How do you keep up with the Formula one cars on your bike?

I can't help it I'm sorry but the naked truth is...........

Ain't no damn "blinkie" made that is powerful enough to match the
visiablity that a lime green reflective stripped safety vest can give
you.

Sure, you'll feel warm and fuzzy that you are "lighted" but tell that
to the motorist who has to pick out that one puny blinky from all
the background lighting in time not to hit you. Or better yet tell
that to the same motorist who comes upon you on a dark rural
road who doesn't see that one tiny blinky until they are almost
at your back wheel!! Now that is safety at it's best. NOT!!

The edge a safety vest gives you is that it will reflect back the
cars lights to the driver long before the driver will ever make
out a tiny AA powered blinky light. The vest will use the cars
headlights own power to light you up!!! AA batteries can't begin
to match that kind of candle power.

So go ahead. Stake your life on a AA powered blinky that might
fail while you are riding. Or better yet spend the same money on
a vest that is proven to save lives. Such a choice.............

My naked truth doesn't agree with yours.

My coworkers report to me that they spot my blinky array LONG before they ever see my reflective vest; most tell me they NEVER noticed the vest at all. I do agree that having more than one blinky is agood idea for several reasons including redundancy in case of failure.

I can see motorists in my mirror changing lanes due to my presence sometimes as far back as 3/4 of a mile; long before their headlights could possibly pick up my reflectorized vest.

Where I ride there are no other distracting lights other than headlights and taillights; none of which are blinking.

Problem with retro reflective vests is that they have to have light shining on you first from the driver before they see you.

"Where I ride there are no other distracting lights other than headlights and taillights; none of which are blinking."

You are largely taking my point out of context to support your own point of view.

If YOU choose to ride with a blinky......fine. Just don't paint it as an effective means
of warning a motorist you are there while riding at night. There is no blinky made that has
enough candle power to overcome background lights or cast a beam of light as
a car light does. The battery for such a light would have to be as big and heavy
as a car battery is!!

Now I admit a bike light that could cast a beam the same distance and brightness
as a car would be wonderful but until we have batteries that can store LOTS of
energy on a very small light package the next best thing to do it steal light from the
cars own headlights with a reflective vest.

Then there is the question of riding at night in the first place. But that's for another
thread.

Not at all. I am taking the "naked truth" that motorists report to me that they can see my blinkies long before they ever see a reflective vest. What could be more in context of visibility while cycling in the dark on highways? If that wasn't your point, what was?

Where your "naked truth" emanates from is for you to explain.

See, I'm not sure how much you cycle in NYC but I'm pretty sure how much I cycle in NYC. And I've had drivers pull up to me and ask what kind of light I have on the back of my bike cause it looks like I stole it off a NYC metro bus. Yes, drivers can pick me out from over 10 city blocks away (1/2 mile or so) with my niterider tail light. It is the same brightness as the average car's brake lights... when they're on full.

I'm also not sure how much you cycle outside of a large metropolitian city because I'm not sure where this "humongous dazzle of background lighting" is coming from to completely overwhelm my niterider tail light. In fact, there is only ONE source of background light that I can see possibly overwhelm the niterider tail light...


And it doesn't come out at night.

Oh you mean the density of a lithium ion battery? Funny, my HID has light actually casts shadows on most older model cars with halogen lights when I bike by. In fact, my HID head lamp is actually brighter than my gf's old dodge intrepid.

A reflective vest may be bright HEAD-ON, but a bike light, front and rear, properly used and designed, is CONSISTENTLY bright all around, not just in 1 direction.

Hard to steal light that isn't there. Discounting rear lights is just silly. Using both is your best bet.
As far as the question of riding at night, I trust you will start that thread? I think it might be educational for you.

Having reflective materials and lights both is important. They each have there own benefits and they have some overlap too. It should not be one or the other it should be both. I have plenty of both.

I have a few blinkies that are much brighter than any car taillights and they stick out in a sea of car taillights in traffic from 1/4 mile away. I have taken pictures and posted them directly compared to car taillights, I think they were lost when the server was switched. I may still have them on CD.
The battery for my bike headlight is not heavy or big, yet my bike headlight is more powerful than my 55watt car headlights. Just one not both. My light is actually equal to 65 watts, and in real life testing against my car lights it proves to be true. It is not the most powerful bike light on the market

The car battery is big and powerful so it can turn over the engine. Not to power the lights when the car is running when the alternator is powering the lights and recharging the battery.

Someone kick me in the head , my eyeballs are stuck. For the life of me I don't see a reference to a vest in this................

If you wait long enough just about anything will come up. Some of these threads take on a life of their own.

https://bicyclerenaissance.com/site/i...=39&sort=Price

slvoid, this the tail light you have, right?

i was thinking of overhauling my lighting now that i commute at night on a daily basis, and your system seems to be top notch, so i plan to get a similar setup

Anyways, i can vouch for the brightness of his taillight being of equivalent brightness to a car tailight, and i specifically rembember noticing how all the other bike blikies were so dull and dim in comparison as we rode in NY, for there wasn't a single bike light that i saw that came even close to slvoid's taillight.

Yeah that's the one. I picked up an opened box version at performance bike for 15 bucks. I think once you rig up your own battery pack, you lose the strobe feature, so it's always solid on.
There's one on sale here on ebay.
https://cgi.ebay.com/Niterider-Tail-l...QQcmdZViewItem

"Using both is your best bet.(blinky & vest)
As far as the question of riding at night, I trust you will start that thread? "

I'd have to agree that a Blinky vest combo is better than either alone.

As to the night riding question........
That's been discussed before with champions on both sides of the issue.

Think of a new 'widget' (blinky??) the they will buy it. Ahhhh yes, consumerism
at it's best...........

Well, if one wants to ride for transportation rather than simply recreation, the need to ride at night is a given, not open to debate.

Consumerism? Do you consider a blinkie a new widget, or lights in general? I find the blinkies a big improvement over the flashlights with lenses colored red by magic markers, taped to my rear rack with duct tape, that I used years ago, or even the dynamo driven lights I have used that would go out when I was stopped. Indeed, my next step in lighting on the current bike will be to install one of the hub dynamos that retains a charge to keep your lights lit when stopped, but still complemented with battery-powered lights and blinkies.