Running front/rear lights during the day?
 

Donno folks.... even in broad daylight, I'm having too many close calls. I'm seeing more and more roadies running a rear blinker full time during the day. I'm strongly considering the same. Last year I started running my headlamp in strobe mode, rear on steady, if the skies are just overcast.

And you? What's you criteria for running headlights and rear flashers during the day?

Both on Strobe.

My bike has a hub dynamo, so there is no penalty for having the headlight and taillight on all day. I can't prove anything, but my impression is that drivers started to notice me a lot more when I switched to always on. It's been a while since anyone violated my right of way. There is no strobe setting (German bike) so they are steady.

With the dyno hub bike, the lights run on steady all the time.
With the bike that uses USB lights, I run the back on blink all the time. I run the headlight on steady if it is dusky, dark, or very overcast. I run the headlight on blink if I am in heavy traffic.

With a dynamo setup, it's no problem running lights all the time. Cars can see me BUT this is holiday season and drivers only see other cars, not cyclists or pedestrians. Often I end up riding at night and with a battery light setup, I have to bring spare batteries just in case or to get max brightness from the light(s). Wear an orange safety vest with reflective strips if you want to be seen in most lighting conditions.

If bike is moving, lights are on!
Basic survival, here in the "Hit and Run Capital of America".

Blinking/strobe front during the day, regardless of cloud cover, rear blinking as well.

In theory lights should make you more visible, but in practice I doubt they are really noticeable by day, especially in bright sunlight (common bike lights, not high power strobes).

I run a dynamo as well and I get comments all the time about how visible I am. I wouldn't go without the dynamo now.

I adopted this philosophy in South Florida in "bike death capital of America". What I also think helps more in bright daylight is bright fluorescent clothing. I use a neon orange reflective vest (like road workers) day and night. Have bright strobes on front and bright red (night zone 8, very bright for day) on rear of helmet. Also run the dynamo front and rear all the time the bike is moving. Only turn off the battery ones day or night on multi path trails (not many of those in South Florida).

I run the front and rear on flash...

Daytime I keep blinky rear on all the time unless it is brilliant sun and really no shadows or I am in dedicated bike lanes. Daytime blinky front on if I am in stop and go traffic so I might be more noticeable in side view mirrors of cars

If I'm riding in traffic (as opposed to separated bike lanes/paths) I keep my rear light in "pulsating" mode but only turn on my front light in "flash" mode if it's early morning/evening.

Ive had many drivers during the day, when I stop comment how noticable my lights are. There are to many variables on the
road /parking lots to not use both rear & front lights during the day. It can & has for me made a difference.

around the holidays the commuters get worse at keeping their line. when I bike commuted I stopped during peak crazy times. when road riding I run bright strobes front & rear regardless of the sunlight or weather. in bright sunlight we disappear in the deep shade of trees especially when cagers are wearing sunglasses. I even added one to my left drop bar as a reminder to a passing car that it's still not clear to move right. this has reduced the close calls noticeably. nothing will stop everyone, but yeah, go for it. the pool noodle might be better tho! ;-)

Brilliant! I will run my lights in blink mode in the daytime if it is overcast. I also wear a 180 rear blinkie ion my helmet, and a non-blinking medium power LED light on the front of my helmet. I don't know what kind of close calls the OP is talking about, but with my take-a-look glasses-mount mirror I can see cars coming up behind me and use my left arm to "wave them around" or pat downward a few times as if to say "slow down, stay back" This works reasonable well, but not always. From the front I have the AirZound Airhorn which usually gets their attention, even with their windows rolled up.

$20 -50.00 gets you some nice lights. Mine work in the sun. And are visible.

Criteria? On the bike, blinky lights are on.

I use both the take-a-look mirror and AirZound in the same fashion, with good results also.

The latest generation of B&M Senso headlights, made for dyno input, have two beams. During the day the light is focused up at a level approximate to driver's eyes, at night it switches to a beam directed at the pavement ahead. The light has a photo cell which automatically switches between the two beams depending upon darkness. I don't know if I'm alive because of the light, but I feel better having them and they are very visible in the daylight.

Marc

Note the LED light array of day run car lights, B&M has that feature on some of their dynamo powered lights.

My tiny Eyc senso T has 2 day run , be seen diodes, + the reflector focused high power see by LED, which turns off in day time.



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Call me a doubter on daytime lights. Lose the stylish black top first, put on brighter colors. Doesn't have to be blaze orange or high-vis yellow-green, but skip the dark colors. IME that's where you get the daytime visibility, until you get to "tornado's coming!" visibility. Flashing lights make you feel good because you can DO something, but they don't make you more visible in the daylight.

Agree to disagree. Think about an underpass or a shade tree, with the driver having dark sunglasses on. When I am driving my car, the bikes I see first during the day have blinky lights on. YRMV. My results say otherwise. maybe you have sucky lights?

I'm on holiday..and we've been walking a bit. There's a resort up the road with courtesy bikes for guests. They have an led strobe strip across the bottom of the front basket. It's quite noticeable, and has me reconsidering my "rear flash, front is for dark" paradygm.

I have noticed that drivers have been giving me a bit more room now that I am running very visible blinkers day and night regardless of what I am wearing. I never run the rear on solid, always on a blink pattern of some sort. Started doing the same with the front until I get to the back neighborhood streets where I need to see the streets. My commute home is late at night so once the main streetlights end, the light goes solid. I need to be seen more than I need to see for most of the commute. Also well noted that battery run times on my lights are much longer on blink which can have serious implications on some of the much colder commutes home. Last week my ride home had me at 57 minutes in 18°F temps with a windchill that had it at about 3°F. This was due to varying road conditions and a poor plowing job by the city along with a few inches of snow that we got.