Thread: Helmet Light
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Old 02-19-20 | 02:03 PM
  #26  
Spoonrobot
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Originally Posted by polyphrast
It is myth (which unfortunately too many cyclists believe), that lights with a conical beam pattern (i.e. lights without a cut-off) do not blind motorists (or other cyclists or pedestrians). I guess you never gave your light-setup to a friend and made a self test with respect to blinding, haven't you? There is a very solid and good reason why passing beams/dipped beams in car lights have a cut-off. It is near on impossible to adjust a conical beam shaped light in such a way that you don't blind others. and if you don't the first 4 m in front of your bike is heavily overexposed...

If this is a conical light, it is inevitable that it blinds others. Unless the light has a very narrow beam angle (say <10°), but that'd make it mostly useless for cycling.


Did you mean that two lights make a cyclist better visible and help others to judge distance and speed? Or did you mean blinking lights helps others to judge the distance to the blinking light source? The latter is false. One needs a constant light source to be able to judge speed and distance. Blinkies only attract attention, but make it very hard for others to judge speed and distance of the blinking object.


That is usually true when trail-riding, but not necessarily when riding on streets, unless they are very curvy. A light for commuting on roads/bike paths is best mounted on the fork or bar and should have a cut-off.

List of possible cut-off lights with decent, usable output that helps to create respect from car drivers: Ravemen PR and CR series, Fenix BC25R and BC35R, Outbound Lighting Focal Road, Lupine SL, SL-F and the coming SL-X, Supernova M99 Series, B&M Ixon Space (and all the other german StVZO lights, i.e. lezyne has some pretty ok StVZO lights, but i don't know whether those are sold in the US/Canada)
Nah, that ain't the way it is in the real world. I'm not blinding motorists and they're not blinding me.

StVZO lights are essentially worthless for road riding.
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