Originally Posted by
thunderseed
Well this might be a dumb question, but how high is too high?
It's one of those small but long cylinder shaped lights, so then I worry if I point the light beam at the ground, can drivers still see it?
And I don't want it directly in front of me, I like to have it about ten feet in front of me so I can see any obstacles I might ride into, but maybe that's angled too high?
Generally speaking, if you can't see the center of your light beam about 2 carlengths ahead of you, the light is aimed too high. The primary reason that you run the light is to actually
see where you are going so that you can avoid stuff on, or in, the road. If the light doesn't hit the road, you are wasting your light.
You don't want the light to shine straight down so that it is only inches in front of your wheel either since you want to see that stuff on, or in, the road before you hit it. That's a waste of your light as well.
As for being seen, if you have a light that is bright enough to light the ground, cars will see it.
Originally Posted by
10 Wheels
Do you have Good Night Vision?
This comes up over and over again. It doesn't matter how good your night vision is. If you are running lights or around lights at night, you don't
have night vision. Your eyes are full of retinal...a form of vitamin A...that is sensitive to light and changes configuration when exposed to light. Your body makes it continually but if it is exposed to light, it just keeps changing configuration. Once the configuration is changed, it takes about 30 to 45 minutes to clear out of your system. Once the changed form of retinal is cleared from your system, you actually have "night vision" so you could walk across an open field without lights or see many more stars or navigate by the moon. But flick on a light and the whole process has to start over again.
But if you step out of a lighted building and turn on lights on a car or bike or street, you don't have "night vision"...good or otherwise.