How much is too much…………..Lumens.

[off2ride]

If it is true then CCrew is Super Human but I dunno. I’m still skeptical.

@creadinger 13673 wrote:

I still don’t understand how you survive your daily schedule and sustain your daily mileage. You are an enigma.

[KS1G]

I have a 600L Dinotte on my commuter, a 200L I can use on my road bike, and a “Joystick” (bought after reading a post by Dirt) on helmet. I can aim away the helmet light and usually remember to shield the fixed light. 600L is more than I really need for the W&OD sections I use, but comes in handy for revealing jogging and walking ninjas before I’m on top of them. I’ve noticed, that the changing reflection from having a light on flash (or moving the helmet light around) helps alert walkers I’m overtaking that someone is coming up behind them.

[pfunkallstar]

@americancyclo 13652 wrote:

I’ve got a 300 lumen light that I use on full bright for the section of trail I ride in the dark, and drop it down to its lowest setting once the trail has light posts. I also employ the ‘hand shield’ method and I’ve found others to do the same.

RANT: I still get annoyed at folks that run front blinky lights on the trail. The strobe effect doesn’t help you see, and it makes it more difficult for me to judge your distance and speed. Imagine if all cars had blinky headlights. There would be accidents everywhere. Just run solid lights on the trail. /RANT

Ditto on that. Stroboscopes are cool when I’m having dance parties with my cat. But TOTALLY unnecessary for trail riding.

[Subby]

Sorry to any of you that I have passed with my helmet or handlebar lights blinking (chalk it up to inexperience). Will definitely do the hand thing/look away from now on.

Glad I read this forum!

[americancyclo]

I totally support anyone’s use of strobe or blinky while on city streets if it makes you feel safer and more noticable. My beef is only with blinking on trails. This is from the perspective of a cyclist and trail walker.

[5555624]

@CCrew 13671 wrote:

but at 2:30 am I don’t have that issue much.

Out of curiosity, does bike “traffic” increase once you get into D.C.? At that hour, I rarely see anyone in Virginia. (You’re riding through north Alrington, while I’m in south Arlington.) Once I get into D.C., though, it’s uncommon, but not rare.

[CCrew]

@5555624 13709 wrote:

Out of curiosity, does bike “traffic” increase once you get into D.C.? At that hour, I rarely see anyone in Virginia. (You’re riding through north Alrington, while I’m in south Arlington.) Once I get into D.C., though, it’s uncommon, but not rare.

I rarely see another cyclist. If I leave at 2am rather than 2:30 I often pass a westbound cyclist in the stretch near FDIC on Fairfax, and there’s an older gentleman that seems to putz around the Clarendon neighborhood at that time of the morning, other than that I don’t usually see a soul.

Warmer weather there’s another gentleman that’s my age or so that I frequently see on the W&OD east of EFC Metro, and a freaking ninja I want to kill (no lights, dark clothes) around the Gallows road stretch. From Gallows to Reston or Sterling/Ashburn it’s almost always just Bambi and myself, unless there’s a new cop in Vienna that’s having a slow law enforcement night

[rcannon100]

I have a low lumen LED and frankly its sufficient. The reason I like it is contrast :: the lighted area in the beam is only a bit brighter than the area outside the beam. Bright enough for me to see pot holes and ruts – but not bright enough that I cant see easily anything outside the beam, like pedestrians, or ducks, or homeless people. True, my ride is almost entirely urban, going into N Arlington – but your eyes are very powerful things – and there is so much urban light that I can see pretty well.

And TIP OF THE HAT to all of you who done or lower or cover your high powered lights. Very much appreciate that – those with high powered lights pointed forward – or strobing high powered lights – you are blinding your opposing traffic.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]622[/ATTACH]

[sjclaeys]

@americancyclo 13705 wrote:

I totally support anyone’s use of strobe or blinky while on city streets if it makes you feel safer and more noticable. My beef is only with blinking on trails. This is from the perspective of a cyclist and trail walker.

