cerewa

So in the US, new bikes are sold with two left reflectors, two right reflectors (wheels), three front reflectors (pedals and front-center) and three rear reflectors, according to government mandate.

Automobile low-beam headlights are designed to point down and to the right in order to avoid blinding oncoming traffic, meaning that front reflectors on bicycles are unreliable at best.

I once saw a bike with a rear blinky that seemed to be powered by the motion of a magnet attached to the rear wheel which would pass by a wire coil, providing energy to its red LEDs.

It seems to me that it would be sensible to replace the mandate of front reflectors with a mandate of a similar white-LED device, which I imagine could me manufactured almost as cheaply.

This might help take away people's illusions that front reflectors are adequate for riding at night.

Another option would be to mandate that bikes be sold with a clip-on front-center reflector which could not be actually clipped on to the bike unless the rider purchased a front light with this new type of reflector clip-mount. (we would have to convince or mandate manufacturers to produce headlights bearing this mount.)

Again, it would take away the false sense of security provided by the front reflector (I don't think people think much about their pedal reflectors being for front visibility anyway) until the person bought a light. People riding in daylight only would be free to go on their merry way minus one front reflector.

noisebeam

Front refrectors are useful based on my real world experience of seeing cyclists with only front reflector and no light.
There should be no more mandating of what bikes should have or not when sold.
LED lights especially low cost ones are insufficient and lack much of what a good reflector can provide

The biggest problem I see is the illusion that some cyclists have that smaller LED front lights are adequate and remove their front reflector and replace with a tiny white blip that can barely be seen. Most small (meaning in power, not size) front and rear LED or other bulb lights give a false sense of security.

Al

AndrewP

When I was a teenager in the 50s in the UK several of my friends got ticketed by the police for riding at night without lights. In those days all bikes sold had brackets for mounting headlights, either on the side of the fork or below the stem. LED lights are cheap, long battery life and give enough light for riding at a casual speed. We need the police to enforce the rules for bike lights.

dynaryder

The above device only works when the bicycle is moving,and then the blink rate is determined by speed. Plus electronic/mechanical devices can fail. Reflectors always work,even when stopped,and have no moving parts.

supcom

Although an auto headlight is aimed slightly downward, the beam pattern is more than wide enough to illuminate a reflector down the road. Otherwise drivers would be unable to see reflective traffic signs suspended from bridges, along the road, etc.

The 'problem' with reflectors is that they only work when they are illuminated by the motorists own headlights. This reduces their effectiveness for vehicles that are turning and when a cyclist is approaching quickly from the side.

mechBgon

The other problem with reflectors is that, as we all know, people in cars sometimes don't turn their lights on when they ought to, so there is nothing to reflect in the first place. I mean hey, turning the headlights on would require putting their cell phone down

Blue Order

As far as I know, every state has a law on the books requiring the use of a light at night. Enforcement of existing law would make it unnecessary to change the new bike equipment laws.

trackhub

That is an excellent way to put that. The Consumer products safety commission (who, oh who, are these people?) mandated years ago, that every bicycle sold in the U.S. have the full set of reflectors at the point of sale.

I only wish I had a buck for every time I have heard someone say "Oh, I don't need a headlight. It has reflectors!". Yep, this CPSC idea was a fine one.

An example of where reflectors just don't work: Night, about 9 PM. It is late September. The place is a typical suburb, on a residential street, with minimal street light lighting. A darkly dressed pedestrian steps off the sidewalk, and is struck hard by a light-less cyclist, who just did not see the pedestrian. The pedestrian did not see or hear the cyclist approaching.

Now, if the cyclist in this situation had been using any of the low-cost, LED headlamps on the market, (Niterider ultrafazer, for an example) would the chances of this accident happening have been reduced?

With the lights on the market today, there is simply no defense for not using an adequate headlight, and red tail light. MA state law requires a plain white headlamp, visbile for at least 300 feet in darkness.

I admire the tinkerers, who have their own home brewed light setups. Some of the ones I have seen are very nicely done, and quite bright.

