Chris516

DITTO!!

I have a 600lm headlight. I turn it on at dusk(and dawn if I am on the road that early) to one of three solid settings, and to strobe in the absolute dark(I can still see the road).

squirtdad

Based on my observations when driving:

Flashing lights front and back make a cyclist far more visible during both daylight and night.

A bright front light adds visibility but is not as noticiable as a blinking light (at night a mix of blink and steady white seems optimum)

The brighter the light the sooner the bike is visible and at night a cyclist is visible far before any headlight can pick them up.

Weak rear blinkies or front flashers reduce this visibility a lot.

Visibility means awareness and have drivers aware of a cyclist is a good thing.

cehowardGS

I am with you on that. In addition, compared to getting banged, bludgeoned and even worst by a 3000+ lb moving vehicle, the old man tends to come down on the side of the BRIGHT LIGHTS.
One thing comes to mind, the bright light bicycle is not there for any length of time. In addition, just like cages with super brights on, I don't look at them. The respect I get when I am running bright lights, and flashing lights, is over and beyond. Not only is my RIGHT-AWAY not taken, often the cages give up THEIR RIGHT AWAY, because they seem me coming. That is AWESOME!

And because my skinny butt do not want to meet 3000+ lbs of moving steel, at least from the fact of "not seeing me".. I am the bright light 73 YEAR OLD KID!!

Can't win them all..

Robert C

In the US I run a pretty bright light in the front set to flash (Magic Shine) and I get, universally, positive comments about it. The only flash setting is the bright setting; however, I do use the defuser lens on the flashing light though.

Other people tell me that the light makes me significantly more noticeable (probably not a good thing if I were a habitual red light runner; but, I am not).

cehowardGS

Can't be said any better than that...

When I grow up, I want to be just like you...

gcottay

What the problem with intense flashing lights? Are they a rant-worthy problem only at night or in the daytime too?

At night I happen to run only a steady front light and a flashing rear light. I've never been even slightly annoyed by an intense flashing light during the day but have been momentarily blinded by high intensity lights at night.

turbo1889

I think a big part of the "obnoxious" equation is not that the light flashes or how bright it is but the flashing rate. A light that is both very bright and flashes at a very rapid rate can get rather obnoxious where as a light that is just as bright or brighter that flashes at slower rate is not obnoxious but still gets you noticed. A good example of this is small powerful flashlights designed for weapons mounting (usually use a single 123A size cell) that have a "tactical strobe" setting (sometimes the only setting) that is specifically and deliberately designed to blind people and does so by being fairly bright but more importantly flashing at a very high rate and they can actually cause seizures in some individuals. Mounting one of those on your handlebars as a headlight I would certainly agree would be an "obnoxious" act. And some non-tactical-specific flashlights and even some bike lights do have a flash rate that is nearly as fast as a tactical strobe and I agree that anything that flashes that fast and is brighter then about 100Lm can certainly be seen as "obnoxious" and may actually have a detrimental blinding effect on other road users. A slower flash rate is much preferred. Some flashlights with multiple flashing settings will have an SOS setting (which more often then not is actually an SO setting if you actually know Morse Code and actually watch the flashes it will usually flash out S - O - S - O - S - O - S - O . . . instead of S - O - S - - - S - O - S - - - S - O - S - - - . . .) has a much more sensible flashing rate that isn't obnoxious and doesn't have a blinding effect.

Long story short, my advice to my fellow riders when it comes to flashing lights on their bikes is that once they get up above 100Lm (1-watt) of power on their blinky lights they need to start shopping more carefully for those lights that have a slower more sensible flashing rate. And yes, if you use a flashlight on the front with a flash setting for your front blinky then don't use a tactical strobe setting or anything close to that but rather use one that has an SO flash setting (rather then a true SOS setting) and if someone asks why you are constantly signaling distress point out their error and explain you are instead signally your indifference with SO repeating over and over (and smile while you watch the wheels turn in their head trying to figure out what SO stands for. It's actually very simple, "So?" as a complete sentence usually in response to someone else's whining about something).

-=(8)=-

I put my hand over mine stopped at a light when in the city. Im pretty sire oncoming people appreciate it. Aimed down too . .

degnaw

So you have it on solid during sunrise/sunset, and on strobe in the dark? Any particular reason?

