woodcraft

I'm for safety and all, but excessively bright flashing headlights suck.

The visual equivalent of loud motorcycles. (Bright lights save lives?)

You can be seen fine with 100 lumens flashing- spare us the 1,000.



Thank you. Carry on...

Sixty Fiver

x 1000

Sixty Fiver

Add to this poorly designed but super bright headlights with no high beam cutoff.

fietsbob

German law forbids flashing bicycle headlights,, apparently..

DX-MAN

Super-bright flashing lights make little sense; I agree, 100w of flash would be MORE than enough. But a STEADY 1000w is a real advantage.

I'm suddenly glad I never tried riding my bike at night when I was in Germany..........

jolly_ross

Riding with experienced animal management friend - we pass by a dog owner repeatedly shouting his dog's name.

My friend says "It's not that the dog hasn't heard you ... "

Same with lights - I often see people with something like 4 rear flashing lights. There's a case for 2 - as when one stops going there's little notification and it just quietly goes out. But 4 is not 4 times as safe - does no harm (other than making you look a bit of a d!ck).

10 Wheels

Bright lights are better than No Lights.

JonnyHK 

I managed to upset a horse with a flashing light.

Riding up a narrow country lane in England that was very dark (overhanging trees almost forming a tunnel), I came upon a woman on horseback. As I came around the bend and the light was pointed towards the horse it began to shy away. I immediately stopped and covered the light with my hand. Horse calmed down and I waited until they passed. Rider and I agreed that it was probably the light.

If I hadn't realised sooner - or if I'd come around a sharper corner - then the rider might have been thrown.

10 Wheels

It was not the light...

Horses spook when near bicycles in the daytime. We came up behind this rider and the horse went crazy.

Myosmith

I've had one flashing headlight, not even an excessively bright one at 25 lumens, and I got rid of it. I don't think it contributed at all to my safety and was more irritating and distracting than necessary. Now I have one 160 lumen flashlight with the clamp mounted under my handlebar directing the beam fairly low and slightly right. It does a great job of lighting the pavement as well as pedestrians, parked cars, obstacles, etc. well past my stopping distance. It is very visible but not directly in the faces of oncoming drivers and only hits the rear view mirrors of cars in front of me within 100 feet or so. The clamp I use is easily adjustable so that I can direct it slightly more down when cruising in city traffic where I have the added illumination of street lights, or more directly forward for faster riding on unlit, lightly traveled rural highways. I've got one multi LED flashing red light on the back with another small red blinky that I can attach to my helmet or jersey.

I've never found a need for more lighting than this though I'm thinking of upgrading to a 300 lumen flashlight that runs on two C-cells (more for the longer run time than the brightness) which has a high/low setting. What I like about the flashlight and QR clamp setup is that it instantly converts to a hand held flashlight or can be clamped anywhere to the frame or seat post (or a tree branch for that matter) for a roadside work light. I've had people tell me that they can see my current front headlight from a couple miles away out on country roads.

My daughter has the same flashing light as I have on the back of her bike and I can easily see it at 100+ yards in town and much further when there are no street lights or other ambient sources to obscure it.

Myosmith

There is a wide variety of temperments among horses (just like people). Some spook when leaves blow across their paths while others will stand their ground when all hell breaks loose driving cattle. If a horse is a bit on the skittish side and unfamiliar with bicycles, it is more likely to over-react to their presence, lighted or not. If the horse regularly encounters bicycles on a public trail or roadway, it will soon learn to ignore them.

Richard Cranium

Stupid people - even stupid cyclists can act stupidly.

What is troubling - is that so much technology is becoming available for stupid people to use.

Your rant could more aptly be about all the abusive behaviors now in the pubic domain.

Are you aware of all the "nav screens" being deployed in most of the new automobiles?