Ngchen

It's interesting how you mention the magnet driving the blinkie. That seems like a clever way to have blinkies that are always powered. However, I think a problem with doing it for the front is that many if not all states forbid the running of a flashing white light in front by anything other than an emergency vehicle. (Like many laws regarding bicycles, it usually isn't enforced though.) So it won't be easy having a steady-running magnet driven white LED in the front, at least without some sort of energy storage such as a battery or a large capacity capacitor.

Michel Gagnon

The rear-wheel "automatic" blinker is quite popular around here, but alas, I would say it's almost as effective as a low-power blinker with dead batteries.

Regarding reflectors, I would suggest you read this page on
reflectors by John Allen.

There are some merits of side reflectors (though many pitfalls, as John Allen points out), but the front reflector is only useful to help car drivers identify wrong-side cyclists.

I personnally would love to have the a variant of the German law around here, where bikes must be sold with a generator-based system providing at least a given amount of lighting. That way, we would have systems without a quick release, and always there, so there would be less invisible cyclists.

DCCommuter

I had a similar thought recently when I was shopping for bike stuff. I noticed that a blinkie was $4.49 and a set of CPSC reflectors was $5.59. I'll grant that there are a lot of factors that go into final retail pricing, but the cost of putting a blinkie onto a bike has to be in the same ballpark as putting reflectors on, and I'd much rather have a blinkie.

randya

I'd much rather have reflectors than a blinkie, TYVM. But I do agree with requiring a basic lighting system of some sort (dynamo or otherwise) to be required with the purchase of a new bike, the CPSC reflector standard is basically BS since it doesn't fully comply with any state's requirements for night lighting.

Savas

Random thoughts:

A pedestrian starting to cross the street at dusk will see my front blinkie and they appear slightly stunned or double-take, as though coming out of a mental fog.

Reflectors I see all the time on bikes when I drive. But I am a biker and a careful driver. I also have my headlights properly adjusted and working. Though some reflectors appear dim and useless because they are askew on the bike. Similar thing happens on kids bikes with some budget low-output single-LED rear blinkie hanging at some droopy angle while riding in darkness.

It’s the rare bike rider in my town who has a clue and is visible in the night. It’s reassuring when I pass them while driving, knowing exactly where they are positioned. It is too bad that the majority are nearly invisible and constantly exposed to danger.

sggoodri

Front and rear lights are much more effective than reflectors - when the power source is working. Simply adding a reflector to the light improves its failsafe performance. I have seen both front and rear lamps with reflectors integrated into them. I prefer to use my own reflectors, though, which are bigger.

I think bicycle purchasers should have lights made available by the dealer, and should be required to sign a waiver if they choose to buy a new bike without front and rear lights. I wouldn't force them to buy lights they don't want, but I think it would be good for them to be educated at the point of sale about why lights are important and what is available to them.

joejack951

I really agree with this final comment. I have a "nice" road bike which I never intend to ride at night (too many bad experiences with potholes and such). If some type of dynamo light were required on this bike, it would be really useless and I'd have removed it by now. My two other bikes get ridden at night all the time and as such have been equipped with lights on the front and lights and reflectors in the rear. It didn't coaching from the LBS where those bikes were bought to know to do this but apparently for some people the logical thought that brought me to the decision to light my bikes doesn't always occur.

I also disagree that a single LED flasher on the front is useless. While I don't use mine on it's own at night as it doesn't provide enough see-the-road light, I do use it at dusk where my 10W light is overkill and really not much use to me as I can see the road just fine. I also use it to supplement my main light at time when visibility is bad (fog/rain). The one other commuter I see also uses a flasher for the same purposes and I can see him better than most cars. My flasher illuminates signs over a quarter mile away.

The original comment was referencing cheap flashers which probably do not do as good of a job as mu Cateye so I do see his point but just wanted to add some clarification. As to whether or not it's legal, I'm not too concerned about getting a ticket since cops are rare on my commute and I'd rather be ticketed than not seen.

Savas

Looks almost as though we are stepping within the boundaries of a State Inspection System for bicycles, like they do for cars.