salek

One of my big problems cycling home after work is a nasty "sprint" where everybody is looking at the sun. I intend to place an order with Mouser this week for LEDs for both my bicycles and my (real) VWs. I'm ordering 10W LEDEngins for the rear of my commuter bicycle. One LED is $13, 350 lumens. I might put two on the rear of my commuter. That light detailed as the cause of this thread is very probably a nice light. But, for $26 (2 lights) and $40 (one battery) I can duplicate the brightness (700 lumens) without paying the $230.
I have already made a point of making things very uncomfortable to tailgate my Karmann and my Bulli. On the bike, I just wanna be SEEN when the sun is setting.

smasha

car or bike: i'd seriously consider a different route and/or a tea-break to avoid that type of situation.

when i drove long distances in a car, that's when i'd pull over and grab a snack, stretch my legs with a walk/explore, etc. on short car trips, i'd plan around it.

i've seen too many cars and bikes get hit under those conditions. no amount of LED light will protect you. too many people fail to keep their windshields clean... the sun hits the windshield at a low angle, and all they see is glare. it's like driving a car while staring right at the sun. they can't see anything in front of their vehicle.

few things scare me on the road, but that makes the list.

Sherbona

This sounds like a great idea for daytime. I just checked out the mouser site and to find out more. It looks like these are LED/emitters only - you have to get and solder a driver and body for this, right? What parts are you planning for this project?

01 CAt Man Do

Yes, driving into the setting sun is dangerous. As a person who makes their living on the road I run into those conditions on a regular basis. When this happens it is usually "rush hour". The reaction to the traffic is that everyone just slows down. ( * few people are going to pull over to wait it out. If you do that more power to you. )

I will slightly disagree that this condition makes riding a bike significantly more dangerous than under other conditions. My reasons for believing this is that when the sun is directly in your eyes you will look anywhere but where the sun is. You will also slow down and use more caution ( if you're not an idiot ) because you know you cannot see as well. The slower speeds and added caution used by the motorists should add some compensation to the lower visibility factor. As long as you have a good shoulder to ride on you should be fine. If you actually have to ride in the road than all bets are off. You are riding in a danger zone. Still having a good "daytime rear running light" will add some improvement to your safety.

Posted by Salek ( below )

Not to diss your attempt at DIY but it you buy a DiNotte product ( rear lamp ) you will get a much better refined product. I'd search ebay. Maybe someone is selling a used 300 or 400R. I use a simple Ultrafire 501-B torch with XM-L emitter set on SOS mode and used with an amber lens. Makes an awesome ( 600 lumen ) rear daytime safety beacon. For later in the evening I use a Xeccon *Geinea rear lamp ( 200+ lumen ) which compares well with other high-output rear lamps. (*note; the Geinea was supplied free for testing purposes ) For the "sunset conditions" mentioned above I would likely use both at the same time.

smasha

the behaviour you're describing applies to people with reasonably clean windshields. they're cool.

people with dirty or fogged windshields... they're scarier than stephen king. in many cases, people really can't see anything except the vehicle in front of them casting a shadow on the dirty windshield. they creep forward until a shadow is cast on the windshield, then they stop. when the shadow moves forward, they move forward. it's horrifying to see people drive that way, but some people do it.

it's seriously like driving with a blanket over the windshield. for people who keep their windshield clean it's hard to even imagine that some people drive like this.

these are the drivers that are truly frightening -

01 CAt Man Do

yes...I suppose you're right but if people are driving their vehicle with their windshields in the conditions you mentioned, they are going to be a hazard to the road "no matter what the weather/light conditions. You make a good point though in that winter brings about conditions that add additional low visibility factors for drivers of motored vehicles.

daredevil

Cat Man, you basically describe what people are supposed to do and are certainly right in that sense.

Smasha simply tends to want to account for the occasional inattentive, careless driver. Certainly understandable. If the situation can easily be avoided, that's the best course of action.

agent pombero

AWESOME. Too bright to use at night? I can't wait until payday! Going to order the new light.

