rideaid

Hi Everyone,

Kind of new here, but I thought I would pose the question: How many of you are running lights during the day for added visibility/safety?

I've seen (from a car) a bunch of people in my area start to do it an I think its a great idea. A lot of them are using flashing mode in both front and rear probably to conserve battery and also increase attention during the daytime. To me I feel like I notice the cyclists with day time lights much sooner than ones without. My thinking this could be a great trend for bicycle safety. Thoughts?

Mark Stone

I use flashing lights both front and rear during daytime riding.

bikemig 

I don't use them. I'm no fan of cyclists using bright lights during the daytime on a MUP.

Chris516

The 'strobe' mode uses up the battery the fastest. I save that for night time.

Nunymare

My lights aren't bright enough to be readily visible during the daylight hours (sunny, clear skies). I use them when it's overcast and around sunset/rise time though.

irwin7638

I just made the leap to a dynohub and B&M Eyc Senso light with a Toplight line brake plus on the rear. I think it is good. The light does not have a flashing mode (german regulations), but has a photo cell which switches to a daytime driving light. When it is daylight it chooses a beam which directed up to attract the attention of drivers. The brake light has a capacitor for storage and a chip monitoring the current. When it senses the current slowing down, it emits a brighter light briefly. It works quite well, but who knows if a driver perceives it for what it is. I put all this on my dedicated commuter and really like it so far.

Marc

rekmeyata

I don't use any front lights during the day unless it's raining or foggy, the same is true for the rear with the added exception of riding on a busy city street or highway then I set it for flash and I only use the brightest main rear light. At night I have one head light on steady and the other on flash which is mounted to my helmet and I can flash it into car windows and it attracts attention faster, but when I get out into pitch dark paths or roads it goes into steady mode. For the rear my main and brightest tail light is on steady and my other two are on flash at night. The reason I mix my rear lights between steady and flash at night is due to two different studies, a Euro study showed steady to the be the safest yet a Canadian study showed flashing to be the safest, so not knowing who is correct I do both! Steady has been proven to help motorists to determine how far they are away from you much more accurately than a flash mode, but flash attracts their attention faster.

I've never been hit from behind even when I was riding with the first Xenon flashers that were dim to the point of being about as bright as a candle with a red lens covering it, so not sure how well all this bright stuff works, but the technology is there at reasonable costs so I use it.

I also wear reflective Home Depot mesh neon green reflective safety vest at night, and there is a reflective strip on my saddle bag and on my shoes as well as ankle bands I wear, but I don't count on that stuff because unless the car headlights are directly on it reflective stuff isn't all that effective until the car is up close. So I count more on active lighting rather than passive, but some additional way of lighting me up isn't a bad if it helps even 1% which is better than 0%.

Leebo

Yes, I run lights 24-7. Great for shade to light areas when trees block out the sun on parts of the road. Also helpful when biking below overpasses.

squirtdad

I run front (white) and rear (red) blinking lights at all times. Add steady front white at night.

IMHO visibility is the single best safety factor for cyclists.

Running blinking lights is the single best way to create visibility. (second daytime is fluorescent green clothing and second night time is reflective material)

People don't see what they don't expect to see, even in bright daylight (psychology of vision). Blinking lights help break through this and make a cyclist more visible.

Matariki

Dyno lights front and rear. I have recently started to run them during the day for additional visibility

1nterceptor

I use lights that have different settings; I probably wouldn't buy a light if it only turned on and off.
Flashing during the daytime in traffic, off on bike paths during the day, low on bike paths at nite,
unfamiliar street at night - highest steady setting looking out for potholes, etc.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_G74...6zPoymgKaIoDLA

Rain - flashing or high steady depending if it's day or night:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLeZ...IoDLA&index=19

KD5NRH

I'm thinking about going old-school for daytime lights.

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Puncture

Yes, I run lights day and night. It used to be dyno front & rear and an additional flashing rear during the day, but now I have a B&M Luxos U which I use for charging during the day and use a lezyne zecto front and a couple of battery flashing rears. At night, nearly everything is on, except the horizontally-aimed 1W flasher which is reserved for bad conditions (fog, rain etc).

JBHoren

^^^^^^^^ Knog Blinder 4 in front, and Cateye LD-1100 in back (the Cateye has two rows of independently-controllable LEDS, so I set the top row for steady and the bottom row blinking).

dougmc

That must be specific to whatever lights you've got -- in general, flashing modes use the battery up considerably slower than steady on modes, for example this light lasts 5 hours on high, 12 hours on low, and 18 hours in flash mode.

MMACH 5

I use lights day and night.

ItsJustMe

I do. I started after this happened:

https://youtu.be/UOwv_IXZdIk

Then this happened just a few weeks later:

https://youtu.be/-hiZgxpWNlQ

I started running front and rear daylight lights and it hasn't happened since.

enigmaT120

I do, powered by my generator hub. Also two bright blinky battery lights (Radbot 1000) on toward the rear, except for the rare times I ride in town in traffic. They get my attention when I see them on other bicyclists, when I'm driving my car, so I figure they might get other people to notice me on my bike. I haven't been run over so far.

AboutDavid

I run lights day and night. Blinking red in the back, blinking white during the day, steady white after dark.

Other than having to recharge or replace batteries more frequently, what would be the reasoning behind having lights on your bike and not turning them on? Mine are easily seen during the daylight, which makes me more visible. Can there possibly be a downside to that?

rideaid

Seems like the advocacy and safety crowd is pretty set on riding with lights during the day. I wonder what the response would be if I had posted this thread in one of the more general boards. Doesn't seem to be anyone against it here.

Do you guys encourage others to ride during the day with lights? How have they taken the suggestions?

10 Wheels

Bought all my lights for Day Safety.

squirtdad

I do and people have responded well. It is simple thing to ask them to look at bike on the road and determine for themselves which are more visible.

If you have any personal questions as to how much visible they make a bike, then just compare how easy it is to see bikes with and without lights. El Camino, Central express way, Miramonte, Grant road, castro street, foothill expressway.....all should give you a pretty good sample set.


fwiw I run light on my car all the time too.

Squeeze

I always run a flashing red light in the back.

I almost always run a solid white light in the front.

Sometimes if it's the middle of the day, sunny, clear, no long shadows, etc. I'll turn off the headlight but I'm always ready to click it back on if I feel the need to be seen - approaching a busy intersection, etc.

Ball Bearing

I'm sold on daytime lights. I am waiting for my Designshine DS-500 to arrive. The main highway where I live is a two lane 110Kph number with no shoulder. Texting while driving has changed everything.

dynaryder

Bike share bikes in DC and NYC run constant blinkies,FYI.