Strobe or Continuous Light for bulb longevity?
 

I tried looking for info on strobe or continuous light for cycling at night but could only find results for photography...

anyway, I have this front light for night riding and I always have it blinking so drivers pay more attention at stop signs and intersections. but does blinking reduce the lifetime of the light?

also, is strobe or continuous lighting safer for cyclists/other drivers? I've seen the argument that drivers can get seizures from strobe but honestly wouldn't they get seizures from much more than bike lights?

I've been using a Serfas headligth for years. Something sorta like the True Series on their website now but only 300 (?) lumens. Cost ~$150. I use in both flashing and steady modes depending on where I am and the battery life I need. Bought it around 2008 and have done nothing but charge it.

I do find as a driver that I cannot always judge the speed and distance of strobes. I've also heard about seizures. I find some strobes are impossible for me to see with when it is very dark but others work. That old Serfas has a strobe I can see pretty well with.

Anytime I have very bright or obnoxious lights, I try to be aware where they are pointing. (I curse the folks that ride with bright helmet lights and look at me when I am riding the opposite direction. I find myself blinded for a few seconds.)

Ben

What light do you have?

Strobe for Day, Solid for Night.

Led lights = really does not matter strobe or steady.

I firmly believe that many car drivers have a hard time determining your position and direction when all they see is a flashing light. If they are staring at your light trying to figure out where you are, they tend to steer towards where they are looking. If you want to use a flasher, use it in combination with a brighter steady light. This goes for both front and rear lights, especially at night.

What I've been doing for a few years now is steady main front headlight on handlebar with lower-power, inexpensive 180-degree white blinkie on fork, plus steady low-power forward white helmet flashlight with amber side lenses (Just an old prescription bottle with the bottom cut out). In the rear, steady, inexpensive rear 180-degree red light with red 180 blinkie on back of helmet. Have it this way on all three bikes. My main commuter now also has a front amber monkey light my sister bought me.

It's not the flashing that produces seizures as such but the randomness in the flashing. That's why fire alarm strobes are synchronized. So, if your flashing is at a constant interval, it should not induce seizures.

This

I actually have it the other way around, flashing light on the handle bar that can easily be seen and a steady light on the fork to illuminate the road ahead of me and shows off road's imperfection more pronouncedly since it's lower (creates shadows).

Bike light makers usually only specify run times for each mode -- bright, dim, flashing -- per battery charge. Usually flashing delivers the longest run time per charge. I haven't seen anything specifying the effect on LED life. That info is probably available by Googling around for LED components themselves rather than the finished products using LEDs.

This is one of the favorite bones of contention for gnawing on every bike related discussion.

I do what seems to work for me (i.e., reinforces my confirmation bias).

For white headlights:
Flashing in daylight.
At night, flashing in heavy traffic and near zones where drivers are usually distracted (parking lot exits, intersections).
Steady in most places at night, especially on the bike trails.
On the bike trails I usually try to use the dimmest practical steady beam and aim it downward to avoid blinding oncoming cyclists, joggers and walkers.

For red taillights:
Flashing/strobing, nearly always, day and night.

The only exception is in group rides when I either turn off my Cygolite Hotshot or set it to steady dim. Even the Hotshot 50 is too bright for group rides on any flashing setting. There's no way to dim the maximum output. The only way to do that is on the steady mode.

My hybrid/cruisers have dimmer red LED/reflector combos for group rides and most neighborhood rides. They're bright enough for that without blinding anyone, and the reflectors enhance visibility. These have better side visibility than the Hotshots and similar lights with intensely focused beams that are visible mainly from the rear.

I also wear helmet lights.:
A Vivo-Bike Illuminati on the front -- size of a Bic lighter, also available under other brand names via Amazon, for $12-$20.
And a Blackburn 2'Fer on the rear, usually in red flashing mode. Great, versatile little to-be-seen light, with steady and flashing white and red modes.
Both are lightweight, weigh almost nothing, last about the same time per charge per mode, and have good side visibility.

Helmet lights enhance our visibility to drivers. They're visible above car roof lines in traffic when our bike mounted lights are blocked. And it gives drivers two vertically oriented points for quickly estimating our orientation, distance and speed. I began combining bike and helmet mounted lights after observing this effect on other cyclists -- made it much easier to see them in cluttered urban settings, and to estimate their orientation.

Been using this, NiteRider Lumina OLED 600 Headlight

12:45AM last Saturday started my 76 miler in low continuous light with slow flash mode. 21 hours of life displayed and time count down was accurate. Was only maintaining 16mph on familiar roads so low light was not an issue.

Batteries last longer on flashing mode. No idea about the light itself, but with modern LEDs that's irrelevant. The light will outlast the wiring and housing. It should be the last part of the entire unit to wear out from use.

LEDs only care about total on time. Usually they're rated for 50,000 hours or something like that. Usually that's a half life. At 50K hours the LED will still work but the brightness will be reduced by some amount.

If you run an LED in less than 100% brightness mode, it's turning on and off probably something like 1000 times a second. This is how you control the brightness of an LED. It's actually putting out full brightness but only 20% of the time or whatever mode you're in.

If it doesn't mind turning on and off 1000 times a second, a 2 hz strobe sure isn't going to bother it.

I like the idea of a blinkie on the fork. This is something I'll have to start doing, especially if my plan to commute to work ever comes to fruition.




:)

This isn't really what they are for.

That's why cars have headlights.

(Drivers may expect riders are going slower than they are.)

What's a Bulb? They're all LED's now and LED's don't care how many times they are switched on and off (As long as they are not over-driven (current wise))

Can you judge the distance better if I use 2 or 3 flashing taillights? When one is off, the other is on (not exactly in sync).

Continuous

In the dark I always have one flasher and one continuous, unless the taillight does both at once (flash over continuous).

LED lights are Not damaged by flashing. In this day and age, you should buy LED lights. The savings in Batteries will pay for the new Lights.

I despair... one day (hopefully soon) it won't matter a whit, what folk, or anecdotal or verified scientific knowledge guides your head/tail light choice or usage mode. It will all be codified into a comprehensive set of statutes and criteria that leave no room for individual interpretation, much like what is done governing the main and auxiliary lights of everything else that uses surface streets and roads.

I FOUND IT !!!

I'm getting one of THESE:

https://vtrcorp.com/about/bikealert/

When you consider that I use a lot of reflectors and my intent all along was to have amber markers/turn signals, a bright headlight and a large red taillight (maybe even a brake sensor), if not a motorcycle fixture on most of my classic cruiser bikes (I like tanks and 'motorcycle bikes'), I'm only temporarily messing around with little blinky stuff.

Whatever you use will be right sometimes, and wrong other times.
People have trouble judging speed and distance for both single solid lights and flashing lights.
Your light will last as long as it lasts, just keep an eye on it and replace as necessary.
Overthink all this and you're better off turning off your computer and going for a long ride.

Flashing red LED on the offside seat stay at ALL times. At night - I have a 10 mile commute through the local lanes - this is supplemented by Lezyne Prodrive lights fore and aft with both on solid beams, plus a flashing white on the handlebars and a flashing red on the helmet.

Experience has shown me that Leaking Battery Acid will Destroy the Lights Before the bulbs burn out, a lot of the time... especially with LED's , because they never die...