Blinky lights? Hah! Get ready to be killed by some weasel checking his route info in his/her new "safer car." Millions sold - millions more on the way out of the show room........

degnaw

I strobe my ~500lm flashlight during the daytime, have it solid at nighttime. During the day, I really don't think it's any more blinding than sun glare.

cvskates

I commute daily, and I used to have 1 red flasher on the back of my bike. After reading in the commuting forum about others with multiple lights, I spent $20 on 2 more red flashers, and I find cars treat me better.

I think when they see 1 red light flashing light they know it's a bike (although at night I'm surprised at the number of cyclists I pass with no lights and no helmets), and assume the light is on your seat post, so they figure they can still get pretty closed to you. But when there are three flashing lights drivers are not positive it's a bike, so they give me some more space. I hang one off each pannier so it makes me look wider, as well.

As to the flashing headlights - I see them on motorcycles, and even as a motorcyclist myself they annoyed me.

rumrunn6

I tip mine down a tiny bit

ItsJustMe

I have been cranking up my daylight front flashers bit by bit. Currently I'm running an amber Nova Bull up front. If people continue to do stupid crap like this:

https://youtu.be/-hiZgxpWNlQ

I'm going to keep upping it. I'll flash 1000 lumens if that's what it takes. I don't want to be annoying but I can't have stuff like that happening either.

spare_wheel

its not about safety for me. i use the most obnoxious flashing lights money can buy because i make every effort to make motorized commutes a little more unpleasant.

cvskates

I've been finding that with a steady light on the front, cars treat me more like a motorcycle than a bike. The flashing light tells cars you're a bike, and for reasons I can't grasp, cars seem to give motorcycles more respect than bikes (at least in my limited experience).

subwoofer

Agreed, and it is annoying that many bike light manufacturers make the strobe too fast and too bright.

That would be a bit odd as Lupine make the RVLR (Road Vehicle Lighting Regulations) mode which is a nice slow strobe and not too bright either. (but I have not checked the relevant German laws)

buzzman

A really bright light can be essential in some circumstances but if the light is technologically sophisticated enough to be so bright it should be capable of being aimed and focused where the light is most needed- towards the ground and the road in front of you. There is no need for lights to be angled in such a way that they blind on coming cyclists and drivers.

Flashing lights would fall under the category of what I would refer to as "be seen" lights and there is no need for a flashing light to be of extreme wattages.

MEversbergII

I just have the one rear blinky (in the market for a better one now). My front lights are a pair of LED flashlights I've zip-tied to my handlebars in true Ghett0 fashion. Who needs clams? (this guy)

M.

mconlonx

I run a 350 lumen headlight on steady, minimum, to see in the dark. If I run a front blinky (usually don't), it's a 1w cheap-o headlight aimed well down.

no motor?

I use one flashing light on my helmet and one on the handlebars during the day. I'm still invisible to a lot of people, just for less time than when I didn't use them.

volosong

After seeing the difference in how cars act around me, the only time I will not ride during the day with my Lumina 600 strobe on the front and Dinotte 300R, (also in strobe mode), taillight is if I am on a group ride with other cyclists or on a MUP. Otherwise, they are on! I'm a believer. (I've passed many police coming toward me as well as have them pass me, and not once did they say anything.) At night, I use a solid beam NiteRider Pro 3600 LED, (I'll admit that the 3600 is almost too bright - I usually run it on half power.).

Sixty Fiver

I use a Planet Bike 2watt LED headlight that provides enough light to see by and it has a seizure inducing strobe that I only use in the daytime and when I am riding in traffic and not on the MUP or trail as it will blind oncoming cyclists or induce the aforementioned seizures. Run times with alkaline batteries is 5/12/18 and get much better time with Li rechargeable batteries.

Output is rated at 150 lumens and the output the equivalent of 3 watt generator lighting... I will also pair this with a 10 watt halogen that is also only suitable for one way travel as it is extremely bright and was designed for off road riding.

I also have lower output LED lights that are more miserly when it comes to power use... they will run up to 100 hours on blink mode and are still bright enough to be seen on a sunny day.