Please go buy some lights
 

(sigh...)

Saw someone on a bike the other night in Rochester and last night in Portsmouth NH, both without lights. For those of you familiar with the area, the Portsmouth rider was heading out rt 33 between the cemetary & I95.

Both looked like their only means of transportation were bicycle, ambulance, or hearse.

Okay, if you're reading this, I'm sure you already use light. If you don't, you'll probably end up using one of those last two means of transportation sooner or later.

I see more cyclists in the dark without lights than with. I also see a lot of cyclist with lights so dim you can see them until about 20ft away.

I really don't see the benefit of lights if riding the wrong way on the sidewalk though. In fact it may confuse drivers more. ;) That said I also see some road riders with no/inadequate lights.

Al

The few cyclists I've seen riding after sunset have no lights, dark clothing, and are usually riding the wrong way on the street. People have no clue.

The pigs don't mess with them for this? I got pulled over by the cops some 15 years ago when I started riding at night, I've been using lights since then. As with my car I am now fanatical about lighting. I want bigger and better always.

People with car lighting out or messed up is a peeve of mine. The ones that really irk me is the idiots that ca't tell a bulb is out or wrong when their blinkers flisker at a billion times a second because one in the circuit is gone or they changed to the wrong bulbs altogether. I know BMW has had sensors in their cars since 90 or so, yet people ignore the screen telling them a bulb is out. Jackasses.

If you haven't seen my other threads on this, get some 99 cent store lights and pass them out to idiots you see. The front one is like a Bell knockoff one, maybe others. The rear light is the same as the serfas one minus the bike clip part, just belt clip.

May not be as good as the ones we all use, but can save you and them a futurre crash if they use em.

I suppose there are some who ride sans lights on purpose so as not to be seen .

I drove my SUV to the Dr. about a month ago and noticed that the flasher was at high rate. (due to rear left turn signal bub being out). That was the last time I drove it so its still out. ;) Thanks for reminding me to stop by AutoZone on the way home today, or tomorrow, or next year.

Al

Classy...

I have already bought some lights for a few friends I know for Christmas. I agree that those riders who don't have them should.

The other night my son was driving to pick my daughter up at work and met me on the road. He later told me he is no longer worried about be because of my lights. :D

Now this is a good thread about something that bugs me a lot. Why, oh why, do so many insist on riding at night without lights? You can get a decent headlight today for under twenty bucks. I think Nashbar has some combo sets, consisting of a headlight and red blinkie, for under thirty dollars.

With the lights available on the market, there is no defense for riding at night without lights. What I find amazing are some of the excuses. What are some of the best ones you have heard?

Law enforcement on this varies a lot from place to place. In Massachusetts, the only two places I know for sure enforce this law are Cambridge, and Boston.

My usual cut-and-paste from the Massachusetts General Laws, chapter 85 section 11B:

During the period from one-half hour after sunset to one-half hour before sunrise, the operator shall display to the front of his bicycle a lamp emitting a white light visible from a distance of at least five hundred feet, and to the rear of said bicycle either a lamp emitting a red light, or a red reflector visible for not less than six hundred feet when directly in front of lawful lower beams of headlamps on a motor vehicle. A generator powered lamp which emits light only when the bicycle is moving shall meet the requirements of this clause.

I know, I know: No one likes to hear factual information, do they?

I have been trying to get in touch with the light place, they are in Long Beach. THis is their rear light like what Serfas sells for $12.

http://www.serfas.com/lights/lights_images/TL_311.jpg

I think the front light that is a buck here is this one and the rear in this serfas kit

http://www.serfas.com/lights/lights_images/CP_323.jpg

If I get them I am going to sell on ebay for retail plus ebay/paypal fees to people who cant get them unless they pay Serfas 25 bucks. I will carry a few sets with me wherever i go to give to death riders.

My wife has a different pet peeve and solution. She carries cell phone headsets we stocked up on for a bck and she gives them to people driving around her yapping on the phone. Hopefully by now we saved at least one persons life.

This all started because of one idiot a block away that I have repeatedly almost killed that I discussed in an earlier thread. He used the lighing a few times then stopped. His excuse is that the linght is "gay". I may look gay but I am alive. Idiot now sports a black bike with his black clothes making it harder for me to see him.

I have lights on my bike, and like all winter commuters, I know where all the LBS within a 5 mile radius are. I know where I could get lights, if I needed even more.

