 4 hrs plus on a set of 4 AAs, but never been out that long at night so I don't know...

But the other night I'd cocked up on the battery charging front and went out with nearly depleted ones in the light and 4 similarly discharged spares in my pocket :roll: . Cue 2 miles properly illuminated, a battery swap by the light of my Cateye rear, another 2 miles with lights followed by 15 miles on greatly reduced power. Just about enough to navigate by because I know the roads well, but I must have been virtually invisible to oncoming cars because I lost count of the number who blinded me with headlights on full beam. That rarely happens when the thing's on full power. But the whole thing got me thinking about the simplicity / fit and forget reliability of a dynamo setup...

jamesco wrote:

Wolfsbane2k wrote:

Another thing to consider is a freznel lens if your light is unshaped.

Are there Fresnel lenses that can be fitted to small bicycle lights? I've got these on the front, for example. The Fresnel lenses I could find had a diameter of 29-39mm and were made to repace lenses screwed in with a bezel, rather than one piece plastic.

Buy these, you can easily cut to the shape you need.
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... _920wt_175
The material sticks to the lens without any adhesive

Nellyspania wrote:

keef66 wrote:

UndercoverElephant wrote:

I'll just leave this here:

100 of the finest German luxes, all hitting the road at the same time.

Am I right in thinking that's a dynamo powered B&M of some description? Curious to know which model and which dynohub?

I have the battery powered Ixon IQ Premium which does 80 Lux and is generally pretty good for my quiet rural bimbling round Newmarket after dark. In theory it should do 4 hrs plus on a set of 4 AAs, but never been out that long at night so I don't know...

But the other night I'd cocked up on the battery charging front and went out with nearly depleted ones in the light and 4 similarly discharged spares in my pocket :roll: . Cue 2 miles properly illuminated, a battery swap by the light of my Cateye rear, another 2 miles with lights followed by 15 miles on greatly reduced power. Just about enough to navigate by because I know the roads well, but I must have been virtually invisible to oncoming cars because I lost count of the number who blinded me with headlights on full beam. That rarely happens when the thing's on full power. But the whole thing got me thinking about the simplicity / fit and forget reliability of a dynamo setup...

I'm tempted by a front dynamo hub, like you I'm using the Ixon IQ Premium, used with Eneloop pro's, though I almost have an OCD when it comes to keeping things charged.

It's the 100 lux IQ-X from Busch & Müller. I power it using a SP dynamo. Quite the best setup I've had/seen. Sadly the fork crown mount rattled itself to death, though, so I had to use one from a regular Cyo.

It's the 100 lux IQ-X from Busch & Müller. I power it using a SP dynamo.

Just bought exactly that combination for my new commuter. Have a shimano hub and IQ-CYO 2 (80 lux I think) currently which is already enough for 30mph downhill on unlit roads. This pics above look even better.

Tangled Metal wrote:

What's your view of head torches/helmet lights with a gazillion lumens? Had one today riding north on the A6 through Bolton le Sands. You can't dip them, where he.looks he dazzles.

Sorry if you really need bright attach to your bike with dipped angle or the decent lenses you can get. Then any head mounted light is a duller, to be seen light only. You are not in the mountains at night but in a dull morning on the road. You don't need the bright, directional light like that on your head.

Anyone got an idea what light it could have been? As bright as a good car headlight, large round light and stuck on the front of the helmet but I couldn't see how it was attached (band or strap?). Reckon a Chinese cheapo ultra bright one,

d*ckheads use these on cable st CS3 each winter...gonna call them out this year. Totally blinds you on a narrow track with a dodgy kerb next to you with peds all around...not a good combo

dhope wrote:

I've seen a few riders with a white light on the back. Pulled them up on it and was told they wanted to keep drivers guessing. ******* idiots.

I just popped out for lunch and saw a Renault Clio with red front lights (sidelights/daytime running lights) :roll:

There were two selfish bedazzlers last night going down the New Kings Road. Don't they realize that by blinding oncoming traffic they are making it more dangerous for everyone? Bloody scooters riders are as bad, I've been known to flick their lights to dipped when at traffic lights before......

So the question is how do we get the bedazzlers to stop? Beat them to a pulp? Friendly request to dip theri light (if you get a chance to as nicely), or request the police to target all traffic with too-high beams (like they did all traffic jumping reds a couple of years ago)?



I like the idea of shouting "Don't bedazzle you vajazzle"! But i doubt they would understand what I was talking about.

The embankment Superhighway is not much fun for this in the evenings, imho anyone cycling with more than a decent "be seen" light on in Central London is being an inconsiderate c0ckw0mble. One guy going West to East last night probably had enough light for a day/night cricket match!

If you need more lights the turn them on when you get out into the sticks.

So there have been horrendous roadworks on the Portsmouth Road in Kingston, whilst they're doing more work to the 'Dutch' cycle infrastructure. This has meant long queues of traffic, and my actually using the 'cycle lane' to get past these queues.

The cycle lane is a two way lane, on one side of the road, with a very narrow curb between it and the main carriageway. If you're cycling south, keeping to the left hand side of the cycle lane, you're about 2 feet from cars coming directly towards you in the main carriageway.

Headlights for cars which drive on the left are designed to dip to the left, with a sharp cut off of the beam to prevent drivers in cars coming the other way being blinded. However, if you're in a cycle lane which is on the 'wrong' side of the road, this means that car headlamps effectively are shining straight at you. This sort of thing is deemed to be so dangerous and unpleasant that RHD cars driving on the continent are required to have beam benders, headlamp stickers, or other headlamp modifications to prevent drivers coming the other way from being dazzled.

In the meantime, our 'safe' cycling infrastructure puts us directly in a location where such dazzling is unavoidable. Combined with unlit bollards in the middle of the cycle path, ambiguous crossovers with unclear rights of way, and other cyclists riding the other way with million lumen lights pointed straight at you, this makes for a pretty dangerous set of affairs.