Originally Posted by
tatfiend
IMO bright taillights are not needed on a group ride and could be annoying to following cyclists, particularly in blinking mode. The brightest could also affect fellow riders night vision.
When riding on unlighted streets I want enough light from my headlight to be able to spot road hazards soon enough to avoid them. In city riding I want enough light, front and rear, so that I am not unnoticed by other road users.
The biggest probllem with bright cycle lights I believe, as the OP noted, is that most have poor beam patterns that would be illegal for the low beam on a car headlight. For higher power bike lights a lot more work needs to go into reflector and lens design so that the lights have a reasonable vertical cutoff. Light going out above horizontal is pretty much wasted.
Here's a frame from video of my bike alongside a car out on the highway. I drew a red circle around the "blast zone" from my ~900 lumens of bike headlights, and around the "blast zone" from the headlights of the car that's alongside me. Both my lights have symmetric beam patterns with no cutoff, and their impact is still far lower than an automobile. We should do something about those darn automobiles
Take a look at some of the beam pictures in the MTBR light test thread linked to on another current thread in this subject area. What is the point of brightly lighting tree limbs 20+ feet in the air?
When your bike's aimed at the G-out at the bottom of a gully, and the other side is effectively well "above the horizon," it'll start to make sense
IMO bright taillights are not needed on a group ride and could be annoying to following cyclists, particularly in blinking mode. The brightest could also affect fellow riders night vision.
That's a valid point. If I'm on a group road ride, I only switch on my DiNotte if I'm at the back. And if visibility is deteriorating, I'll switch on the DiNotte and
stay at the back to protect my group. I usually have either my reflective vest or my Tron Jacket™ on hand for rides that'll take us into twilight, too. But I haven't seen anyone in my club complaining about SuperFlashes, they're directional enough that someone right on your wheel is well above the "hot spot" of the beam anyway.