That is not the case with most of the people you see riding without lights this time of the year. Chances are, they are riding a department store bike, and have never been near any store that sells bike lights. And for sure they have never heard of Nashbar. Their bikes did not come with lights, and they are not aware of the risks involved in riding them without lights at night in or around traffic.

While I was stopped at a light with all my lights flashing, a pedestrian in the crosswalk felt it necessary to inform me that drunk drivers will zero in on red blinking lights. "Thanks," I replied, "I'm playing the odds." What am I supposed to do, assume everybody is drunk, and ride invisibly instead? Perhaps there is a fear out there among the uneducated that it's better not to draw attention to oneself?

Perhaps you might consider not paying any attention to strangers who gratuitously babble about something they may have read somewhere in a tabloid or on the Internet. Or maybe just repeating what they heard on the street from some other babbling fool.

I've heard this, too, but I've never seen any evidence to support it. My guess is that it's just an urban legend. Does anyone have any evidence either way? And by "evidence," I mean an actual study, not just that you heard something from someone.

That sound like a load of BS to me.
Um:
1) Ride with no lights and drastically increase your chances of turning into roadkill and suposedly avoiding drunk drivers. Plus, said drunk drivers are a significant minority of the drivers on the road.
or
2) use lights and stay alive.

Such a hard choice. :p

What's next? Is someone going to tell me that if I shave my legs the hair will grow back thicker? bah!

My light is always running out of juice on me. I haven't got the recharging schedule down yet. So I have back-up lights. But they keep going out, too. Not sure what's wrong with them. I need back-ups for the back-ups I guess.

The other day I saw a guy on a crap bike with a red blinkie in the bike lane. I thought WTF?? He was the kind of guy that rides wong way on the sidewak no lights. Turned out the bicycle coaltion gave out red blinkies that day. See what good such a simple thing can do?

What's next? It's hard to top: Ride in the center of high speed roads by default for the purpose of protecting yourself from the risk of "inadvertent drift" on the shoulder or right side of a highway ("Danger Zone").

What kind of guy rides the wrong way? The kind of guy that doesn't buy/ride expensive product from your favorite LBS?

The BF already has at least one poster who tries to associate the value of a cyclist('s opinion) by the cost of his bicycle. You feel that way too?

Another poster may find this kind of guy's not worthy of the advocacy reserved for high mileage ROAD cyclists, experienced with the protocols and tactics of training with the guys in the cycling club.


WTF, Indeed.

I see what you mean, but yeah, it IS usually a guy on a crap bike going the wrong way. I've never seen anyone on a decent bike doing the same thing. It's just a comment on what is seen on the street, whether it sounds stuck-up or not.

Has anyone else almost flattened one of these yahoos?
There's alot of blind corners around here, and I can count 4 times when I BARELY got out of the way of some knucklehead travelling against traffic. Because the closing speed is so much greater than with a pedestrian (correctly walking against traffic) it's one of those 'you better have quick reactions' kinda moments. :eek:

That's for sure. I see no-lights cyclists riding in plain view of police officers all the time. But dig this:

A convicted felon found with a small-caliber handgun while riding his bicyle in Ardsley Park is back in jail.

Savannah-Chatham Metropolitan Police Officer Clifford Huggins was patrolling Ardsley Park on Thursday night when he spotted Earnest Marcel Mims riding a bike without a headlight, police spokesman Sgt. Mike Wilson said. When Huggins attempted to question the cyclist, Mims abandoned his bike and ran, Wilson said. The officer chased the cyclist and eventually found him hiding behind a house. Mims was charged with operating a bike without a light and obstruction by fleeing. Police searched Mims and found a small-caliber handgun, Wilson said. Officers also charged him with possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.

I suppose lots of people were shocked to read the Savannah Morning News story above about a armed convicted felon in their midst. I was shocked to read that the police actually stopped a cyclist for riding without a light.

I like the sound of the program the Portland Police have going. They pull over cyclists who are riding without lights and install lights for them. There's a thread about it here:

http://www.bikeforums.net/archive/index.php/t-156140

I've looked and looked. All I can find is people quoting other people. I gave up for now. I'm having a tough time imagining how you would collect that data. What do you do, ask a drunk why he hit something?
Get drunk and go for a drive? How can you do a test? With a driving simulator?

I vote urban legend, but I will keep listening.

Nice, EricDJ! That is the type of thing I am talking about.

When the Cambridge PD bike patrol officers stop errant cyclists, they inform them regarding what the law is. I'm told that most cyclists so informed are dumbfounded upon learning that there are actual laws for bicycles.

Is this a case for better education?