The other night some driver at a stop sign yelled at me saying "You're blinding me man!" It though it was kinda funny but It got me thinking how much light is too much light? I currently have two Nite Rider Luminas 650 and 350 on my road bike. So that's 1000 lumens on full power. I only run full power in high traffic areas because i notice the oncoming traffic and street lamps drown out my headlights. In low lit areas i can run the low setting and be fine. Am I running too much light or was that driver a weenie? And what are some of you using out there?

Just try to not shine the lights at driver's eyes...keep the beams toward the ground.

I ride with two Nite Rider 750's when mountain biking and with just one I have enough light to ride down the trail but I have noticed that the beam is quite strong so aiming it correctly makes a big difference. Those little lights really do put out a strong beam and you don't want to blind a driver coming at you.

Reflectors would work well enough if everyone's head lights and eyes were at the exact same "correct height". We could just set our reflectors to the optimum height/angle and (at least) no rear lights would be needed.

But it doesn't work that way. Your lights may be too low for the dude in the 4-wheel drive pick-up truck and too high for the lady in the Porsche Boxer. Apparently you ran into the one guy... where your lights were set just right. I wouldn't worry about that happening all that often.

Most people know not to look directly into oncoming headlights. If you live in California and you're too stupid to know it intuitively, it's written in the California Driver's Handbook. It sounds like this cager was staring directly into your headlights. His bad. Not yours.

Just Two of my Seven front lights



Stopped traffic 5 times when I use 4 or more of them.

drivers are used to dealing w lights from oncoming cars (they accept it) and they think a bike shouldn't be as bright (and so don't accept it). did you tell him he was blinding you too? but ... I do dip my lights down a smidge so that they do the job but are not obnoxious

haha wild setup! you could be confused with a UFO! but the cars are sure to stay away from you? wut do you have on the back?

I'd just wave and yell hey Tom (make up any name) how's the wife? (or how's the new puppy). It doesn't matter... just be friendly looking... and move on.

One time a driver at an intersection I was riding up to started shielding his eyes so I just put my hand over my headlight. I wouldn't have wanted him to pull out and get hit by a car because I was blinding him. I just wish other cyclists would do the same for me when they are approaching me on a path. I have had to stop several times because I was completely blinded. i couldn't see the ground in front of me. Terribly rude they were!

It depends a lot on where they are aimed, not just the lumens, I have a 300 lumen light and if I look into it directly it can be as bad as my cars HID lights...

I ride with a Lumina 650 on my bars and a Dinotte XML-3 on my helmet. On the unlit MUP they're both on low, but when I get off the MUP and have to contend with the cars and traffic lights, parking lot lights, and street lights, the Lumina goes into high/strobe and the XML-3 goes into High (at least until I turn off into the residential areas). I used to try running the lights on low on the street, but about a couple of months ago when I was making a U-turn (with the green left turn arrow), a car to my left decided it just couldn't be bothered to stop for the red light and almost took me out. And last night as I was approaching the entrance to the MUP a car started pulling out of the driveway of a nearby apartment complex without looking; it almost took out a pickup truck ahead of me. You better believe I lit up the interior of that car to make sure the driver was looking my way. Of course running my lights on high is no guarantee that won't happen again, but at least I feel a little more visible and the helmet light can be used to "light up" the approaching car.

That being said, I do have my bar light pointed down a bit. I also agree there always will be some people who don't like the lighting you have - either too much or not enough.

Car headlights have well designed cut-offs and uniform that put hardly any light into on coming traffic at distances of less than 100'. Most bike lights have a simple spot beam that can have hot-spots which are vastly BRIGHTER than any car headlight. A standard single beam low headlight is somewhere in the 700-1200 lumen range, in a beam with a uniform profile. Your lighting setup is comparable to most motorcycles. So basically, you're one of those people running around with badly aimed headlights that all drivers complain about.

In case you haven't noticed, streetlights frequently wash out your car headlights too. Running 1k lumen full power in high-traffic well lit areas is just blinding people and being a jerk.

+1 It's more about the angle of the light. I looked up car head lights, they are 700 lumens on low beam. So the NiteRider 750 (my light of choice too) is no brighter than a car; but if it is angled into someone's eyes - it will be too bright. I see no reason for my headlight to be pointed more than 25 yards in front of my bike, light the pavement, and that should never blind a driver.

I’ve been blinded by other cyclists. When I realized how damn bright our lights are, I did as others have suggested, and made sure the angle was to the ground. Others will still see you, but its really important to make sure its angled down.

In fact, I once almost got in a fight with a guy about my light. Was coming around a corner and the guy spit on me! I turned around and started yelling at the dude and the drugged out tool told me that my lights were in his face. I don’t know if I look smaller on my bike but once I got off and went up to the guy and he took off through some bushes. In the moment I could care less if my lights were in the guys face, but looking back, they are probably pretty obnoxious.

Edit: NiteRider MiNewt 600

I didn't even know Seven made bike lights. Are they Ti or CF?

This, go stand out in front of your bike with the lights on full blast. It can be extremely blinding. Much worse than properly aimed car headlights.

I've had drivers put their high beams on and leave them on even though my light is pointed down. don't know why they wanted to blind me. several times I had to hold my hand up to block their headlights so that I could see. there are a lot of jerks out there. for sure. I don't crank 1K lumens myself, just use one of the original magicshines

I use a Bontrager Ion 700. On high when riding alone, on medium in a group.

There is a Long post about bright lights here

Post 139 mentions a Specialized Flux Expert light that is designed to prevent blinding people. As bike lights get to be as bright as car lights (but with a point source), directed beams is the next logical choice.

One of the problems is that it is nice to put the brightest point of the light near the horizon to get adequate look-ahead. However, the cheap lights just puts a broad spot which then has too much upward bleed, and thus blinding people.

I was on a center island MUT yesterday with lots of short lamp posts, and traffic on both sides. I found all the lights very distracting. I don't like blinking front lights, but certainly would consider one for these circumstances.

You don't need 1000 lumens to see in areas lit by street lamps and drivers definitely don't need that much to see you. However, as has already been suggested, the problem is with the aim of your lights. If you blind drivers, you're actually undermining your safety, not helping it. Just point your lights a little lower and the problem will be solved.

i run a 650lumen light on the front plus a bunch of smaller blinkys. I keep it on low on the MUP and strobe in the streets.

On the front handlebar I have a Planet Bike one watt light set on flash as my "be seen" light. I run a Magicshine MJ-808 mounted to my helmet that I aim where I want to see. When I come to intersections, I always turn my headlamp beam through all oncoming drivers so they know I'm there. I don't do it to the point they are blinded, just to the point they're aware I'm an oncoming vehicle.

I hate the mup at nite because of the light dorks.

if they're not annoyingly flashing they're pointed right into on coming cyclist eyes rendering us blind.

dorks

Well, if the bike lights were "properly aimed" also then it'd be a wash. (No pun intended.)

Sadly, I rarely encounter drivers of any wheeled vehicles who embrace this concept. And as a car driver I find that I am irritated to the point of being dangerously blinded by other cars' headlights infinitely more often than I am irritated by (much less aware of) cyclists' headlights.

I get this from time to time. I "blip" them a couple times to make sure they don't have their high beams on by accident. If they don't respond after two blips, I figure they can't see their light controls and direct my all of my stupid bright setup into their cockpit to assist. I have 100% success with getting them to dim this way after which point I can redirect my beams. I can't remember how bright the original magicshine is, but it may be bright enough for this purpose.