JoeyBike

If you think your flashing light is too bright by day, point it a bit downward. Mine hits just above the license plate of a standard car, so when I stop behind a car, or am drafting a car, the full heavenly radiance of my 500 watt flasher is not coming in through their back window. So my full power is never shining at eye level but still lights up street signs to the horizon at dusk or heavily overcast days, yet seems to be quite noticeable even in bright sunlight.

My headlight and tail light are extremely bright (500 and 300 watts) so pointing them downward at night serves to light up a football field of tarmac in front and behind me - impossible to not notice me but motorists are not getting the full force of my lights in their eyes directly. I run the front light on steady after dark - flashing is just too much.

The only negative response I ever get comes from cyclists riding against traffic with no front light themselves. They can bite me in general, but I do cover the light with my hand as they get closer.

unterhausen

can you guys please keep bumping this thread until I remember to aim my headlight? It's too tight to aim by hand, so I can't do it while I'm riding. I was just riding under some of those overhead road signs, and I thought someone behind me had their brights on, but it was me.

turbo1889

+1


For pointing a light down to light up a patch of pavement after dark. I have multiple bikes with powerful lights aimed downward to light up the pavement. On some of my bikes I just have one or two powerful red lights aimed downward at the pavement to my rear to make a giant red spot on the pavement behind me at night. I get a lot of people that tell me that when they come up behind me on the road the first thing they think is "What the heck is that big red colored spot on the pavement ahead ?!?!". And then I have a bike an e-bike I built specifically for night commuting that has a whole set of powerful red and yellow/amber lights mounted all around the frame so that it lights up two big patches of the road on either side of me and stretching out towards the front (both about 6' wide by 9' long) bright yellow/amber with about a 12' by 12' patch lit up bright red behind me. I've only gotten a few comments on that one because people rarely stop to make comments but those who have its been along the lines of "Holy Heck !!! You light up the whole road around in in bright colors !!! Do you think you have enough freaking lights on that thing !!!" I used a bunch of 12 to 24 volt wide voltage range LED commercial truck (as in 18-wheeler) round and oval shaped tail lights to build that set-up and I run the lights right off the main battery and the lights when they are all on together including the headlights pull nearly 200 watts of power from the battery which is nearly what the electric helper motor pulls at half throttle. And I ain't blinding no-one with that set-up (except for oncoming cars who refuse to dim their brights because the bright setting on my headlights are more powerful then theirs and when I flash them with my brights at them for not dimming theirs they find out what bright really is) because with the exception of the headlights and the brake lights everything is pointed downward to light up the road around me in color coded form because that seems to be more effective provided you have powerful enough lights (and enough battery juice) to pull it off.

Bikepacker67

Ohh you saw me - GOOD!

A man needs something to get the attention of a world of caged texters.

Now as far this threads complaint is concerned, see my first sentence.

Bikepacker67

That's the spirit!
I bet you filter up to the front, and make those sorry sacks pass you twice!

jputnam

They're illegal in Washington State, too, though enforcement is quite rare.

Saw this last year on the I-90 Trail on Mercer Island, clearly some trail user wasn't happy.


"Thanks for not Flashing!" by joshua_putnam, on Flickr

jputnam

The I-90 trail does have an unusual percentage of riders with dazzlingly bright strobes, Magicshine and similar... The same emitter with the same strobe mode is also sold as a hand-held personal defense weapon designed to disorient people, not exactly the effect I would want to have on oncoming traffic.

I want a light that lets drivers see me without making them look away from me.

JonnyHK 

Even if pointed down quite a way it is still very bright. Which is sort of the point, but I do get how it can be annoying.

FYI light = Cygolite Expillion 180.


I'd like a 'flash' mode that was more of a 'throb' - ie not a harsh on/off, a more gentle transition. Many tail lights do this.

kookaburra1701

My mare didn't bat an eye when the barn owners' son would jump his bmx bike and do tricks off of the jumps in the arena. But if a bicycle on the road across the pasture went by, she had a total meltdown. Horses are about equivalent to a 2-3 year old human - some of them just have tantrums because the sky is blue that day.

ItsJustMe

If flashing headlights were made illegal here, that's not really a problem, I'll just put 10x as many lumens up front to make up for it. 5000 lumens steady should be good in the middle of the day.

