Originally Posted by
Sir Bikesalot
In the example you mentioned, the extra money is going to things other than protection--comfort, lighter weight, etc. Again, it's not the best analogy because the extra cost of the Dinotte is clearly NOT going to things other than safety. Is the Dinotte smaller? Is it more lightweight? Does it have better runtime? No, because all of the extra cost went solely into increasing the output of the light, which is universally accepted to correlate with safety on the road, and I think is something even you could agree with (otherwise why buy a SF when there are $5 blinkies out there that do pretty well but not as bright?).
You buy the Superflash or equivalent because it is a nice balance of effectiveness and value. A Superflash is about 4 times the cost of a 5 dollar blinkie......a Dinotte is several times more than that. The argument is that the Superflash does the job well for me for that price.....there's ostensibly no reason to buy a Dinotte.
I think most people who have used the Dinotte agree that it's bright enough to compete with car taillights and thus will not go further in terms of output. So to answer the question, for the current crop of lights, this is most likely where it stops.
So you admit there is a stopping point? Good (though "most likely" sounds like a qualifier to me). So we just have a fundamental difference of opinion in where that point is. I say economics is an excellent barrier for RELATIVE degrees of safety. And I stand by my argument that the lack of clearly defined quantitative evidence that "brightest" is necessarily better than "brighter" makes the whole discussion quite subjective.
I think there are plenty of things to place value on. I value my sanity over some quest to make myself the absolute safest I can be. In particular when there will always be other things that enter into the safety equation......and often times those are things where monetary values do not matter. So....I'm not saying you're wrong to spend whatever you want to spend to make yourself feel safer. You just haven't convinced me that it's worth THAT much more. And don't try to argue that Dinotte, in magnanimous fashion, put all the "extra cost" into making the light brighter. Really? That much more money? I think they are banking on the fact that there will always be that crop of riders out there who will insist on buying the best (or at least the perceived best) regardless. I don't have a problem with that....I like free markets. But they haven't sucked me in yet....and....it seems....there are a WHOLE BUNCH of Superflash (or equivalent) buyers out there who agree with me. So if I don't die from an accident in the coming years, can I say "Ha!.....I outfoxed the prevailing view?" Or will you just insist that I was just lucky I wasn't hit by someone and that other factors played no role? And if you hear of someone who gets hit by a car from behind with Dinotte ablaze, will you simply scoff at the whole notion of it being that someone STILL didn't see them (for countless other reasons) and that it was a fluke....an isolated incident....and that the Dinotte is still worth every penny?
Calculated means taking into account all issues at your disposal and making a judgment about their relative safety......with some inherent amount of risk always present. I've made my judgment....just like many other judgments from day to day in this scary world we live. I feel very comfortable with my decision.....I guess I just like to argue.
