Bar End Lights
 

Fellow commuters - is anyone using bar end lights?

I was looking at the little red lights that fit in place of the plug on your drop bars. I think the concept is that light at the furthest point makes you seem a little wider and helps encourage motorists to give another inch or two?

Has anyone any experience? The theory sounds good to me, but I couldn't find any of the big brands making them - only cheepies on ebay and that makes me think why? Perhaps they're not so effective.....

Cheers

I tried some T-6 Leds. They worked well but got in the way of normal riding.

I had a pair of Soma Road Flair bar end lights that worked ok, they were relatively bright, they used the convenient AAA bats instead of button bats and I used rechargeable ones. Modern rear lights have improved so dramatically in just over the last few years that they make those Road Flairs look dim, so I no longer use them. If Soma upgraded the LED's to Cree's then they would be back on track, but until some company does that I wouldn't spend the money.

Not sure how bar end lights would have gotten in the way of normal riding, I never had any issues with normal or abnormal riding; obviously they won't work with flat bars.

I bought a set from Performance Bike a while ago (don't know if they still sell them). They worked well for a while, but the batteries died relatively quickly and were a pain to replace. Then one of them fell out while I was riding then the batteries in the other one died again then I decided they weren't worth the hassle. I have two rechargeable rear tail lights (one on the saddle and one on the left seat stay) and that seems to work well enough.

I strapped my Blackburn 2'Fer to the left hand Mirrycle stem for awhile. It has a wider angle of view than most similar lights because Blackburn doesn't use lenses to concentrate the beam. It's much brighter than most small button cell lights, USB rechargeable and runs a long time on flashing mode. It was quite visible without distracting me.

Eventually I moved it to the back of my helmet and have used it that way for a year. But I've considered adding similar lights to both ends of my flat bar and riser bar bikes. I don't use bar end grips so I'd need to add a Mirrycle to the right side to have a place to mount the light.

However it might be distracting in the nighttime group rides I participate in, so I'd probably turn it off during those rides. The group already has plenty of visibility in traffic.

Also, technically, a side light should be yellow/amber, not white or red. I haven't found anything like that online. The 2'Fer can be set to white or red, both in flashing or steady modes. But not amber/yellow.

Bar end lights used in drop bars are not sidelights, they're rear facing lights and thus red is the go to color. If you used bar end lights in flat bars then technically they are suppose to be amber since they are facing to the side, but I doubt any cop would pull you over to give you ticket for doing so since some rear facing lights can also be seen from the side as red.

Well I've ordered one of the unbranded ones to try. Less than £2 to give it a go so why not.

I'll report back...

The majority of motorists do not need to be "encouraged" to give additional room when passing. I doubt any cyclist would notice an extra inch of passing distance. Bar end lights are just another way to run lights. A cute gimmick in other words. If you do cute, have at it. Don't expect miracles. I had the ones that use hearing aid batteries. Never again. Q-Lites use AAA, and if the urge to be cute again ever hits I am going for a set of those. FWIW

Thanks. I don't know where you cycle but in my neck of the woods every inch is appreciated. I get close passes every day, so anything that helps would be welcome. I won't get my hopes up on this as a miracle though ;)

I have a Very Large, Brightly Lit tail light on the Back of My Rear Rack..

The bar end lights I have seen are 1 led and No Fresnel lens over it to make it appear any larger .

I wear Hi-Viz clothing, My Neon Lime Parka is Made with lots of reflective tape on the back and sleeves


You Probably see those in England, though Mine does Not Have the word' Police 'on the back..




:innocent:

These seem like a good idea at first look but I don't think they are. See other threads on enhancing visibility. I use a steady tail light, a flashing tail light, and a light in the spokes of my rear wheel.

I don't think they're a complete waste, it's like I said before brighter tail lights have emerged and will drown out the bar end lights; bar end light manufactures need to increase the brightness significantly, but I doubt that will happen since sales of the bar end lights are very small.

Maybe sales are small because they're not bright enough.

That's what I've been saying, Soma and other companies need to step up to cree LED's instead of wimpy ones they use now. The Soma is probably the brightest and that's because they run off a AAA battery instead of small button batteries, but even the Soma now is obsolete.

Well guys, I'm a couple of rides in so I said I'd report back.
Did they make a difference?

Well ride one I thought so. No close passes and I felt more comfortable knowing I had it on. Ride 2....meh, pretty similar to my normal commute with one extremely tight over take by a bus. This made me think perhaps ride 1 was more psychological.
Next few rides were more of the same.

Some other points:
It doesn't really catch my eye whilst riding, which I thought it might.
It also adds a smidgin of side visibility as the lens come button is domed.
Also it's survived a torrential downpour and doesn't seem to have let any water in.

Conclusion is it's staying. That totals me at 4 rear lights, which might be overkill, but better too much than not enough.
For £1.75 it doesn't matter how long it lasts. I'll report back though :)

Can i get a link?

Thanks