Turn those blasted brights off!!!
 

I guess this is just a rant...

I've been doing some longish rides in the morning before work, taking the long way there. As a result, I am riding when it's dark, and for some reason the screwballs out on the country roads think it is not a problem to run their brights with me coming the opposite direction. There are times when I can't even see the road. So far, all I've done about it is to yell a$$hole at them.

It has me thinking of getting some kind of ultra bright light to shine in the offenders' faces. I don't know. I don't get it.

1. good for you for getting out there and getting some riding time. I need to get with that program myself.

2. never assume malice for anything that can be explained by stupidity :thumb:

3. a visor on your helmet, or a cycling cap under your helmet with a bill, can shield your eyes from the onslaught

4. if you want to go on the offensive, you could pick up a super-thrower flashlight and a CycleBlock and let 'em have it until they get the message. Probably best to carry pepper spray in case they want to make something of it.

I guess I'm lucky, as the 1 or two that I meet on my 9 mile morning ride always dim their lights. But the visor on my helmet still helps a lot.

planet bike has a $40 2 watt that i use. it actually has a regular and a bright setting for the light. that might give some drivers the hint if you shine that in their face and it wouldn't be as bulky as caring a flashlight with you. hopefully you won't need the pepper spray.

mechbgon said it already - get a helmet with visor, only effective solution

Some motorists will high beam you intentionally.

get a good helmet light. Even my 45 lumen EOS in the face will get most drivers to dim. I want to get a better one to make sure though.

I like :)
I have that modified Dry 2500 lumens 3 x XML on my helmet that strobe big time. Probably need more than pepper spray. Guarantee to piss off any drivers.

OP, what kind of lights you have setup on your bike? I find that too little of a light and car easily identify me as a cyclist and don't think they have the need to dim down. Too bright of a light and I find those who running on low beam will flick their high beam at me. Somewhere around 600 to 1500 lumens is where I seem to have cars thinking I'm a motorcycle and they turn their headlight down if they were running their highs and yet not have any courtesy warning from those feeling that they are blinded. Then again that's just my area in the city and most likely will differ than if it was on the highway or your area.

I wondered if this was a problem for more than just me. I had to throw my hand up in front of my face Friday morning when an oncoming driver went from low beam to high beam as he or she approached me.

I must learn more about this visor thing of which you all speak. I did buy a headlight from Energizer tonight that I am going to modify into a helmet light (No LBS). Its about 45 lumens. Maybe that way I can see the dogs coming at me, my water bottle in the pitch black mornings, and get driver's attention when they are blinding me.

Great. I can read the headline already. Traffic collision during a pissing match. Both vehicles blinded each other then proceeded into a head on collision.

Good luck with that.

do you dimm yor lights as the approach you?

I have a PB 2W and it's pretty useless except to be seen. The strobe mode looks like it would be seizure inducing, but the light isn't all that bright and the beam is very narrow. My Niterider 250 would be much more effective. I once turned it to strobe mode while riding down the street and I thought I'd put myself into a seizure because the light kept reflecting off the road.

The brights on a car are not just brighter, they are aimed higher also. The regular or low headlight setting usually has a horizontal cut off that prevents blinding oncoming traffic. The high beams do not and are pointed higher.

On my car, the lows are 1000 lumens each and the optics have a decent upward cut off. The highs are 1700 lumens each but the optics have no upward cut off.

A laser pointer could be devastating too if you want to get your message across with a lightweight object.

I don't know that this is a such a good idea. I remember riding in a car out in the country with my grandfather when I was a kid, cars kept approaching us without dimming their headlights. He made a comment about being blinded. I suggested he put the brights on to give them a taste of their own medicine. He responded with what I think were wise words: "then you'd have two blind people driving towards each other.":D

I don't think it would be possible to truly blind a motorist who's got 3000+ lumens of automotive high beam. They're not going to lose their position on the roadway, they're just going to wince and figure out courtesy is a two-way street (haha).

Seriously though, I doubt the offenders even compute "oh, that's a human being with eyeballs, just like me. I need to dim my headlights for them, regardless of their ability to high-beam me back or not." And some may kick the high beams on just to verify what the heck it is.

Not much you can do in my experience. I'm personally as irritated as the OP by it but getting revenge doesn't help anyone's cause. You still can't see and now neither can they (as is pointed out above). Your best bet, and what I do when I am prepared for it, is to watch the right edge of the road versus staring straight back at those high beams. There's something magnetic about really bright lights and it certainly fuels the fire when you stare at them longer but it does nothing to help you see the road. As for being prepared for the high beams, I seem to be surrounded by some real dimwits who apparently figure out that I'm just a guy on a bike and throw on their high beams (or turn them back on) before they've passed me. Argh! FWIW I've been riding with a L&M Arc Ultra (650 lumens IIRC) but it's getting replaced after a second battery failure.

Don't mess around with those toys the others have mentioned, I have the answer for you, this will be more then adequate, just turn it on and aim at the car's windshield: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B003OPZ864/...SIN=B003OPZ864

You should probably post this in the "commuting by car" forums somewhere on the 'net.

I agree and find it funny when car drivers mention how "annoying" it was when a cyclists light seemed bright to them. Some of these whiners probably flip to high beam on their car just to "show that cyclist".
Oh well, harder to swim against the current but its worth it.

My first thought, also. I know what I will do, I will blind the man coming at me from the opposite direction on a narrow country road! That'll show him! :)

Perhaps a pair of goggles with flip-down number 10 welder's filters/lenses. And the 40 million candle power humvee spotlight.

I have two lights, both flashing. One is mounted on the handlebars and is pointed slightly down so as to illuminate the road ahead. The other is mounted down on the fork, aimed along the ground in front of me(a Planet Bike, Beamer 3). Neither of these is powerful, but they make me visible and provide enough light for me to see.

There is no question that these are on a bicycle. There is also no question that these are not a problem for an oncoming car -- neither is bright enough and neither is aimed at the oncoming driver.

In all cases, the cars already have their brights on. I think they are used to driving out there like that, probably because of deer.

Mostly it's people who already have their brights on, so I think you are probably right to an extent.

In one case, however, the lights dimmed, then as if the driver realized it was just a bike, the brights came back on.

I think it is a mixture of malice and stupidity.

I have the same problem even when I am a motorist. The sad reasoning behind this is that drivers don't know what the hell they are doing on the road. High beam, regular beams. All the same **** to them. My fix on in the car is probably going to be the same 'fix' on my bike. I high beam them back, but since I can't do that on a bike, strobe from my light it shall be.

Common enough curtsy right?

Yeah, I was thinking of some way to flash at their windshield -- on then off, like you'd do with your brights on a car. I don't want to blind anyone, just alert them and maybe get the point across that I can blind them too if they don't dim their lights.

I don't want to start a war.

One of my bikes has my old Dinotte 600L. The batteries don't last as long as they used to, so I run it on low to conserve power. I've used the high-beam a couple of times to remind drivers to dim theirs. It's worked every time. I don't have a solution when I'm riding my dyno-powered light. It's either on or off.

For "flashing" my lights, I hold my hand over the light for a second.

When I visited the Delta of MS one year, my mom and dad explained to me that they run their high beams all the time for certain reasons. Something about you can see the light through the fields of tall crops as they flash through the empty spaces and they also know whos local ;)