Let's see...
I pass about a dozen or so other riders going the opposite direction each morning.
There is one guy who manually flashes his light and makes commentary.
No drivers flash their highbeams or honk their horn at me.

You know, you're probably right. This one guy is the one who's got me figured out; a self-important jerk bent on blinding the rest of the world with my bike light. The 95% of people who don't take offence to the intensity and aim of my lamp are actually the statistical flukes. That's the only solid logical conclusion.

Oh well. There's just no getting you to look at the world through someone else's eyes, is there.

Someone needs a nap.

Awesome post, this level of thoughtful discussion is why I keep coming back here.

Posts like these are why I keep reading Commuting. I'm being totally serious. :thumb:

"Hey man, we roll how we roll, and if people are annoyed or intimidated by it, that's too bad for them!"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKMLZXA8LJY

:p

Pics? I bet you still get people saying they didn't see you with all those lumens.

Of course. People run into emergency vehicles with flashing lights all the time.
If you are not paying attention no amount of lighting is going to help whoever is in front of you.

No way dude, i bet a super laser dialed to "melt" while aimed at car tires would do the trick!

i think the "light issue" has to do with threshold, or corollary

that is...

difference in speed
difference in light
difference in amount of available light. (overall light: i.e. city lights, traffic lights, etc)
difference in focus/intensity of light


i.e.
its dark, a pedestrian is walking their dog with no lights, a bike goes by at 20mph with 700 lumens on their helmet.
the setting is somewhat isolated, the speed difference is enough to startle someone, there is a dog that is somewhat uncertain

i.e.
its a city street, traffic lights, over head city lights, plenty of cars, no pedestrians, no dogs, just motorists, a cyclist with a 100 lumen flashing handle bar mounted light, moving at 20 mph in a bike lane along side of the road.
the setting is not isolated, cars are moving faster, from stop light to stop light, the uncertain is driver's behavior, and drivers think the same of the cyclist.


those are two very generalized scenarios


headlamps have become very popular
this year I'm seeing a huge number of runners, etc... wearing petzel (type) headlamps, and even now attached to a chest strap (the handle bar version of headlamps?)

I have a variety of lights from 50 lumens to 700.
i'm on a bike

if i go slow, and drop the lumens down, when in proximity of pedestrians, people are much less to become startled
its not that great for actually trying to get somewhere. aka: commuting

somehow, in my area
the bike path, MUC, Rec Trail, has become primarily used for Recreation
people are actually using it for sight seeing, and exercise
commuting is not the majority of use

if i ride at 15mph ringing a bell, with 200 lumens, it seems to be annoying
people seem to staring at the stars, etc...

altho some areas of our local Bike Paths are isolated, dark, and rural
20mph with 700 lumens, is no problem. no one is out there anyways.

once upon a time
cars had Parking Lights
in Drive-In Theaters
we drove with our Parking Lights @ 5mph


I'm thinking this discourse is about "thresholds"

its so typical of our Human Experience
set, set & setting

I'll get some pix when I get the new setup dialed in. I'm actually waiting on an answer from Schmidt about the wiring for the setup (and the equipment won't arrive until Monday anyhow.) The new setup would more than likely be blinding if I run it full blast on the MUP; I'm re-aiming the E3 with the main spot a bit more forward as a flood fill light for high speed descents. It's really only going to see use about 3 miles out of my commute and mostly be there as a secondary/back-up light for randonneuring, which is where it will really be helpful. 02:00, 15 mile mountain descents are sketchy (or slow) with insufficient lighting.

So, aside from posting a video that someone couldn't be bothered to correct the mirror imaging... what exactly are you trying to say?

The mirror imaging has nothing to do with being able to watch the video (and, frankly, if that's too much trouble for you, I'm surprised you can see well enough to not ride into a wall).

