HiYoSilver

Seeing the sad story of the St Louie bent rider today, got me thinking about the worst environmental situation facing us:

1. riding into the sun with glare masking our presence to drivers, and
2. looking back into the sun for vehicles overtaking as we make a left turn across traffic

Luckily my commute currently does not involve situation #1, but #2 is a definite problem. I have learned to check and
recheck when beginning the cross traffic move and checking both over the shoulder and the mirror. Too often I want to think it is clear and there is sometimes a vehicle there.

So, what ideas do you have about the sun glare problem? We'll never take up enough space to provide a black spot agains t the sun. I would imaging lights would be lost. Any ideas on how to increase safety?

late

Bright yellow clothing and good shades to cut down on the glare.

HiYoSilver

I don't understand how bright yellow clothing will increase visibility of a driver looking past a cyclist into the sun.

Here in CO, even with shades, the glare is so intense, you often get tricked into seeing what you want to see and not what is. It doesn't matter if on bike or in car.

worker4youth

Only 1 solution for sun glare visibility: Daytime headlights.

bkrownd

The only thing that can be done about driver Sun glare blindness is to alter your own route and riding time to avoid putting yourself in that situation. There's nothing that's going to make a bicycle or pedestrian any more visible in those situations.

DCCommuter

A xenon strobe would help.

kb0tnv

I have a stobe (EL-120) light and if I see a car backing out and the sun is probably going to be an issue I toot my airhorn. Most of the time I am very carefull when I figure the sun is possibly masking me.

Keep Cycling,

operator

Failing that, just be more careful where you know dangerous situations exist.

andygates

Sun glare is big enough to wash around a narrow object and make it invisible. Even a fat bastard like me has become invisible once or twice. What you are wearing is irrelevant and I doubt that bike lights could ever be powerful enough to compete with ol' Sol. I just ride wide so that I'm where the drivers are at least paying attention. Only been clipped once in this situation. Alternatively, get the Hell out of Dodge: get out of the traffic stream.

holicow

Here's an option in spandex:

seeker333

i agree. alter time of ride or route. no battery powered light can compete with the sun.

of course, the time where the sun is in that position is short, so you should be able to work around.

xenon strobe might help. i bought this one with amber lens:

https://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-STROBE-LIGHT...QQcmdZViewItem

it will work with 7-13 vdc batteries. this is simpler, less expensive type of strobe - no rotating parabolic mirror and motor to drive it. so it wont draw much current. its a little brighter with the lens off, but this may not be strictly legal everywhere. this thing is definitely brighter than led flashers, and more importantly omnidirectional - 360 degrees minus the arc blocked by rider.

flash frequency increases with voltage. so 12-13 v works better than 7. 7 is borderline, especially with voltage drop across length of wire to rear end.

google seco alarm for specs

of course you need to devise a mount for this strobe - i use rack. but fender is supportive enough. strobe is lightweight. i think an old stem shimmed up to the seatpost would work too.