Bike Forums - Need Daytime Headlight Suggestion

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Quote:

Originally Posted by ItsJustMe (Post 18170074)

It's not the daylight conditions that concern me. In full bright daylight, I'm happy to have my 600 lumen strobe, wouldn't want less.

The problem is in rainy conditions, it can be pretty dark, and windshields are wet and a 600 lumen strobe might be pretty distracting.

These are the kinds of conditions where you need all the visibility you can get.

I have never seen too bright a light from a bike whilst driving in these conditions.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Athens80 (Post 18180080)

I did that today, with a 400 lumen light. It's very noticeable, particularly straight on axis from five feet. It didn't blind me. It didn't leave me with spots in my vision for any minutes. When your eyes are adjusted to daylight, cycling lights just aren't that bright. My vision was and is fine.

You seem to recall someone writing that drivers were disturbed by someone's blinking light. If you find that writing and find that they were writing about a situation in broad daylight, then I think you've found a logical fallacy. The fact that drivers speed, text, run red lights, weave, or stop in the middle of the street in broad daylight has nothing to do with cycling lights. Many drivers drive poorly, and most of the time your behavior did not cause them to drive poorly.

Yes, flashing modes can be too much at night or even at dusk, when the ambient light is orders of magnitude less than in full daylight. I'm talking about use of cycling lights in full daylight.

I'm dealing with real life, where I've seen cyclists with Niteriders and Cygolites and Lezynes and Magicshines flashing away in broad daylight, and they're noticeable but not anywhere near blinding or dangerous. And I'm dealing with real life applications of cycling lights. Holding a light right in front of your eyeball and saying that it's too bright to be comfortable has zero to do with cycling applications.

Athens80,
Your posts in this thread have been great and I appreciate all the trouble you have gone to in explaining various factors at play here.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Athens80 (Post 18179074)

I'm going to remain highly skeptical.

First, we're talking about competing with full, nuclear fusion powered, heating the planet and warming your skin, sunlight. Our LEDs just don't hold a candle to the sun. Someone who is comfortable outside in full sunlight is not bothered by the brightness of a cycling light.

SNIP

I started this so maybe I can end it.

First of all how bright the sun is most definitely is not the point. The point is how bright is the LED device vs. other objects illuminated by the sun. This is very different.

My initial reaction was on a very cloudy late afternoon coming out of a dark garage and 'simulating' the positions of two vehicles facing each other in left turn lanes. I found what I saw to be somewhat alarming. I ended up buying a lower power unit that (surprisingly) is not that much dimmer in strobe mode.

I've done more experiments and this really is primarily a low light (dusk, dawn, very cloudy) issue. If I had it to do all over again I probably would not have purchased the lower power unit and would simply take some amount of care to point my 650 a bit down (like you would at night anyway).

dave

I currently have 2 lights, NiteRider 250 and 500, both have a really irritating strobe pattern (just blinks around 1x per second I believe) and many pedestrians have negatively commented. Looking forward while riding can make you feel a bit dizzy or "crazy" at times! My Cyglolite Pace 150 was a lot better, it pulsed 3x then rested, 3x then rested, it was so much easier on the eyes.

Next light I'll look at the strobe feature more because I'd like to use it more during the day or when dusky, but don't because it's just really annoying.

However, the NR500 has a nice feature, a "walking" mode, where it's less bright than low, I like that as it extends the time range while still giving me visibility on lit paths at night where I really don't need the light so much to see but others can see me.