Since it's just SO unbelievably obtuse and incredibly difficult for you to understand (sheesh, are you even capable of putting on your own shoes?) --

Your attitude about lighting is just like the attitude of the Harley riders in that episode. You simply DO NOT CARE about how obnoxious you are and how you annoy others -- in fact, you seem to relish being an obnoxious brat. You say that if others don't like it, then "that's too bad for them."

Is that simple enough? Do I need to talk to you like you're a third grader?

For all the lighting you have, I'm amazed that you can't see the universe beyond your front wheel.

i think the mirror imaging is to go around copy right issues.
i think its done on purpose...

"For all the lighting you have, I'm amazed that you can't see the universe beyond your front wheel."

"Klaatu barada nikto"

Wow. Do you really think a person's light setup indicates their attitude towards others, and not simply what that person thinks is safe for their type of riding? Unless you know CliftonGK1 and have some knowledge as to his character in person, you're being incredibly rude and in the process harming your admittedly valid point.

You do this in a lot of threads, and I'm sure I'm not the only one that's noticed. If you want to start talking about how much respect people have for others, you should look within and see what you seem to relish being.

This is precisely what I find so amusing about the entire exchange: BarracksSi is over 3000 miles away and has (I'm assuming) never seen my lighting setup in head-on action. I can't be certain; maybe he's been to the PNW recently and took offence to it.

My cycling shoes have velcro closures. Infer from that what you will. :lol:

Since you haven't paid attention throughout the entire thread, I'll restate everything:
1) I made a specific point of low-mounting my lamp on the opposite side from oncoming riders
2) I did roll-up testing in front of my garage to initially check the beam spread
3) I further checked the beam in a storefront window to see if the reflection was blinding
All of this was done before ever heading onto the MUP. But please, continue insisting that I don't care.

No, I'm fairly specific about there only being one guy who's all bent out of shape over my lighting (well, two if we count you), and that maybe instead of kvetching about it he just needs to quit whining and get over himself.

Your persistent agreement with the sole outlier only proves your own myopic viewpoint. I will gladly reposition my lamp when a statistically significant number of riders complain about it.

Perhaps you could realize that "how we roll" is entirely diffefrent than "how we post."
Different post... same obtuse insults claiming everyone else to be dumb as a box of rocks...
I don't think anyone here is "intimidated" by your opinions/remarks. "annoyed" may be another story.....

aka: as smart as a sack of hammers

I guess the question is whether the one guy is an outlier and no one else cares or if it bugs a lot of people and he's the only one who spoke up. There's no way to know.

I suppose if there were a way to find out how many lights have been sold.
i.e. + 400 lumen lights, the areas they were sold, etc...

I'm pretty sure Light and Motion has a survey with their products.

my guess is that a lot of people use bright lights for commuting.
i know in my area, we use them, but most of the guys are out training after work...

my take on the "verbiage" used, the cross links, etc...
is that its a gap in vernacular
that is to say...
a generation of gap
of sorts
or perhaps a tech gap
so many people simply post links, etc...
inference is the mode...
not the literal

get the drift
do you know what I'm sayin man...

South Park is iconoclastic
it all started around Rocket J Squirrel

It's the complete ignorance of how much it SUCKS to have a thousand lumens blasted in your face on a dark path that baffles me.

Not even car headlights are that bright at the height of our heads when they're aimed moderately correctly.

The next time I get subjected to that kind of crap, I'm going to elbow the bastard in the eyeball, claim, "Whoops, I'm sorry, I was shielding my eyes from your awesomely super light system," then kick his spokes in while he lies there half-unconscious.

You still need a nap.

Sure. Right.

Don't come back here crying when you get run off the path because you can't see anymore.

My other idea is to carry another ten pounds' worth of lights and wire them all into one switch for the next clueless jerkoff. If they can't understand what it's like, then dammit, they're gonna learn.

Then I can say, "Oh, I'm sorry, were my lights too bright? Maybe YOU should get some brighter lights, too."

Match. Set. Point.