Though the light I have flashing up front isn't a headlight, so presumably it'd be OK to have that flashing anyway.

turbo1889

Put me down for that one too if you are talking about how the old school pre-WWII technology motorcycle headlights would throb that were run directly off the magneto with no battery or capacitor to buffer the current. That is very noticeable without being obnoxious and made a noticeable difference in people seeing you from the front, they make 12V modulator boxes that you can install on modern motorcycles in the hot line to the headlight(s) that makes them do the same thing but I've tried them and they don't work with LED lights so you would have to build that kind of feature right into the LED driver circuit. Good idea if you can find someone making bicycle headlights to snatch up on the idea.

As I've already said, its not so much the flashing as it is the flashing rate, and yes, that assumes a hard on/off for the flash as apposed to a gentle throb as you describe. Personally what I think would be about perfect for me is a nice bright bike headlight with three brightness settings that had a gentle "throb" to it as you describe at a fairly slow and gentle cycle rate of two to three throbs a second (NO faster then three throbs a second) but still plenty noticeable with a momentary contact soft button on a short tether to run to the end grip that worked just like a dimmer switch on car headlights to switch back and forth between "low beam" and "high beam" setting quick and easy on the fly without taking my hands off the grips and then a simple three way off/low/high switch on the light itself and when it is on low (for path riding) the dimmer switch on the tether mounted within easy thumb push distance toggles between the low and medium brightness settings and when the switch is on high (for road riding) the dimmer switch toggles between the medium and high brightness settings.

That would give me everything I could ever want in a headlight, a nice gentle throb to it to catch peoples attention without being obnoxious or blinding anyone and the ability to have a very bright headlight when riding on the road with cars and a lower powered light when riding on a path with other bikes and peds. and skateboarders and such where I get complaints about having way too bright of a light when my headlight is set up for riding on the road with cars. Plus I can dim my lights on the fly in either situation to be nice and respectful to other road and path users without having to fiddle with my light and scroll through all the setting and have just one touch to go back and forth without taking either hand off the grips and, yes indeed, also to Pop! oncoming cars with my brights when they refuse to dim for me and insist on being obnoxious themselves and blinding me and refusing to dim for me as well because somehow they think I don't deserve the same level of respect as other road users.

cehowardGS

Proud to be among reasonable thinkers...

cehowardGS

Good points. In the winter, when I leave it is pitch dark, when I come home it is pitch dark.. Cars be passing me upward of 50mph.. within 3 feet too.

I wouldn't be caught out there with no less than a 1000lums, and double.. Just speaking for myself...

That big boy on the bike on the left is rated way up there in lums, I tell you that.. This the is setup I use in heavy traffic.. Heavy in the rear too.

The one on the right is just two meekly 26650 lights rated at about 1800 each, and if they are over rated, with the lum count, can't tell by their brightness, I tell you that..

spare_wheel

always!

and extra points if they have one of those bike license plates too.

more seriously...after literally causing sick and/or worried old ladies (work near/in hospitals) to pull over due to my blinding blinkers i switched to solid lights. cogitating a bit more about the effects of bb's on those prone to seizures may also have had something to do with my conversion to solids.

davehbuffalo

Flashing lights are good for being seen, but if they're as bright as say... a light that you use to see with, it's probably too bright to be blinking. Pointing down helps a lot, but it seems like cyclists tend to be more likely to forget to point flashing lights down than they do steady. Then, there's the issue that it's harder for a motorist to judge speed/distance as well when the light's blinking. I don't ever feel like I have problems being seen with my steady light. If I did, I'd go with a low intensity blinky in addition to my bright steady. I live in a city where there's street lights and 80% of cyclists use no lights at all (and seem to have little problem), so I know my observations may not apply everywhere.

jputnam

Depends how the law is written. In many states, all flashing lights are prohibited except those specifically permitted by law. Here in Washington, the only relevant exceptions are (1) flashing red tail lights, allowed on bicycles only, and (2) flashing 4-way amber hazard lights, allowed on any slow moving vehicle. So if you had anything other than one of those, it would be illegal, even if it wasn't a headlight.

But again, enforcement is incredibly rare. I've met only two cyclists who were pulled over for flashing white lights, and only one of them got a ticket out of it. (Hint, when pulled over for something minor, apologize profusely, say you didn't know and won't do it again. Don't pull attitude.)

I suspect enforcement would be more aggressive for some other bicycle lighting violations -- I've seen Seattle PD talking to a rider who had a flashing *blue* light... Talk about an invitation to a conversation with the police! That's *their* color, they take impersonation personally.