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Rear lights: steady or blinking?

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Rear lights: steady or blinking?

Old 12-19-14, 10:29 PM
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Two blinking and one steady.
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Old 12-20-14, 12:03 AM
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L&M 180 on pulse, sort of between blinking and steady. I also bring small blinky backups and have a rain jacket with a built-in light and use reflective material.

I feel like all of our lighting and visibility hard work makes *us* safer, but for the regular cyclist, just raises the bar. Anything less than optimal equipment will draw charges of "I didn't see him, he wasn't lit up like a work zone Christmas tree!" from a motorist after they hit us.

You shouldn't have to optimize visibility to ride without getting killed. A simple front and rear light should be enough. But I don't want to risk my life on something that "should" be the case.
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Old 12-20-14, 02:52 AM
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If we had a poll, I'd opt for blinking ...
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Old 12-20-14, 11:15 AM
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Blinking is more visible/annoying to drivers, and has much longer battery life. What's not to like?
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Old 12-20-14, 11:28 AM
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Blinking. it gets the drivers attention...so hopefully they don't hit you.
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Old 12-20-14, 04:27 PM
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Dark roads with little traffic: One powerful unit on steady, and a lesser one on flashing.

Busy roads with lots of traffic: Both units on flashing.

Having two ensures you'll always have at least one running.
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Old 12-20-14, 06:16 PM
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Depends. Is it Christmas?
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Old 12-20-14, 09:13 PM
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Originally Posted by f4rrest
Depends. Is it Christmas?
On Christmas the red light goes on Rudolf's nose.
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Old 12-20-14, 11:25 PM
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Originally Posted by AlmostTrick
Having two ensures you'll always have at least one running.
This is an important point. Years ago, someone on here noted, "If you need one, you need two." I have had two instances recently that confirmed this. If I know I will be out after dark, I usually run one light on blinking for visibility, and one on steady for helping drivers to judge distance and to comply with the law in PA. (I believe it requires a steady red tail light for bicyclists after dark, but I haven't checked recently.)

Any way, on one ride the steady tail light stopped working, and I didn't notice until I got home. On another ride, I hadn't tightened the blinking light's mounting bracket tight enough, and it had slipped down and was facing the ground. It shows light around the edges, so it still probably helped, but not as much as if it were facing the proper direction.

As a side note, I have been using the NiteRider Solas tail light, and it is 2 watts of awesomeness! It is super bright, and has 4 modes. There is a fast blink, which is almost shockingly bright. The comment in the original post about inducing seizures makes me wonder... The Solas also has a group ride mode, which consists of 2 fast blinks followed by a slow fade out. I think that in a group, I might still use one of the two steady modes (high or low). The only problem I have had with it was the time that I did not fully tighten the bracket, which is of course 100% user error. I would highly recommend it. I'm also a big fan of the MiNewt 600 headlight, which appears to have been discontinued, and at least one chain store has on clearance.
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Old 12-21-14, 12:35 AM
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When I see a bicycle, I expect two position lights as follows: A white light on the front, and a red strobe beacon on the back, with one or two blinks per second on the rear position light. The front position light can be either a steady beam, or a white strobe that blinks at a frequency similar to the rear beacon.

Last edited by MrCoffee; 12-21-14 at 12:39 AM.
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Old 12-21-14, 02:07 AM
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I ride a trike. Here's my light pattern...
Rear: Big steady red light and two little blinkers. I also have a red blinker on my helmet.
Front: Big 'ol headlight (aimed correctly) & a smaller white blinker.

I also have spoke-mounted reflectors on my front wheels and a lit yellow spoke-mounted light on my rear wheel.

I'm visible, but I live in a part of Florida where several people get caught driving the wrong way on divided highways every week, so I avoid main roads around here like mad.
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