I second americancyclo’s statement. Blinky lights on the trails are almost as dangerous as those ninja riders who don’t use lights.

[vvill]

If it’s truly dark (I haven’t had to ride under these conditions much) I ride with
non-flashing helmet front + rear lights – just a few LEDs, don’t know how many lumens but not many – to be seen
non-flashing front light on handlebar – an older Blackburn halogen powered by 4 x AAs, to be seen – not that bright
rear light – just a few LEDs, to be seen. usually on slow flashing pattern. (I nearly always ride with this light on if I’m going in traffic.)
front LED flashlight, allegedly 900 lumens but it’s a cheap made-in-China one so I don’t know (XM-L T6).Mounted under the handlebar and aimed down to hit just in front of my front wheel and actually lights up my front wheel quite a bit too.
reflective vest + ankle cuffs

I’m only on the Custis/Key Bridge for 2 of my 9 mile commute and that includes the Lynn St intersection so I don’t adjust my lighting much for the trails. Usually just change the LED flashlight to low power mode or turn it off.

(video of a morning commute that starts “truly dark” – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOOqtHZXxiw only click if you’re borrred)

[DaveK]

I only keep my light set to kill through the NPS-owned portions of my ride. Down the MVT, through the National Mall, etc. – anywhere they don’t allow street lighting. Other than that I keep it set to stun. It’s plenty visible either way and I have enough ridiculous flashing lights on my bike already.

[pfunkallstar]

I rode past a guy last night on the W&OD who shouted “Dude, your light’s a little bright!” I glanced back and this guy was rocking a freaking caravan – tandem with a kid hanging off the back on one of those Franken single wheelers – AWESOME. I’ll admit my light is pretty damn bright, but I’d rather be too bright than a human breakfast patty under someone’s wheels. It is also worth noting that this guy had one of those Bike Arlington lights on the front. If I had my wife and kid on my bike I would be rocking LASER BEAMS. Anyways – DEAR TANDEM ROCKSTAR DUDE – I will trade you some of my lumens.

[jabberwocky]

I used to worry about light brightness, since my old commute was largely on the W&OD. For several years I ran a Light and Motion ARC (HID), which was 600ish lumens and very bright. When it died, I picked up my Dinotte 800L (800 lumens), but generally ran it at medium on the trail. I always tried to flip it sideways so as not to blind folks, though trail ninjas got the full beam (if you are gonna be invisible, I need all my light facing forward so I don’t run into you). FWIW, I witnessed a few accidents on the W&OD caused by people not running lights. I never saw one caused by someone being blinded.

These days, half my commute is in the land of self important pricks in german cars (aka Great Falls) so I’ll take as many lumens as I can get. My 800L does great, but I’d cheerfully trade it for something even brighter if the chance came up.

[MCL1981]

So I guess my 1200 lumen main deflector array is excessive? I have low beams that I use with oncoming traffic. On high, the 1200 lumen deer vaporizer is on and I can like a mile down the trail. When there is oncoming cyclist traffic, I flick the switch to low beams. There are smaller LED’s aimed down that come on lighting directly in front of me and not blinding anyone.

[off2ride]

Hey, by all means keep it on full burn when riding on open road with vehicular traffic around you. There’s a stretch on the WOD that’s pretty dark (between Gallows Rd and Church St.) that I keep my light on full blast plus I keep it high for Deer but this one evening some jogger just popped out of nowhere and he said, shadowing his eye balls from my light, “That’s ridiculous”. I said “Put a reflective vest on you clown”. So in some situations it is necessary to keep it high. Common sense of course comes into play.

@MCL1981 13729 wrote:

So I guess my 1200 lumen main deflector array is excessive? I have low beams that I use with oncoming traffic. On high, the 1200 lumen deer vaporizer is on and I can like a mile down the trail. When there is oncoming cyclist traffic, I flick the switch to low beams. There are smaller LED’s aimed down that come on lighting directly in front of me and not blinding anyone.

[Author]

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