Have you ordered anything from this company?? Little worried about giving my CC # to a company in Hong Kong.

I have not ordered anything from them (will order a UV lamp for Christmas). But in another forum they went crazy over the 5USD lamps. It seem legit, but I cannot vouch for them.

Instead of using a 555 timer, try using blinking LEDs such as these:
https://www.lc-led.com/Products/department/33

This way all you need is batteries and a off/on switch.

You only need one for each side too. If you solder the other LED in series with the blinking one, they will all blink.

So if you have 3 LEDs per side you buy 2 blinking LEDs and 4 non blinking LEDs. For each side you solder the blinking LED onto the board and in series you solder the other 2 LEDS. When the blinking one blinks, so will the others. The built in electronic circuit in the blinking LED will cut off any current going through it. As a result of that the other LEDs won't have current and will shut off as well. The end result is 3 blinking LEDs.

I was doing a show this summer in NYC and they used these "magic thumbs" for an effect in the show.

I was given a set as a gift ( I had no idea they were so expensive- he must have gotten a deal on them) and used them at night sometimes when I would ride home as turn signals. I'd make my usual hand signal and just blink the thumbs. I got some fantastic reactions.

Forget the 555, it's to much hassle.

How about this:
1. Get a couple of LED lights (as many plain LEDs as you want, in red), mount them left and right sides.
2. Mount two momentary-closed buttons, one per side on the bottom inside of each grip, near your thumbs. Connect the left-right LED lights through the left/right pushbuttons.
3. Now, it's all manual: with the pushbuttons, you can "blink" either left or right rear lights for turn signals, or you can press them both for "brake lights". And you can press them while your hands are still on your brake levers.
~

I'm planning on making one, but I'm going to use a microcontroller. Actually cheaper than a 555, zero parts except for the chip itself and the driver transistors, and I can get complex behaviors.

I think a single blinking light is going to be useless. If you're turning you want the OPPOSITE light to come on solid and the turn light blinking. The problem is if you just have one light blinking, and the lights are only a few inches apart, it's not clear what is going on.

Also all other blinkies on the bike should STOP blinking otherwise they just confuse things.

So my plan is to have a pair of lights in the back flashing with something like the Planet Bike Superflash pattern (with 3 or 4 quick strobes and then wait about .7 seconds) normally. When I put on a left turn, the right light goes solid on and the left one goes into a standard blink mode, .25 seconds on .25 seconds off for 2 flashes per second.

I'd also have front flashers, and either an auto-off delay or a beeper that told me the flashers had been on for > 15 seconds.

All that is still just one single 8 pin chip, no external parts other than the switches and the driver transistors.

This is a terrible idea. Some driving a car that sees your "turn signal" is just going to think one of your blinky lights is broken or something. If a driver doesn't see your hand signals, they arent going to see your "turn signal".

There are several problems with bike mounted signals. One is thenarrow width. Another is activation/deactivation with zero impact to bike handling and use of hand signals.

I think a useful product would be back of hand mounted flasher that are normally fully off, but are turned on by a normal pointing motion of the fingers/hand, or some type of squeezing/contact of the hand that is not replicated when holding the handlebars.

Al

check out these "magic thumbs" I started using them more as a gag at night but was surprised at how well they worked.

I make my same hand signal but flash the thumbs as I do so- it draws a lot of attention but probably would serve little or no purpose during the full light of day.

I've ordered from them several times, no problem.

I wonder if this is what causes higher accident rate with hand signals (if that's true at all). Or perhaps it's that the situation when a cyclist is more likely to signal are in generous more dangerous and will result in higher accident rate. Or maybe it's the reduced control over the bike.

I actually "signal" straight at some intersections. Don't know if it does anything, but I hope, if nothing else, the arm movement may attract the attention of left-turners who seem to have a tendency to not notice bicycles proceeding straight...

My thinking about turn signals comes not from thinking that people don't see my hand signals, but from the times when I'm trying to turn and brake at the same time. It can get pretty dangerous if you have to brake hard and only have one hand on the bars.
I read someone posting a while back that their city's laws required bicycle riders to keep both hands on the bars at all times, AND to use hand signals all the way through all turns.

This set made by Bicygnals seem pretty good--note the wireless connection between the front and rear signals.

Ive used them and noticed that most drivers dont even pay attention to the signal lights of the cars in front of them let alone the bike that they dont see even without the signal lights! the system I had was almost identical to the one shown in the last post, only thing it wasnt wireless.

Nobody even sees those anymore.