FrenchFit 

+1 That's what a little strobe is good for, catching the eye of a driver turning left. In the background noise of urban driving the regular beams seem to get lost to oncoming drivers. My sense is they also catch the eye/mirror of parked drivers about to swing open their doors.

jsdavis

+1 I've been using the front and rear lights whenever I'm riding because I figured it doesn't hurt. Especially when I'm riding in urban environments where I'm moving constantly between light and shadow. Commute times also tend to mean long shadows because of the sun's low angle.

I use Sanyo Eneloops and it costs around 1/4 cent for the energy to charge my batteries every week for both the front and rear. At that cost, why the heck not. I've already bought the batteries, charger, and lights -- I may as well use the heck out of them and get my money's worth. The batteries are rated for 1000 cycles and charging once a week means roughly 19 years of service.

Jeff Wills

That's my experience, too- from both perspectives. When I'm driving, a LED blinky says "cyclist" to me. If it's on "steady", I need to be closer to determine if it's a cyclist or a motor vehicle. I do wish they'd check their batteries more often- I've been too close to a couple before I've identified them. The riders with minimal lights and black/dark colored jackets just scare me.

jsdavis

For whatever reason a lot of people here ride with zero lights and some with only rear lights.

Even on popular bicycle routes I have trouble identifying bicyclists as bicyclists sometimes because their lights are so dim. I even once wondered whether I was staring at something glinting off the moon or a bike. Well, when I got within about 15m, only then could I see the shadowy outline of a person. The blinking light I saw from about maybe 30m - way too close.

A lot of people probably hold their lights out at arms length and look right into it thinking the light is bright not realizing that LEDs are highly directional.

Another scenario is they are unable to afford batteries on a regular basis so they try to get all the usable life out of them. A set of Sanyo Eneloop AAs in my headlamp would probably last about 30 days; a set of AAA Eneloops in my rear blinkie would probably last 2.5 weeks or at best. I don't know how long alkaline batteries will last, but if using alkalines, that could easily run close to $5 a month. Safeway store brand batteries are about $1ea for AA or AAA when not on sale.

Rechargeable batteries are far less expensive in the long run, but the up front cost can be a huge deterrent. Currently on Amazon.com, a Sony charger w/ 4 LSD AA goes for about $23 and 4 Eneloops typically goes for $10, so $33 total. Break even point in in 6 months, but that up front cost can be a big deterrent.

Target probably sells batteries for much less on sale from time to time, but look at some place like San Francisco, and all the Targets are in the suburbs. Too far and pointless to go to unless picking up a bunch of other stuff to offset the cost of going to Target in the first place.

jimnolimit

sanyo eneloops are probably the best all around rechargeable batteries (and batteries in general). i use eneloops in pretty much all of my devices and in all of my lights.

JusticeZero

My experiences with rechargeables was bad, though it may have been some other issue - the batteries would drop enough that the light would turn off 10 minutes into the ride off a fresh charge.
A bit frustrated with superflashes right now; we got two of the new bright Blaze tail-lights, but got the bad run with the switch that shuts off when you go over a bump. PB gave us some older blinkies and will get us replacements from the next run with non-defective switches, but that won't be until Decemberish.

jimnolimit

What rechargeables were you using?

Did you try different batteries in the light?

KungPaoSchwinn

Dinotte, a man told me he saw my rear red blinkie few blocks away,almost half of a mile,in day light.Dinotte.....or nothing else,nothing can touch it.