CastIron

Now with pictures! See last post.

And it's just barely enough.

Lighting and whatnot:

Helmet- tons of reflective bits and a PB superflash
Jacket- Red or yellow with reflective bits
Mess bag- red with LOTS of reflective bits, x-mas lights, and a Nite Ize lighted strip
Pant cuffs- lighted and reflective.
MTB- Covered in SOLAS tape.
Handlebars- H.I.D. light (about 40" above ground)
Seat post- More tape and a Blackburn Mars 3
Rack (empty)-covered in tape with two PB Superflash and a Cateye TLD-1000

I'm running out of places to put all this junk.

SSP

Passive countermeasures:

• DOT conspicuity tape - red on the fender, silver on crank arms.
• DOT Ansi Level II vest - fluorescent lime green with silver reflective stripes front and back.
• Schwalbe Marathon Plus tires with reflective sidewalls.
• Reflective bits on the panniers.
• Tights - reflective piping at the back.
• Reflective ankle bands on both legs.
• Rear facing pedal reflectors.
• Pearl Izumi Cyclone gloves with reflective logo on the back of each hand.
• Forward facing silver 2"x2" reflector on the left front fork.

Active countermeasures:

• Helmet mounted Dinotte 600L - 600 lumens of raw power. Run in steady state mode on dark streets, and flashing mode when there's lots of ambient light.
• Dinotte 140L taillight - the .44 magnum of taillights ("this light will blow your head clean off, punk") . I run it in "slow flash" mode (where it doesn't go dark between flashes).
• 2 Planet Bike Superflash blinkies, running in flash mode (one on the seatpost, and one on the back of rack).
• 4 strands of twinkling LED Christmas lights (60 bulbs total) zip-tied to the frame, rear triangle, and front left fork.

And sometimes I wear a xenon scuba strobe that goes on my left arm.

I also carry a 1 watt LED headlamp for a backup, in case the headlights were to fail.

Think that's enough?



If I ever again get hit by a car, I'm gonna be rich.

gazer

Pics?

Driver's eye view in particular...

SSP

I don't think the CCD in my camera could take the strain.


My goal is to someday cause a drunk to crash into a tree, trying to avoid "that UFO that landed in the road up ahead".

CastIron

None available. Perhaps I'll change that.

gazer

stevel610 

My goal is to someday cause a drunk to crash into a tree, trying to avoid "that UFO that landed in the road up ahead".

I was thinking you might make a sober driver crash with all that stuff!!!!

SSP

My goal for sober drivers is to make them think they're approaching an accident, with emergency vehicles on scene (if only it were legal to run red and blue blinkies...).

aMull

Isn't that a bit overkill? All i have is a superflash at the back, i'm pretty sure drivers have no problems seeing it.

CastIron

Busy urban landscape. Two lanes in each direction with business drives and cross streets at every opportunity. Driver isn't even thinking about anything, let alone cyclists, talking on phone or what not.
Bus pulls into stop and *poof* there's a cyclist in THEIR lane at 15mph.

You have to seize the attention of the bottom 10% of drivers and give them enough time to react. Some folks don't even notice fire trucks anymore.

daredevil

It might be overkill for a pitch black environment with little traffic like I ride in but in the city, nope.

SSP

+1.

A PB Superflash can get "washed out" if there's lots of other light sources around. Probably just having good reflective gear (especially vest and pedals/cranks) is good enough. But, I'm a gadget-freak anyway, and having the .44 magnum of taillights is kind of fun (as well as comforting).

CastIron

Ok pics. Budget digicam without any special settings. One with flash and one without. As I rolled in the driveway.

JoeyBike

Quote me on this anytime:

You can NEVER be too seen!

Whatever you can afford to buy and carry that makes you feel comfortable biking at night is kosher in my book.

Someone here mentioned trying to look like an accident with cops and medics on the scene made me giggle, but I use a flashing red blinkie along with a flashing amber one in back.

It actually does look like a traffic cluster***k up ahead so I am told.

Photo attached

heywood

Oh my God. It looks like the mothership just landed..

Seriously, you'd look more ridiculous in the back of an ambulance because someone didn't see you!

Keep it up looks great!

Cheers!

JeffS

Didn't know there was such a mode. All I've seen is the one with the pause, and the mode it goes in when the battery is low.

Guess I should have read my instructions.

JoeyBike

Oh HELL yes!

Anybody hits you and it will be deemed ATTEMPTED MURDER.

Nice work. Sometimes in life, throwing money at a problem will solve it.

heywood

What else is money for??

tdister

CastIron, if you are going to go over the top, might as well go over that too. I posted this in the A&S section too, but here you go. Highly recommended.
https://www.bikeforums.net/advocacy-safety/369102-winner-reflective-bits.html

I guess I need to post one of me on it and in full dress

SSP

Yep...there are 3 flash modes available:

• Slow Pulse - on and off, about once per second.
• Steady Light With Strobe (my favorite mode - about two bright flashes per second with low power between)
• Strobe and Pause (5 quick high intensity flashes, with a pause in low power mode between).

The last one is very eye-catching, but I worry that it could be too distracting or irritating to drivers.

stringbreaker

Hey what you really need is one of those blinking vests like I have and that would make you complete. Hey the more lights and reflective surfaces the better. Who cares what it looks like. I'd much rather be lit up like that than to be dead or at the very least be hit by a motor vehicle

Mazaev

ban guzzi

man...!
I saw your pic and the first thing that went thru my mind was Parliments' song "Flashlight"!

Nice going on the set up!!

ghettocruiser

No.

When the cyclist collapses and suffocates from all the lights hung off them, like JuneBug in IGGYSucka, that's overkill.

SSP

When overtaking drivers suffer retinal damage...that's overkill.