01 CAt Man Do

Smasha ( like everyone else including me ) are just dealing with things we see on our local rides or commutes. We're all paranoid someone is going to "not see" us and hit us, that's why we talk about this stuff. Bad enough we have to deal with the cell phone users being all over the road as well as the consistent overly aggressive driver who always seems to think he is in a race to get somewhere. Then like Smasha pointed out there are the people who drive cars that have not been properly prepared before being driven on the road. These include things like, bad windshield wipers, overly dirty windshields ( no water in windshield washer ), bad tires, low tires, driving with one tire that is a donut, broken mirrors, bad brakes...the list goes on and on.

My own personal demon is a 2.5 mile stretch of road I have to ride if I decide to ride my bike to work. This stretch of road is rated for 40 mph but is regularly driven at 50+mph by the locals. The road has very little shoulder, maybe three feet at the most. At times I am almost riding on the white line. The cars I can deal with but the occasional tracker-trailer is what scares the hell out of me. The road also see's a good amount of traffic on the commute into work. Things being as they are I don't ride the bike to work anymore. During the winter I bought a couple new rear lights for my bike that might add a degree of safety when riding this section of road. When the weather gets warmer I'll likely get out and put my life on the line again. What I wouldn't give for another 5ft of shoulder.

agent pombero

I think this light, if it is indeed way to bright for nighttime use, would be perfect if it could be angled downward slightly to light up the ground behind and around the bike but still allow some of the light to sear some retinas. I'm very interested in this light.

krobinson103

How you kept them all juggled away from each other is beyond me! My wife and two daughters keep me busy enough. I can't imagine making it more complicated.

agent pombero

Maybe they all knew of each other and approved

Werkin

Thanks to this thread I became aware of the daytime 400R. This light is glaringly intense in daylight when viewed straight on in high steady & flash modes, even viewing several degrees off axis is somewhat harsh, and the flash is attention grabbing out to about forty degrees.

I don't ride in the dark, but for the sake of this night time discussion I experimented with it on an urban street this evening, it was visually assaulting to look anywhere close to the business end.

Athens80

How did the light perform at night on lower settings?

Werkin

Only steady state is intensity level adjustable, and low steady is marginally too bright to look directly at on an unlighted street.

emman123

Please Werkin, could you consider making a video of you riding into the horizon with the taillight on blinking in daytime? I'd like to see this brightness you describe so much....

emman123

couldnt PM you Werkin, because of the forum rules I dont have the right yet to PM... just wanted to say

thanks in advance... and bless you girlfriend

Dunbar

I think the all Dinotte rear taillights (including my 300R) are visually assaulting at night unless you aim them down at 30+ degrees. I turn mine to steady mode when it gets dark out and use a cheap blinky in flashing mode.

Would love to see some video of your 400R in daytime.

Gojohnnygo.

My video of TWO DiNotte 140R's from 5 years ago its close to beeing as bright as my 2 year old DiNotte 400R but the 400R has a wider beam.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4IeBhnFglE4

Dunbar

This thread is about the new daytime 400R which is even brighter than the regular 400R (link in the first post of this thread.) Werkin e-mailed me a video of it and that sucker is bright!

kdgrills

I rode with mine for the 1st time yesterday, yes it is bright.
I'll try to put up a side by side comparison in the next few days.

Gojohnnygo.

NO kidding so post the video!

emman123

yes please kdgrills kindly post this video

Richard Cranium

I haven't seen any new lights so I have no real-world advice about the new designs.

I do know something about night riding. And as many of you already know - if you ride in a group of riders at night - there are going to be "issues."

Like all technologies - bicycle lighting requires intelligent application and operation to be successful in it intended effects.

I think the Dinotte engineers and marketing people wanted to identify a particular possible bicycling need. And they wanted to let cyclists know they thought they had an applicable solution to that need.

As an aside to this issue - I often mis-mount an extra MagicShine tail light in pulse mode. The light flashes on to pavement directly along side my bicycle - creating a "red spot flash" on the center of the road lane I am using. This new Dinotte light sounds like it could be used in a variety of similar non-standard mountings.

01 CAt Man Do

I'm glad you mentioned this because I thought I was the only one that did stuff like this. I discovered not too long ago that you could mount a torch on a bike seat tube ( pointing down ) and when used on "flash or SOS", could really enhance a rider's all-around visibility to the traffic around them ( without blinding them in the process... ). Reflective "bounce" light is actually quite useable and very visible.